Lanterns of Equestria: Blackest Night

by The Literary Lord

Chapter 1

(By ~BrutalityInc and ~ardashir)
(Edited by ~BrutalityInc)

CHAPTER ONE: CALM BEFORE THE STORM

In the dark, in the endless night between the stars, something waited.

Far above Equestria, beyond the life-giving warmth of Celestia's sun and the cool light of Luna's moon, lay only a darkness as still and silent as the night before the first dawn. Of all the beings on the blue and green globe below only two had ever gone so far from their homeworld. And when Celestia and Luna satisfied themselves that nothing lived beyond their own beloved world, they ignored it. They believed it empty and devoid of life.

Lifeless, yes; empty, no.

Something that did not live, that had never lived, floated, and searched, and waited with the patience of oblivion itself.

Then, silently, it stopped in its track, as if it found what it was looking for. And quietly, without fuss, it made its way towards the unsuspecting world.

====

( = FAR BELOW... = )

It was cold high up at the cliff sides of Rambling Rock Ridge most nights. The place was barren, lifeless, a wasteland of rock and dust. The only life here are bits of grass in between, weeds struggling to survive on the dirt between cracks of the rock faces.

It was not entirely devoid of everything of value, however. The place is rich with minerals, and from time to time, Rarity Belle of Ponyville would come up here to look for gems and diamonds to include into her fashion designs, while Diamond Dogs living nearby would come to dig up some gems to place in their hoard.

Tonight, however, this place would receive some different visitors.

At the tallest cliff-sides, stands a collection of plaques and statues, ancient tombstones that had been worn and weathered by the ravages of time and nature. And in front of the tallest monument of them all, stood two ponies, one cyan pegasus and a small orange filly.

"Dash, do I gotta do this?" Scootaloo asked her mentor and idol.

Rainbow Dash sighed, ruffling her wings in irritation. "Yeah, Scoots. This is, well..." The cyan pegasus looked from the monument before her to the smaller gravestones all around and then to the small orange filly beside her. "This is just something we pegasi do, ta, y'know," She waved her hoof vaguely in a circle, "Ta remember who an' what we were before we got to be part of Equestria." Dash smiled hopefully down at Scootaloo. The little filly snorted as she turned and looked at the statue before her.

"I don't know why I gotta. Didn't you teach me everything about her when you played Hurry-cane in the Hearth's Warming pageant?"

Dash just shook her head, her multicolored mane spilling over her neck, as she looked at the statue. Dark gray granite for the body, obsidian for mane and tail, Commander Hurricane's memorial rose before the two pegasi. Centuries' worth of graves surrounded it, many of them with inscriptions so old they could no longer be read. Hurricane looked down from the mountaintop and across Equestria, the mare's face combining pride and benevolence.

"Not everything, squirt. Some things we pegasi kinda keep to ourselves about her."

"She was a space alien?!?"

"What? No!" Dash scowled at Scootaloo. "Where'd you get that idea?" The filly shrank back, looking dismayed. Dash sighed and ruffled her mane. "Naw, it's okay. It's just that," she turned her gaze back to Commander Hurricane, "Hurricane was never really all that happy with how things turned out after the Three Tribes came together. Oh, she was glad they got rid of the windigos, yeah," Dash explained to the wide-eyed Scootaloo, "but the other stuff? About how she was happy to stop ruling and raiding the Earth Ponies, and fighting with the Unicorns? How she an' Pansy got the pegasi to start electing our leaders an' stopped the line of the warlords, even though she got killed by some pegasi that wanted ta go back to the bad old days?" She shook her head.

"It didn't happen?" Scootaloo asked, her eyes wide.

"Well, it did, just not the way everypony thought." Dash looked at the statue, looking proud and fierce in its molded armor and crested helmet. "Hurricane thought that she'd keep ruling the military as First Warlord, but after the pegasi settled in Cloudsdale, they decided they'd rather be a democracy than a conquering army. Hurricane, well, she didn't like that..."

"So?" All of Scootaloo's attention was focused on Dash now. The mare puffed her chest up a bit as she went on.

"Hurricane got some other pegasi together, an' they started plundering Earth Pony farms and Unicorn towers. They did it in the dark, so nopony could see who did it,"

Dash swallowed, wondering if Scoots was ready for this, "an' they went and robbed some griffins, once, just to try and get them ta fight with Equestria. The other ponies she'd faced the windigos with found out. They smoothed things over with the griffins an' told Hurricane that if she couldn't live there in peace she hadda go. So Hurricane came here an' said she'd wait until the pegasi came back ta her and they could rule Equestria. They all stayed with Pansy. She died all alone years later. Some pegasi visited her now an' then, but none of them ever stayed. She's supposed ta have said that she wished she'd never found Equestria, that everypony shoulda froze to death rather than come here an' forget what they really were. Finally she died, an'," Dash shrugged, "We made this statue over her."

"We did? She's BURIED here?"

"Squirt, you're standin' on her!" Dash grinned as Scoots jumped and hurried back off of the marble slab she'd been standing on. The blue pegasus said, "Anyway, Pansy said he wanted everypony ta remember who Hurricane used ta be, not what she became at the end. An' then –"

Something caught her attention. "What the hay?!"

Both pegasi looked upwards as something boomed through the sky overhead. Dash saw colored streaks flying through the sky, all the colors of the rainbow. For some reason she felt her eyes drawn to the crimson one. It looked like a ball of fiery blood flying through the air. An instant long something burned inside her before the crimson ball vanished over the horizon.

"What was that?"

"I dunno," Dash said, ruffling her wings up. She let Scootaloo climb on her back and flew off down the lonely mountain. "But I'm gonna get the others together an' find out!"

Atop the mountain then, silence and emptiness for a moment. And then something dropped from the sky towards the monument and the marble slab covering all that remained of a dead and fallen heroine. Something glittered like obsidian ice as it hovered.

[ = Flesh. = ]

[ = Yes. This one. She will be Our Champion. She will bring the Peace of Oblivion to this world. = ]

It dropped lower, going through the marble slab as though it were mere water. Down, down, until it reached a pile of bones and armor and feathers. A voice that echoed from the hollow emptiness between the stars began to speak.

[ = The Blackest Night falls from the skies... = ]

Twilight Sparkle looked up into the sky as the fireballs passed over head. She wondered at the sudden unexpected and irrational fear she felt at the sight. Spike stood beside her. He pressed close, not wanting to lose her or anything else he valued.

Far off in the Everfree, in the lost village of Sunny Town, its undead inhabitants looked upwards for an instant. Then they returned to forcing the sobbing and pleading Ruby into the fire. Again.

[ = The Darkness grows as all hope dies... = ]

"Ooh, pretty!" Pinkie Pie said as she looked up in delight at a lovely ball of blue light flying overhead, as though searching. Part of her wished she could reach up and bounce it on her nose.

And at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack looked skywards without fear and wondered what was happening now. Her big brother stood beside her, as stolid as ever. Applebloom watched the fireballs too. One looked like it was coming down in the Everfree; maybe she could find it and get a meteor-finding cutie mark? She looked at her blank flank and frowned. She was OWED one after all this time!

[ = We are your death and your demise... = ]

Rarity froze as she felt something thunder by overhead. Sweetie Belle whimpered; she never liked thunder. The filly who'd been asking, more like ordering her, to make her loveliest dress for her mother froze up too. Rarity instinctively went to stand close by both Diamond Tiara and her little sister, her presence comforting them.

Fluttershy awoke with an eep as the sickly cockatrice she'd been caring for dashed under the covers to hide. Lovingly, she gathered it in, singing softly to calm the frightened monster. It gave her its petrifying glare for a second before it settled down, cuddling against her.

[ = By my black hoof, THE DEAD SHALL RISE! = ]

The marble slab exploded as something forced its way up and out. A whinny like a scream shattered the air as bones set themselves together, armor reformed with a new symbol. A black ring set itself around one forehoof, downloading more than a thousand years of history into the mind within that rotted equine skull.

[ = Commander Hurricane of Pegasopolis... RISE. = ]

"What... what happened to Pegasopolis? Why are my people no longer warriors?" The thing that stood there hung its head low, shaking it in disbelief at what it saw. "Why are two horn-headed, part dirt pony freaks lording it over my people? This is not what I fought for! Did the pegasus tribe die when I did?"

"NO!" she roared skyward, her voice like that of a legion, "RISE, MY PEOPLE, RISE!"

Hurricane lowered her head and retched up black slime that swiftly reformed into dozens, and then hundreds of black rings.

"Go." she hissed. "Restore the true pegasi." As the rings began burrowing their way into the dozens of graves all around her, Hurricane looked down on Equestria below her. She felt like she ought to hate it, but all she felt was a cold hunger.

"Platinum," she said. "Puddinghead. Pansy," something twinged inside, like the memory of an old pain, "Those other two foals. Is this the world you wanted? We were wrong. We should have let the windigos take us. That would have been true peace, a death with honor rather than life without. Better death for everything than living to see all that made us us abandoned by our cowardly and undeserving descendants. I see it so clearly now."

"And now," she felt a vast number of chill presences nearby as more undead pegasi joined her, all of them showing the symbol on her armor in place of their cutie marks. "And now," she repeated, spreading her wings, "I can finally do what I should have done then. I will bring the final peace to all Equestria." She flew up into the sky, her army following her in flawless loyalty.

"And when the last of our worthless children finally joins me, my Blackest Night will shroud them all forever."

====

( = THE NEXT DAY = )

This was just another normal day in Ponyville.

It was noon, and Celestia's Sun hung high against a clear sapphire sky. Without a trace of clouds from one end of the horizon to the other and the cover it provides, the Sun's blinding glare makes it hard for ponies to see with their eyes fully open, its warmth could be felt in every corner of the quiet farming town, flaking the white walls of the town buildings, casting ink-black shadows of ponies and country houses on the ground. The heat hung in the air, bearing down upon the land like oven, leaving ponies to wonder if Equestria had suddenly become one big sauna.

All in all, the day was becoming quite uncomfortably hot. Most of the town's residents had taken shelter indoors to escape the Sun as soon as the opportunity presents itself, except for a few ponies.

Three of them could be found on the edge of Ponyville, on a cliff-side amidst the rolling hills and fields of emerald grass, near the farm residence of Sweet Apple Acres.

For those three ponies, today was just another perfect day at doing what they do best.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS AVIATORS!!!"

Finding their talents and getting their cutie marks.

Applebloom wanted to find the meteors she saw last night, but today she had something else to do with her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. Scootaloo had came up with their latest scheme to earn cutie marks, and insisted they try to work it out before they do anything else today.

It took Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle over a week before to design and assemble the contraption, but it was done – laying before them on a makeshift ramp was their glider-aircraft. It stretched a dozen meters from one end to another, and had the overall appearance of a bird, its wings unfolded to its fullest span. Upon its structure, bits of garbage, old newspapers and straw poked out between the cracks of the polythene film that covers its surface. Suspended between the two wings was a basket big enough for three fillies. A tail pole extend to the rear to tail fins made of cardboard.

Given its shape and appearance, the glider might stand well on its own as its own abstract, modern art, were the Cutie Mark Crusaders not intend to actually fly it.

"So, whaddaya think?" Applebloom asked her two friends behind her, Cutie Mark Crusader capes adorned upon their backs, "Does it look great?"

"Not really as good as I imagine it would be..." Sweetie Belle reflected as she gazed upon the finished product in their latest scheme, "It could have looked better."

"Who cares about that?" Scootaloo brushed it off, "As long as it could fly straight I couldn't care less."

The three of them paused for a moment to regard their masterpiece.

"So, what do you thing we should we call ourselves after we get our cutie marks? I got a few ideas already."

"The Three Pigeons?" Sweetie Belle suggested.

"Nah, that's silly." Scootaloo shook her head in disagreement, "How about the Flying Trio?

"We'r could always jus' figure it ou' lateh." Reassured Applebloom "First thing we ought' ta do before launch is ta give da gal a name!"

"A name?"

"Yeah... I mean, it jus' sound... wrong if dat thin' don't have a name, would it? I mean, it certainly deserves one if it's gonna git us our Cutie Marks."

"How about... the Albatross?" Scootaloo suggested.

"What's an Albatross?" Applebloom asked.

"Albatross is a bird that lives by the beaches, and got the biggest wings of all other birds in the world." Scootaloo explained, slightly baffled by Applebloom's ignorance, "What? You never heard about the albatross before?"

"We don't live near the coast," Sweetie Belle responded, "and we are not exactly the best when it comes to paying attention in class."

Scootaloo resisted the urge to groan.

"... Albatross, huh?" Applebloom paused to contemplate the name, "I like it! Albatross it is! I bet it's gonna fly as good as one!"

"Well it BETTER fly! I'm tired of being stuck on the ground as it is. It is high-time I get into the air!" Scootaloo insisted. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't help but notice the look of determination on Scootaloo's face.

Unknown to them, the glider meant more to Scootaloo than just getting their cutie marks.

Scootaloo had always wanted to fly, and at her age, she should have been able to. But she couldn't – she was a late bloomer. Whereas her idol pulled off a Sonic Rainboom at roughly her age, she herself could barely get off the ground, and it was all because her wings were simply too small.

It frustrated her to no end as her body had made her a prisoner on the ground, unable to join the other pegasi fillies in the air. The taunting of the other mean pegasi children were bad enough, and the stories of the 'Rainbow Factory' used to scare pegasi fillies to work harder on flight didn't help either.

The straw that finally broke the camel's back was when Diamond Tiara taunt her about it in class last week, right after another pegasi filly in school finally got off the ground, leaving her the only pegasi in class to yet to take flight.

The glider is her chance to finally be able to get her place in the sun. She wants to be absolutely sure that it would not end up like their other hare-brained schemes. One way or another, she's going to fly.

"And it WILL fly!" Applebloom declared, looking confident. In her heart, she actually wasn't really sure. But that's all there is to it. She turned to face her friends, "Cutie Mark Crusaders! Put on yer helmets and git ready fer launch!"

The unicorn and pegasi filly gave each other a look of uncertainty. Then, Scootaloo picked the red hoof-ball helmets they brought along and placed it over her head, followed by Sweetie Belle.

Together as one they mount upon the basket that they had jerry-rigged into a cockpit. Applebloom took a moment to look at the controls: A series of wires run along the length of the wings around the edges, connected to wheels and pulleys, and at the center of this web of wires is a crude steering mechanism that was one part baseball bat and other parts kitchen ware.

The three fillies looked down upon the ramp, pass the cliff-side, and see the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville stretched out before them. Sweetie Belle gulped at the sight.

"Alrighty then, let's do a lil' final check!" Applebloom ordered, "Wings!"

Scootaloo took a quick scan at the wings, looking for structural breaks in its crude, piled-together and badly taped frame, "Looks good!"

"Steerin' wires!" Applebloom called out.

"Holding!" Sweetie Belle confirmed, strumming the strings a bit.

"Wheels!" Applebloom call out ones more.

Scootaloo peaked underneath the glider to see the wheels, which they scavenged from a rusty old Manehatten shopping cart, "Check!" She replied, "So are we going or what?"

"We're goin' alright!" Applebloom snapped, her expression changed to that of a determined look, "Sweetie Belle, when Ah count ta three, kick it off!"

Sweetie Belle grabbed the strings connected to the wooden blocks that are blocking the wheels, holding the glider from sliding off the ramp too early. Sweetie Belle gave a nod.

"On mah mark..."

Scootaloo began to sweat, both from excitement, the summer heat and uncertain worry.

"One..."

Sweetie Belle gulped again and held onto the side of the basket with her other front-hoof.

"Two..."

Applebloom licked her lips, gripped her controls tightly, and stared down the ramp in front of her as if she was staring down the two bullies at school.

Time seems to slow down for the three of them.

"THREE! Launch!"

Sweetie Belle pulled as hard as she could, and the blocks slid off.

And so did the glider.

It accelerated down the ramp, going faster and faster as the wheels creaked and turn underneath the contraption and the glider reaching full speed. The crusaders felt the wind searing at their faces, their manes and tails fluttering backwards, their own tears and drool streaming behind them, their stomachs churn like when they were in a roller coaster, and the g-force pressing their bodies to the back of the cockpit.

They held on for dear life as the glider reaches the end of the ramp, goes off the cliff, and flies off into the wild-blue yonder.

====

Applejack wiped beads of sweat off her forehead as she watched another tree's worth of apples fall into waiting buckets. She's proud of her own stamina and strength, but under overwhelming heat of the noon day sun, even the ever durable and dependable earthpony was finding it hard to press on (She's going to have a few harsh words with the weather department later, that's for sure).

Right now she was thinking about the fireballs that streaked through the skies the previous night. The others saw it too, it seemed, from where they were (except for Fluttershy, who was tending a cockatrice that was scared out of its wits).

Shooting stars are always a spectacular sight, and in any other night she would had admired them, but not this time - while she did not feel fear, she instead felt an omnious feeling that something big is about to happen, and that it was related to those shooting stars. Call it a hunch, call it intuition, call it experience from having to deal with this kind of thing many times in her many adventures with the other Mane Six, but it was a feeling she can't shake off.

For one thing, seven shooting stars the colours of the rainbow descending from Princess Luna's night sky like gemstones can't possibly be natural.

"Meteors usually burn up brightly in the atmosphere in the colours of gold-red or white, depending on their composition. And they never burn up in colours of green, blue or violet," AJ remembered Twilight explaining, flipping through an astronomy book, when the other girls met up at the library.

"Well if they weren't natural, then what're they? Have any ideas sugarcube?" AJ asked her then. She already have ideas, probably the typical villain of the year they face now and then.

"There are a lot of supernatural phenomena relating the night sky. The Zebras believed the stars are evil monsters out to get them and destroy the world, and that meteors are one of the ways they use to corrupt creatures on this world to disharmony and evil. Just ask Zecora, if you're into that sort of superstition." Oh there goes Twilight again, AJ thought, rolling her eyes.

"Could it be aliens? I would LOVE to start a 'Welcome to Equestria' party for them!" Pinkie Pie bounced with glee at the thought.

"And if they ain't friendly do I get to buck them in the face?" Rainbow Dash mused.

"Look, I don't know as of now, but it got the Princesses worried. Princess Luna had told me in a letter she didn't cause the meteor shower. They're already investigating it, so am I, so I figure we'll have to wait and see."

There was nothing else they could do, so for now she let it slip back to the back of her head. AJ got other problems to worry about. When she got back to the farm, Big Mac told her that a swarm of parasprite suddenly appeared out of the Everfree forest and nearly ate through their new barn. It didn't made sense, given that they already had a once in a century parasprite attack.

And just to add fuel to the fires of mystery, a whole horde of critters, from small animals to timberwolves, manticores, stormed out of the forests, scurried through the fields, AWAY from the woods. Fear was evident and clear in their expressions and panicked cries.

Something had spooked them, it seemed, and that had AJ worried. Just what could spook the creatures that lived in the forests of death itself?

She spent the morning cleaning up the mess, and only now did she manage to get back on track, harvesting the apples. Well, whatever it is, it couldn't come at a worse time. Just when the barn was getting fixed, it looked like it was about to collapse again, and with the family saving up as much money as possible to pay off their latest debts it would have to stay that way. Which ultimately means, of course, that they had more work to do.

AJ sighed. Despite her pride, sometimes she just wished she could have some of the fancy magic Twilight and Rarity could do. It would certainly help her a lot...

The sound of a mighty crash knocked her out of her train of thought. Eyes wide with surprise, she turned left and right to locate the source of the commotion.

"Wha' in tarnation?!" AJ gasped when she look towards the barn, to find something had crashed upon it.

Without a second thought she dropped her baskets of apples and galloped at full speed towards it.

====

Applebloom was dazed, and everything she saw was spinning around her.

A minute ago they were still airborne, the wings of their aircraft actually holding despite its crude design, keeping them aloft in the air as it glided. She could remember the breeze brushing on their faces, the smell of clean air from high in the sky, the wobble in the cockpit as they flew, and best of all, the sheer joy and excitement they all felt in their apparent moment of triumph.

It lasted for ten seconds.

What happened next was a blur – she remembered feeling a mighty gust of wind sweeping them from their left, and her struggling to bank left and keep them from spinning out of control. She remember screaming, from either Scoots or Sweetie, warning her as the strings break and bits of the wing twist and fell off.

The whole thing shook, spun, and then came crashing down.

She shook her daze off, and she looked around her. She's still in the cockpit, as were her friends, having been fortunate enough to not fall out of the basket during the dive. That would had been disastrous.

"Gals! Y'all alright?" Applebloom asked.

"I'm fine!" "Yeah..." were the responses.

She took a moment to examine herself and her friends. Their capes were torn, the helmets dented, but otherwise they appeared to have survived without a scratch on their bodies. That could be said less of their ride – what's left of the wings were torn film and pieces of garbage skewered upon bent and broken wooden frames. The bottom of the basket cockpit had crumpled where it landed on hard surface. As far as things considered, it was effectively destroyed.

And to make things worse, Applebloom discovered, it wasn't the only thing that's broken – they had smashed right onto the roof of her family's barn, the wooden planks crumbling where they landed. And that's not counting the fact that the whole thing was already busted as it had because of the parasprites.

She was certain she would get grounded for this.

And despite it all...

"We still couldn't fly or get our cutie marks!!" Scootaloo shouted in frustration when she noticed their flanks remained as they had been - blank.

"Scootaloo, we just crashed on the roof of Applebloom's sister's barn, and the only thing you care about right now is whether or not we get our cutie marks out of this?!" Sweetie Belle suddenly snapped at her, eyes narrowing and face in a scowl.

Scootaloo recoiled a bit at Sweetie Belle's admonishment, and Applebloom just stared in confusion as she took off her helmet. Sweetie Belle had never complained when their schemes ended disastrously (which is most of the time). To hear it from her like this shocked the orange pegasi filly.

"I... that's not what I mean! I was just..." Scootaloo tries excuse herself, but was interrupted by a familiar voice below.

"APPLEBLOOM!" Applejack called to her sister at the side of the barn, voice with both concern and admonishment, "Whaddaya do this time around?!"

"Em... Ah...It was an accident!" Applebloom shouted down from where they were on the roof, "We jus' lost control of our glider and it just crashed on the barn roof! We didn't mean ta! Ah just don't know wha' wen' 'rong!"

Augh, AJ thought, rolling her eyes in disgust. She was getting REALLY tired of their antics, and on their own barn's roof no less! "Applebloom!" AJ admonished her, "Yer can't jus' go fly around gliders and expectin' ta git yer cutie marks bah crashin' it on houses! It ain't safe! And don't you know how long we tried ta fix this roof?!"

"Ah'm sorry!" Applebloom apologized again. Sweetie Belle was glaring at Applebloom behind her.

"Jus' stay still! Ah'm comin' up ta git y'all" AJ called in annoyance. She's going to give Applebloom such a talking to.

AJ looked back to see where her brother Big Mac was, "Now I wonder where did that big red stallion put teh ladder...?"

Suddenly, she heard a creaking sound, followed by a groan, coming from the woodworks. She looked up at the shattered roof.

"Eh, Ms Applejack, I think the roof is..."

Whatever Sweetie Belle was going to say was interrupted when the twisted woods and beams that were supporting the ruined glider, already weakened by the parasprite attack, finally gave way with cacophonous cracks, The planks fell, the support beams toppled, and Applejack watched with horror as the glider slid through the gaping hole on the roof and fell.

"APPLEBLOOM!" Applejack called out in fear and panic.

The Crusaders screamed as one, and just barely managed to leap out of the makeshift cockpit before it came loose and tumble towards the ground. What's left of the glider was shattered into a thousand pieces upon impact.

Applebloom hung on for dear life on a broken plank on the roof with two her two forehooves, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hanging onto her by hind hoof and waist, kicking in the air as they struggled to just hold on.

"'Bloom! Sweetie! Scoot! Hold on! Ah'ma comin' for y'all!" AJ called out to them as she circled around the building and ran into the barn through the doors.

AJ could see the three hanging over the pile of rubble that was the roof and the glider. If they fell, there was hardly any doubt their chance of survival. Besides the Crusaders, the support beam is cracking and bending, causing the plank they were holding on to twist further and weakening Applebloom's grip.

"Big sis! Ah'm sorry fer everything! HELP ME!" Applebloom cry out in fear. Never had she felt fear of death more since that terrifying adventure at Sunnytown.

"I don't know if I can hang on much longer!" Sweetie Belle added. Now more than ever does she regret agreeing to the scheme.

Scootaloo looked at the ground, and for a moment it was almost like it was coming towards her. More than ever did she thought the ground as her enemy and regarded it with both fear and frustration – if only her wings weren't so small, she would had flown out of here, or even better, didn't even need to suggest this scheme to begin with. And now it looks like it'll get them all killed; it both angered and terrified her.

Applejack knew she couldn't hold up the supports herself even with all her strength; that was Big Mac's territory. If only she was STRONGER! She saw a path to the crusaders through the twisted, mangled rubble of wood. The distance to cross was daunting, however. If only she could FLY! But alas, she couldn't. She doesn't care. Her sister and her friends would fall to their deaths if she don't save them now!

She made her way up a beam. Her heart was pounding her chest. Her guts twists and eyes opened wide with worry as she looked at the ground below her. She doesn't care. She must get to them no matter what!

The woodwork creaked and shook slightly as more of the rubble collapse upon themselves. AJ held on for dear life. She cringed, sweat was starting to form. But then she saw that Applebloom was slipping. She was down to one hoof. The Crusaders cry out in panic. AJ squashed her fears and pressed on. She was almost there!

Applebloom shouted out to her sister as her muscles strained to handle the weight of two fillies on her. Inch after inch of her hoof gave way as the plank looked it was about to break.

The only thing in between Applejack and Crusaders was a wide gap three meters wide. She could easily jumped it if it had been on the ground. Cornsarnit! If only she brought a rope or anything!

"APPLEJACK!!!" Applebloom call out as the wood she held onto finally gave way, and she slipped.

Applejack watched with horror as the three crusaders fell, screaming the top of their lungs.

"APPLEBLOOM!"

She loved her little sister, and that love, and her determination to protect her from all harm, regardless of all costs, allowed her to overcome all the remaining fears she had in her heart, and find the courage jump off where she was at and catch the crusaders. AJ leaped towards them.

If she could take the fall for them, they just might survive. She didn't care if she would die in the process.

She is not afraid of death, she is not afraid of ANYTHING, as long as her ones she love are safe.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Applejack could see her life flashing in front of her eyes.

( = Suitable candidate located = )

Big Mac was on the other side of the farm when it happened, and only he saw what happened next, just as he was galloping towards the barn, having heard the commotion. He watched as a blazing comet appear suddenly over the horizons, before diving downwards, right through the roof of the barn like a mortar shell. The whole place lit up with a blinding green glow.

"Wha' teh hay?!" that's all Big Mac could exclaim.

The mysterious green glow enveloped the whole inside of the barn, covering everything in emerald light. Applejack couldn't see, but she felt something slipped upon her right hoof as she fell towards the crusaders. She felt power coursing through her! Electrifying her! Just what in Celestia's name is going on?!

( = Abigail Jacqueline V of Equestria = )
( = You had the ability to overcome great fear = )
( = Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps = )

Comments

[Ardashir]

This is great! I love what you and BrutalityInc did with this. Though I also have some fondness for my own small contribution there at the start with Dashie, Scoot, and Hurricane.

I'm looking forward to the reception this gets here on FIMfic.

[eric-emanwu]

Good luck with this. They're not exactly creating this story linearly for you.

[Alex Warlorn]

You can post what I wrote as a next chapter ya know.

[Ephedianroyalty]

( = Abigail Jacqueline V of Equestria = )
( = You had the ability to overcome great fear = )
( = Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps = )

You change her name? Why?