Crashing Equestria

by Zytharros

Day 18

Day 18

---

I had just finished my morning workout in the sunlight when Applejack approached me.

“Listen, uh, Zytharros…” she said nervously. “Could… uh… could you come and help me with a few things?”

“Sure,” I said, smiling.

We walked to Sweet Apple Acres in silence. I knew what it was about, but again I didn’t want to push. After all, she didn’t know I already knew.

I looked up at the sky and closed my eyes, taking in the sound of the birds and the rustling of the trees. The running of the leaves was scheduled to start soon, according to Twilight, so the trees and animals could be prepared for winter.

“You excited for the running of the leaves this year?” I asked.

Applejack had no reaction.

“A.J.?” I asked, looking at her, a little concerned.

“Wha…?” she said, snapping to attention. “You say somethin’, Zytharros?”

“I asked if you were excited for the running of the leaves this year.”

Applejack’s eyes flashed surprise for a brief second. “Oh! Yeah, uh, I… I can’t wait.”

“You seem distracted,” I observed.

After a couple seconds of silence, she swallowed, then sighed. “Look, I gotta be honest… I’m crushin’ bad on you,” she admitted. “You’re perfect for me – down-to-earth, honest, downright funny, and a hard worker – but there’s one mighty big problem… you’re taken!”

“I’ve had those feelings…” I said, sulking. “It’s always painful when you can’t do anything about it.”

It wasn’t the response she wanted to hear, but Applejack understood the truth behind the statement. She was a little surprised by my action during the statement, though.

“It musta been a bad crush,” she said.

“A total of four years of longing and dragging my heart in circles, waiting for a relationship that never materialized,” I said. “We even lost a common friend together, but even with that opportunity I never actively tried for her. I actually only stopped crushing on her when I got engaged.”

Applejack sighed. “So… There’s… no way I can…” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

It broke my heart, but I knew the right answer. I shook my head. “No. Out of choice, I’m a one-mare stallion – and that’s a decision I don’t take lightly, either.”

She just about broke, but she gave me a sad smile. “At least I know for sure. Still friends?”

I gave her a kind, sympathetic smile and a hug in return. “Absolutely. If you need anything, just call on me.”

“So… what should we do now?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I could always use another sister,” I suggested.

“O-okay…” Applejack bit her lip. I saw in her eyes she still wanted more, but being a surrogate sister seemed a good consolation prize. The tears were still there, though she was fighting them off with every fibre of her being. Despite her best efforts, however, a sad sniffle escaped.

“I… I gotta go…” Applejack said before bolting off home, soft sobs coming from the workhorse.

I let her go on alone. She needed time to get over this hole I had just stabbed in her heart. With her confronting me like that, however, I could be assured that none of the other girls would be after me now. Applejack would let them know where I stood, and I was sure they wouldn’t try anything. I turned around and walked back to Ponyville.

I walked back to Twilight’s library, but was stopped short when Rainbow Dash flashed in front of me. Her face was tied up in a look of pure rage.

“Okay, mister, what did you do to Applejack!?” she demanded. “I saw you two walking together, then she goes running off, crying! What did you say!? ANSWER ME!! If you don’t, I’ll pound your face in!”

I just dropped down and glared at her. “That’s between me and her. It concerns her heart, and for the sake of Applejack’s honour, I will not be divulging the information to anyone.” I leaned in and touched noses with Rainbow. “Let her tell you when she’s ready.”

Rainbow Dash attempted to stare me down, but her demeanor quickly dropped off as I lay, stone-statue-still, staring at her with a level of intensity she had truly come to fear – the same intensity with which I had subdued Twilight. I saw a realization in her eyes that told me she understood why Celestia said I was going to be a rock for the group – I was not about to back down from anything anyone tried to force of me.

“A-alright…” Rainbow stuttered, shying back. She chuckled nervously. “N-no sense in knocking heads over something like th-that, right?”

I gave a pleasant smile. “Thank you.”

As I passed Rainbow, I heard her sigh. “That was intense…” she mumbled. I heard her take off as I continued walking to Twilight’s. Within a couple steps, I froze. Without any reason, I suddenly decided to head for the Carousel Boutique. I turned tail on a dime, pivoting on two of my hooves, and set course. I felt an urge to talk to Rarity.

---

A few minutes later, I got there, and entered. Standing on a pedestal on one side of the room was Derpy Hooves, getting fitted for a smashing new outfit. I smiled.

“Looking gorgeous, Derpster!” I said, winking and smiling.

She smiled back. “I’m glad to see you’re out of the hospital,” she said.

I chuckled. “I am, too. It was getting kinda stuffy in there.”

“Okay, Derpy, I picked out some fabulous gems I believe would look absolutely ravishing on that gown! Here’s a few sapphires of different shades of green, and some rubies…”

The pony brightened up and began examining different gems Rarity handed to her.

“Oh, hi, Zytharros!” Rarity said as Derpy examined the gems. “What can I do for you?”

I looked around. “Nothing much, just came to drop by. How’s business?”

“Oh, the usual,” she said. “Dressmaking is an all-consuming passion.”

I looked at her latest design, and asked her about it.

“Oh, that… I’m considering throwing that one away,” she said. “I just can’t get the look right.”

Absentmindedly, she turned her attention back to Derpy. I pulled out a quill and followed the lines of the drawing carefully until I’d passed over the whole picture.

“You’re right – there’s something missing here…” I mumbled, holding the feather of the quill up to my lips.

I made a couple quick notations on a nearby piece of paper, did a very rough sketch of the dress (I neither had the necessary patience nor time to draw the whole thing) and played around with different additions and subtractions. Finally, I added five quick lines to the master sketch – two large and three small.

“Rarity!” I called.

Derpy emerged from the change room and left the store, giving me a hoof-bump on the way out. She and I discussed coffee later, agreeing to meet tomorrow on Derpy’s lunch break.

“I’m coming!” Rarity called. “I’m just tidying up!”

A couple minutes later, she saw my variation on her sketch. Her eyes glowed.

“How did you DO that?!” she exclaimed. “It’s perfect! What did you do?”

I shrugged. “I thought it looked… a little plain and tacky, so I added another fold here (I pointed to the top of the mare’s back) and a tuck here (this time, towards the rump), and finally added a couple minor details towards the neck. A couple simple little lines.”

“It’s divine!” she exclaimed. “You said you couldn’t sew, but your design work is superb!”

I chuckled. “It’s a modification. I couldn’t design a dress from scratch if my life depended on it.”

We chuckled.

“This is Applejack’s dress?” I asked.

Rarity realized she had just unwittingly blown a part of her surprise. On the top of the page, she had scribed ‘Applejack - Dress Design Number 13’. Her eyes blasting all over the place gave that fact away. “Um… actually… uh… they’re for…”
When she saw the skeptical look I was giving her, she coughed. “Just… don’t… tell anyone… okay?” I swore I heard a strange horn sound accompany the smile she gave me.

I nodded, secretly guessing she had made outfits for all of us to wear to this year’s Grand Galloping Gala, scheduled towards the middle of fall and to be hosted by Ponyville. Twilight had acquired eight tickets from the Princess for us. They had arrived earlier today on our front step. Connecting the dots, I smiled, trying to let a little bit of my knowledge through in the smile. I succeeded.

“…You know,” she said flatly.

I nodded. “But I only know what one outfit looks like. I’ll still be surprised by the rest of them.”

As I was walking out the door, Rarity sighed. I poked my head back in.

“How’d you get my measurements, anyway?” I asked with a chuckle.

Rarity froze. “I might have… taken the liberty of… taking them… w-while you were unconscious… or not… um…” I had completely flustered her.

She quickly went back to sewing, her nervous chuckling confirming what I had suspected. She was making me a suit, too.

“I can’t wait to see how it turns out,” I said, winking.

Rarity groaned. “Oh, horse feathers… you know about that, too…”

That immediately explained her flirtatious answer to my question in the hospital – and confirmed my suspicions – beyond a shadow of a doubt, and I made sure to let her know…

“I didn’t. You just confirmed it.” I smiled.

Rarity was dumbfounded that she had just been completely outplayed.

I left the Carousel Boutique with a wide grin on my face, chuckling. Nopony was getting that secret out of me, not until Rarity called us all in for fittings. On my way back to the library, I met up with Pinkie Pie. I bought a bunch of fruit.

“How’s it goin’, Zytharros?” she said in her always-cheerful mannerism. “Anything interesting?”

I smiled. “None I can tell you… it’s between me and Applejack, and me and Rarity. Since Rarity’s is a surprise, I don’t know much about it, and Applejack’s trusted me with something very confidential.”

“Oh! So she DID tell you!” Pinkie Pie said. “She was talking about it yesterday.”

“Applejack?” I asked.

Pinkie smiled widely. “Yeah! She came to me for encouragement on talking to you. She made me Pinkie promise not to tell anyone, especially you, until she talked to you.”

I sighed. “I have a bit of a confession to make, myself…”

“Oh?” Pinkie said. “What does Mister Zythie have to confessorize to?”

“I was walking by and I heard the whole thing,” I admitted.

“So she told you without telling you, then told you while telling you,” she said, thinking. “That may be why my left ear twitched. I just thought I had a bug in it!” She burst out laughing. “Wow, Zythie! You’re quite the sneaker!”

I shrugged. “I didn’t really mean to walk by just as you two were on your break. It just kinda happened.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Pinkie said. “So what happened? Did you ask her out on a datesie?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t, and I explained why. I’m a one-mare stallion, and that’s not something I choose lightly.”

“Aww… poor Applejackie was probably crushed…” Pinkie said, her face instantly shifting into a downcast state, her hair dropping its impossibly-crazy plumage. It switched just as fast back into a smile and a poof. “That’s coolsies that you’re so dedicated to your wife, though!”

“Are you off to Twilight’s, too?” I asked Pinkie.

She nodded. “Yup! I have to get a cooking history book from the library. Doesn’t sound like an interesting read to me, but the Cakes seem to like it. Whatever makes ‘em happy!”

I chuckled.

We arrived at the library just as the sky became a brilliant orange and Twilight and Spike were returning from parts unknown with Fluttershy. Twilight seemed a little down.

“Twilight!” I called.

“Fluttershy!” Pinkie echoed.

“Hold the door for us!” we said at the same time.

We got into the library. Twilight closed the door sullenly before slowly trudging her way up the steps. Fluttershy approached me and tapped one of my flanks.

“Zytharros, Pinkie Pie, I wouldn’t talk to her right now,” Fluttershy warned.

I looked at the downcast purple mare. “Why not?”

“She just got spooked by Tangerine Hopes,” Fluttershy said. “As did I. She just appeared out of nowhere, bullying and berating Twilight. I did my best to stand up for her, but… Tangerine barely even blinked in my direction…”

I smiled at Fluttershy. “It’s okay. You did what you could.”

Pinkie Pie smiled. “What she needs is a good cheering up!”

Something was different. I watched my host crawl into bed and uneasily try to set herself to sleep.

“I don’t think that’s what she needs this time, Pinkie,” I said, observing the restlessness in her movements. I brought Pinkie the book, checked it out in Twilight’s ledger, and sent Pinkie and Fluttershy home, thanking them for their help today, suggesting we hold my got-better party the next day and apologizing for the short cancellation notice.

I approached her bed. “Twilight?” I asked.

She sighed. “I’m not feeling very good right now…”

“I know. I just wanted to know why,” I said, concerned.

After a few seconds of silence, Twilight rolled over. “Tangerine appeared to me today, saying she was going to wreck everything we ever knew and claiming the destruction of Canterlot as proof. How much power do we have to fight her?”

I thought for a second. “Your friends are the Elements of Harmony. When the time comes, you’ll find the strength to do what must be done. Until then, we have to feel her power out.”

I lay down beside her bed. “What did she say?”

“She said I would never be able to conjure up the power needed to beat her. She demonstrated this by engaging me in actual combat, which I lost handily. I never expected to be… attacked…”

I noticed several bruises and singed hair at that time. Twilight was truly a wreck.

“Can I do anything to help with that pain?”

Twilight groaned. “It’s not so much physical pain. That subsided several hours ago. It’s the defeat that’s stinging. I had hoped to put this threat to rest today, but with how quickly she overpowered me I… I don’t know anymore…”

I said, “Need I remind you what the Princess said? We need all the Elements of Harmony to be gathered. We need all of us to fight her.”

“She also told me to call her Crystal Fist,” Twilight said.

I recounted to her the conversation I had from the pony the night before, where she said the same thing. Twilight was appalled.

“This place has a third-level magic barrier around it at night!” she exclaimed. “How in all Equestria did she get in??”

“I’m guessing dimensional travel is kind of like a back door, a loophole, to magic,” I theorized. “Magic is temporal – a historical event that can be traced. Adding a dimensional element to it causes it to become disconnected from time and space… a fourth door through time to a three-dimensional space.”

“She also said the one who had her heart broken…” Twilight said “…is where to look for her next.”

I shot to my feet, a sudden realization crushing my heart. “Oh no… Applejack!!” I shouted, bolting for the door.

Twilight kicked up dirt behind me. We left the door to the library wide open.

“Zytharros!” Twilight said, catching up to me. “Applejack’s never been in love before! She can’t possibly be the one!”

“This morning, I had a conversation with Applejack,” I said, deep concern filling every word. “She admitted she had a crush on me, and I unfortunately had to break the news I couldn’t help her because I was taken. She ran off in a tearful huff after that. She is, without a doubt, the heartbroken one Tangerine was referring to!”

Rainbow suddenly spoke. “What’s the running for?”

“Applejack may be in trouble,” I said. “Fly ahead and see if anything’s going down at Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Why?” Rainbow asked, flying above our heads.

“I know I said I couldn’t tell you, but this may be to save Applejack…”

I repeated what I had just told Twilight, and she informed Rainbow Dash what she had told me. Fully informed, Rainbow caught the worry bug as well. The moonlight eased no worries as we raced towards our friend in danger. Rainbow dashed ahead of us in mad fury, intent on defending her friend from the influence of Tangerine Hopes. I was fully in anticipation that we were too late.

We arrived at Sweet Apple Acres right on time to see Rainbow Dash fly past us, unconscious, and Applejack, eyes glowing red, staring me down in anger.

“Fudge muffins… We’re too late,” I said.

Applejack charged us. Twilight leapt in the way, and attempted to stop Applejack with her words, but she would not be denied her target. Twilight soon found herself upended and thrust into a pile of hay all the way into the barn. I deftly leapt out of the way, firing three quick magic bursts that connected with Applejack. She flopped over and rolled twice, but got back up again, setting herself up for another charge.

Suddenly, she was surrounded by magic. Twilight had emerged from the barn and attempted to control the enraged orange firecracker with her spells. It didn’t work. Applejack quickly shattered her control and charged headlong for the studious librarian. Twilight turned tail and ran like the wind, screaming and hollering. I chased after them, firing magic blasts at Applejack and inadvertently destroying some of the crop before I got a good shot off.

What I didn’t expect was Applejack to roll out of the way. The blast connected solidly with Twilight and sent her flying forward. I bit my lip and turned my attention to Applejack, who had righted herself and was now coming straight for me. She was too close for me to react, so she and I connected headlong, knocking each other back with equal force. I reeled and managed to save my balance. Applejack was knocked right over onto the earth. Just then Big Macintosh stepped in between me and his sister.

Bad move.

Applejack clocked his head, snapping his neck with one single well-placed kick and sending him crashing to the ground, dead. The gasps from the Apple family that had heard the ruckus was palpable.

“Big Mac!!” Apple Bloom suddenly screeched.

Applejack froze in place. The sound of her sister’s voice seemed to have an effect.

The little filly ran to her big brother, sobbing.

“Applejack! What have you done!?” Apple Bloom shouted, bawling. “These are your friends! That was your brother! What’s gotten into you??”

Applejack slowly awoke from her stupor. She collapsed to the ground.

Apple Bloom was the only one to show any emotion. The rest of the ponies around me stood and stared at the fallen figure of Big Macintosh. The little filly suddenly charged at her sister and began wailing on her. Applejack awoke to this, and quickly moved to subdue her smaller sibling.

“Apple Bloom, you little rascal!” she said. “What’s your problem?”

“You just killed Big Mac!!” she shrieked.

I saw Applejack’s facial expression crash as she turned around.

“Oh my god…” she said, stunned. “I… I did this…?”

She saw me there and blew up in tears. “Please tell me I didn’t do this… What happened? Tell me! Please…”

All I gave her was a stunned look. That’s all she would see from anyone at the farm. Slowly her family began to walk away, one by one.

“Please, Apple Bloom…” Applejack begged. “Don’t leave… You’re my little sister…”

“Not anymore,” Apple Bloom said, glaring coldly at her sister. “Go find somewhere else to live.”

Granny Smith glared at her as well. “Murderers are not welcome in Sweet Apple Acres.”

Those words stung her hard… She frantically looked around, panicking, as her entire family, except Twilight and I, turned their backs on us. Only Twilight and I truly knew what had happened, and nopony would listen to what we said.
Tangerine Hopes had claimed her next victim… and it was at our hands.

We somberly took the newly-homeless and visibly broken Applejack home with us, waking and informing Rainbow Dash of what had just transpired.

As we all went to bed, I once again couldn’t sleep. I tried to telepathically aroused Princess Celestia.

Princess, I thought, casting a telepathy spell I had tried to learn earlier.

No response.

Princess, I thought again.

A groggy voice came over my mind… This better be good, Zytharros.

Tangerine’s struck again, I thought. This time, she got Applejack to kill her brother.

The telepathy line fell silent.

That’s not going to sit well with the folks of Ponyville, Celestia warned. I think it would be best if you took the Elements of Harmony and fled Equestria – tonight.

I stood up, groaning. “Well, this place was nice while it lasted…” I… I’ll deliver the news…

So I aroused Twilight and Applejack, who in turn went and got Pinkie Pie and Rarity while I gathered Fluttershy. We told them what happened, and that we had been instructed to flee Ponyville. Rarity, of course, tried to pack all her things, but Applejack, through a cloud of tears, pressured her to leave with the bare essentials.

The Elements of Harmony then left their hometown with heavy hearts, quietly running from a problem none of them knew how to solve into an exile they knew would be terrifically disastrous for the country they had never set eyes outside of.

I swore I heard Tangerine Hopes’ cruel, half-mad, half-sad laughter…

coupled with a surprising, “I’m sorry…” whisper.

Comments

[musicluvr1974]

OK, I thought the plot storyline had thickened during the last chapter or two, but this is downright intense...! Murder and exile?!