Sleeping in the Light

by Wheller

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

‘This is not going to work’, Rainbow Dash said plainly.

Kelso and company found themselves standing in the back of what looked to be a tool shed. The walls looked to have been made of tin, as had the roof that covered. The floor itself wasn't so much a floor, but instead the dirt of the jungle floor, the light of the room was nothing really to speak of, there were no windows, and only a single low-watt light bulb dangling from the ceiling.. Kelso and company were tired of Sainte-Hélène already, and they could only imagine what it would have been like to have actually been here. Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were standing in the middle of the room, tied down to the floor with little more than a metre of slack in the ropes that held them. They could walk around a little, that was for sure, but otherwise they weren't going anywhere.

‘I said... this is not going to work!’ Rainbow Dash cried out again, stamping her hoof in annoyance.

‘Ah heard ya tha firs’ time!’ Applejack snapped back at her. ‘Ah don’t see ya’ll comin’ up with any escape plans! May not work, but ‘least we tried! Took me forever ta get these ropes off...’ Applejack said as her voice trailed off. A small smile formed on her face as she raised a still tied up foreleg and winked at Rainbow Dash.

'What is she talking about?' Sparky asked, looking on the scene in confusion.

No less than a minute later did the door burst open and a single cheval with a knife in his teeth barged in, charging forward right into the trap set for him by the equestrian ponies. Rainbow Dash turned and planted her hooves in his chest, kicking hard and sending him down to the floor. The shock of the assault caused him to instinctively spit the knife out, sending it clattering on the floor and right next to Applejack’s hooves. The earth pony mare took the knife in her teeth and cut her bonds, once free she quickly moved to cut Rainbow Dash loose.

Rainbow Dash grinned, now the two of them were free. Applejack kept the knife in her teeth, and the two ponies moved quietly from the shed and out into the open air, though as it turned out, the open air wasn't quite so open. Kelso had to figure that this was the main prison complex. There were several large brick and mortar buildings that were arranged in very neat looking rows. The complex was very well organised, and there were multiple guard towers on the perimeter wall of the complex. Multiple ponies armed with mounted machine guns watched over the complex, but these were no guards of a legitimate sort. These ponies were clad in prison stripes, and as Kelso glanced around at the scene, she could only grimace at the thought of what had happened here.

‘In the year before the Republic, the prison population Sainte-Hélène revolted against the guards, killing them all and taking the prison for themselves’, Kelso said as she and the rest of the passive observers followed Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they ducked between buildings, hoping to keep from being seen. They had to know that it wouldn’t be long before someone noticed that they had escaped, and came looking for them.

‘Why didn’t the prisoners just leave?’ Sparky asked as they watched Rainbow Dash and Applejack duck into one of the buildings.

‘It wouldn’t be a very good prison if they could just leave, Sparky’, Kelso said with a frown. ‘The guards that weren’t killed in the revolt made it to the docks and scuttled the few boats they had, and there are multiple radar controlled autocannons placed around the island that’ll shoot at anything that flies above the tree line’.

‘Rainbow! What’re ya doin’?’ Applejack hissed at Rainbow Dash. Kelso glanced inside the building to discover that Rainbow Dash was sitting at a wireless receiver, pulling the headset over her ears and playing with one of the dials. Rainbow Dash merely raised a hoof to silence Applejack, and began to listen.

‘... understood Renault, you just let us know where you need us and when. Sinsac out’.

Rainbow Dash raised in eyebrow in confusion. ‘Uh... hello?’ she asked.

At first there was nothing, and then Rainbow Dash asked again. ‘Hello? Is anypony out there?’

‘Who is this!? Cease broadcasting on this channel!’ an angry sounding, highly accented voice snapped back at her.

‘No wait! Please! You have to help us!’ Rainbow Dash cried out. ‘My name is Rainbow Dash! I’m an equestrian pony and one of the survivors of the Steamship Canterlot, we were bound for Swan City, South Island when we hit an iceberg in bad weather and the ship went under. We all made it off the ship but me and my friends got separated from the crew! Please you have to help us!’

‘...where are you?’ the voice asked again.

‘I’m broadcasting from Sainte-Hélène, our lifeboat washed up on the shore... please! You have to help us!’ Rainbow Dash pleaded.

‘Sainte-Hélène?’ the voice questioned. ‘Albert! Start triangulating, I need to confirm that’, A muffled voice in the background acknowledged the order, and in a few seconds gave an affirmation.

‘Who are you?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘I told you who I was! Now tell me who you are!’

‘... this is Lef-tenant Commander Thaddeus Braxton, aboard the HMSIS Sinsac, don’t bother with the name, you can just call me the Op’.

‘Sinsac?’ Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow at the absurd sound of the warship's name. ‘What kind of name is that?’

‘If you must know... it stands for “South Island and New Seeland Army Corps”, what is that, you might ask? Not important for you right now. You are on Sainte-Hélène, which means that if you have wireless access, that you are not in a safe place. The Sinsac and the cheval battleship Renault are turning and making for the island at flank speed, sit tight Rainbow Dash, the kangaroo cavalry is coming!’

Rainbow Dash nodded, despite the fact that ‘the Op’, couldn’t see it, and turned off the wireless receiver off and quickly discarded the headset, allowing it to scatter onto the floor.

‘Can we go?’ Applejack asked, forgetting about the knife in her teeth and dropping it onto the floor, and tapping her hoof in annoyance, this was taking too long.

‘Yeah! Come on! Let’s go!’ Rainbow Dash said with a nod, leaping up from her seat.

Applejack nodded, not bothering to pick the knife back up, she and Rainbow Dash pushed open the door to the radio room. Only to discover a group of prisoners armed with submachine guns standing outside and looking menacingly at them.

‘Well this sucks’, Rainbow Dash said with a frown.

‘Don’ worry sugarcube, Ah gots a plan’, Applejack said with a coy smile.

‘Run like scared little fillies?’ Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘As a matter o’ fact...’ Applejack began; the two ducked in between the building and the one next to it and dashed off around the corner.

‘AFTER THEM!’ The one of the convicts shouted. ‘MARCHE! TRÉS RAPIDE!’

Applejack and Rainbow Dash made their way through the maze of buildings, ducking in and out trying to keep the group of prisoners from catching them, much to their dismay, the quickly ran out of buildings and found themselves in the open.

‘Things are never easy!’ Sparky said with laboured breath as she and the rest of the passive observers struggled to keep up with Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they ran. Kelso looked up to discover a glint of light shining off one of the guard towers. Another prisoner, this one armed with a light machine gun, had spotted the running ponies, and brought his weapon to bear. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were caught in the open, and the prisoner opened fire, raining down upon them with a hail of gunfire. Both ponies were running on pure adrenalin as they ran through the front of the compound and into the jungle, not stopping for several hundred metres.

‘R... Rainbow Dash? Ah think one nicked me’, Applejack said as they stopped to catch their breath deeper into the jungle.

Rainbow Dash turned around to look at her friend, her eyes widened in shock as she discovered that Applejack’s flanks were ridden with bullet holes. She could only watch helplessly as Applejack collapsed onto the ground.

‘Applejack!’ Rainbow Dash called out to her. Rainbow Dash picked the mare up in her forelegs and held her close.

‘Ah... ah shouldn’t ‘ave left tha farm...’ Applejack said quietly, her voice trailed off and her eyes rolled past Rainbow Dash. With one last breath, Applejack faded away.

‘A... Applejack?’ Rainbow Dash asked.

No answer.

‘Applejack!’ Rainbow Dash said again, this time speaking louder and gently shaking her friend.

No answer.

‘APPLEJACK!’ Rainbow Dash cried out hysterically, shaking her friend roughly, trying to get her to wake up. It was futile, however, Applejack was gone, and Rainbow Dash knew it. She set Applejack down on the ground gently, taking off the mare’s hat and resting on her belly, wrapping her forelegs around it. Rainbow Dash slid Applejack’s eyes closed, and couldn’t help but notice how peaceful she looked. She could have been sleeping. Rainbow Dash half expected Applejack to sit back up and stretch out, yawning loudly as she was waking up from a nap.

Rainbow Dash waited, and waited for a moment before realising it was a pipe dream. That was when Rainbow Dash lost it. Applejack was dead. She buried her head into Applejack’s body and cried. She cried and cried and cried and cried until no more tears could come. Rainbow Dash’s sadness turned to anger. This was not what Applejack deserved. She knew what she had to do.

A determined looked appeared on Rainbow Dash’s face, she rose to her hooves, her whole body convulsing in anger over what had just happened, the passive observers had seen the lives of Rainbow Dash and her friends, but this was something completely different, this was pure anger, hatred for the prisoners who had done this to her, who had done this to Applejack. They could tell, just by the fire that was burning in Rainbow Dash’s eyes what she was planning to do next.

Rainbow Dash was going to kill them all.

She was about to turn and leave when something caught her eye. Rainbow Dash turned back to Applejack’s body, a look of false hope forming on her face. That was when she and the rest of the passive observers saw it.

Applejack twitched. Once, twice, and then, suddenly without warning, Applejack’s eyes shot open and she let out a huge gasp for air. She sprung to her hooves in confusion, looking around, and then at Rainbow Dash.

‘Rainbow Dash?’ Applejack asked. ‘What the hey just happened?’

Rainbow Dash did not have an answer. Sparky, however did.

‘I think we’ve just seen the birth of Amarilla de la Manzana’, Sparky simply as they watched Applejack look around in confusion.

Comments

[Quantum_Shift]

well... damn

That's a.. a bit different from what "Amarilla" told everybody back in PoD.

I honestly can't wait for the next few chapters, especially once the visions finish and they find out that either no time has passed or a couple of days or so have passed.

[PieisGood4U]

The conclusion draws nearer.

[KingOfTheMuffins]

932678

You said rimshot, and I've been playing too much basketball and League of Legends (I see 'rim' and 'shot' and instantly think of 2 of the most opposite things...)

[SuperPinkBrony12]

For a moment there I was afraid you had actually killed Applejack, and if you had I would've been so mad!

[DreadedCandiru2]

941775
I think that as the years went on, she became the Element of Jedi Truth.

[Bronydragon]

Ok. Keep calm dude, keep calm.
OHMYGODANEWCHAPTERISOUT!!!!
More! For the love of Celestia, more!!!

Bronydragon

[Boomerang 503]

With the recent spoilers regarding Season 3, I can't help but wonder if another retcon regarding Cadence and Shining Armor is in order.

[Dr. Equestria]

942169

If this is the first scene death you've seen in Wheller's fics, well, then your going to a fun time reading this story.

And I would suggest to you to go back to his other stories as they are all interconnected. In order of course though, starting from the first to last.

[Spiffers]

945990 I still wish the earlier fics were written better... I'm up to "Midday in the Heart of Equestria" and there's still a lot of errors that I see... It's how I know I'm way too much of an editor

[Dr. Equestria]

952212

Indeed, but I don't think Wheller has the time nor the patience for a job like that.

Most wouldn't have such a rich back-story, but again, Wheller isn't most.

[Wheller]

952212>>953896

It's something I've been wanting to do... but honestly? Part of me feels it would be so much easier to just rewrite all of it.

[Spiffers]

954654 That's pretty much what I said to a couple of guys that I've been working with. I said that if I edited your story, it would likely be different enough that I could practically republish it. Sure, it would have the same plot, but the writing would be almost unrecognizable

[Dr. Equestria]

954654>>954755

This is the same scenario as with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

The 1818 version vs The version 1823.

Both have the same story, but give off different feelings and effects with the different writing as Shelly set out to make the 1823 version more conservative.

I'm pro-1818's because its the original text.

But I would happily help you out Wheller and assist Pissfer, as you are (Incoming flattery) my favourite writer and all.

However, the thing is that if me and Pissfer were to both get involved helping you rewrite we would be as it were, bring our own influences, preferences and interpretation (of your story) into it. Such as: I would (subconsciously) probably make the Twidash scenes longer because I'm a Twidash fan. Not saying I would purposely do this, but just giving an example.

And now I'm looking into this far to deeply....Oh, English Literature what has thou do to me?

But yeah, that's my 5 bits.

[Matigno]

First I was
But then I remembered Amarilla and I was
Keep up the good work !

[Qub3d]

The noobs (A.K.A. Those who have not read the whole series) are incredibly easy to pick out right now...