Mad With Power · 5:22am Sep 26th, 2019
Winner of ROBCakeran's speedwriting competition. Written in one hour.
***
Sometimes, privately, Applejack wondered if something was wrong with unicorns.
She wasn’t a bigot. Far from it. She endeavored to judge all ponies on their own merits, and had many unicorn friends. And unicorns were very good company, most of the time. But it seemed to her that every time a unicorn found some source of great magical power, like a well, or a staff, or a spell, they… well.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but they immediately went completely insane and tried to enslave Equestria.
There was Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet, Starlight with Starswirl’s Scroll, Rarity with the Book of Inspiration, and most recently, there was Lyra with the Sidewinder Stone.
Lyra hadn’t even gone looking for it. Twilight had asked Celestia to send it to her as part of her magical research, and she’d carelessly left it out on a table where anypony could touch it. Lyra had been over for tea and book club, picked up the stone, and that was that.
Book club was at noon, and by three o’clock, Lyra had raised an army of scarecrow soldiers, surrounded Ponyville, and turned Bon Bon’s mother to stone.
She also petrified Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, and trapped Twilight in a cage of solid light, taunting that there was no way for her to summon the power of friendship without all her friends. But Applejack wasn’t worried about that. Things like that happened all the time.
“I’m sick of it!” Lyra shouted at Bon Bon. Her eyes glowed a bright green, matching the Sidewinder Stone around her neck. So much magic flowed through her that her voice had taken on an unnatural, multi-tonal screech, like Queen Chrysalis.
“I know. I know,” Bon Bon struggled to reassure her. Her own voice was soft, timid, trembling. “It’s… it’s okay. It’s-”
“It’s not okay.” Lyra’s voice cracked, and the sunny sky above grew dark, stormclouds appearing out of the thin air. “I’m tired of ponies mocking us. I’m tired of the other confectioners saying you’ll never have your own candy store. I’m tired of your mother trying to introduce you to stallions, like I didn’t even exist. And I’m tired of you slaving away as a candymakers apprentice, when you deserve better!”
Lyra reached out with a hoof, and even as Bon Bon trembled, she stroked her face. “But don’t worry. It’ll all be okay. Remember what we always said? That when we could we’d run away together? Well now we can.”
There was a flash of green light, and a chariot appeared behind Lyra. It was a royal thing, like Princess Celestia rode, wide enough to support two thrones side by side. “We’ll go somewhere far away, like Manehattan, or Griffonstone. We’ll rule over it together. You’ll be my queen. You’ll be able to make candy however you want, without worrying about money, or keeping a shop, or ponies making fun of you. And no creature will ever say we don’t love each other.”
Glowing green chains appeared on the front of the chariot, dragging eight of Ponyville’s pegasi into place to pull it. One of them started to softly cry, knowing they were enslaved. The others shivered in fear. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Lyra said.
“Oh, yes,” Bon Bon said. “It’s… great.”
Applejack knew her moment when she saw it. She took a breath, raised her voice and shouted: “Is that how you really feel, Bon Bon!?”
Lyra whirled. Her horn crackled, and Applejack was trapped in a cage of light just like Twilight. But the deed was done, and friendship and harmony prevailed.
“It’s… I mean.” Bon Bon looked at the dirt at first, but then she raised her head to look Lyra in the eye. “You know what? No. It’s not how I really feel. Because you know what, Lyra? I do love you! I love you and that’s enough for me. I hate how my mother disrespects us, I hate how ponies make fun of me, and I hate how we can never afford to open our own candy shop like we wanted. But I’m happy because I have you. You’re enough for me.”
Then she squared her shoulders, “Am I not enough for you?”
“What? No…” The glow in Lyra’s eyes flickered for a moment. “Of course you’re… no. It’s not like that. I only want us to be happy together.”
The rest was predictable. There was back and forth, there was crying, Lyra picked Bon Bon up in her telekinetic grip and nearly choked the life out of her, only to realize what she’d become and, well, anyway.
She said she was sorry, the glow went out in her eyes, and the stone fell from her neck and bounced in the dirt. Applejack and Twilight went free from their cages, all the petrified ponies became flesh again, and the scarecrow soldiers went back to just being scarecrows.
During the hugging-and-crying phase of things, Twilight (who was doing the hugging) went up to Lyra (who was doing the crying) and told her it wasn’t her fault. “The dark magic got into your head,” she said, “anypony would have done the same.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, Twilight,” Applejack said. “But I can’t think of any time an earth pony went crazy with power and tried to enslave Equestria.”
“That’s because dark magic feeds on ambition, Applejack. You have to want something.” Twilight paused. “I mean, something other than what you already have.”
Then Twilight went back to making sure Lyra and Bon Bon were okay. She didn’t even remember saying it.
Later, Applejack asked Twilight if she could hold the Sidewinder Stone. There was no danger, so Twilight said yes. Then she went off to make tea.
The stone was about twice the size of a marble, mostly green but shot through with gold flecks. Such color it had, such action, like a ball of glass that somehow captured an explosion in the very moment of cataclysm. All its power radiated from a central point, flowing outwards to the perifery in jutting waves of color.
And it had a steel chain, affixed to the side. Applejack slipped it around her neck, and found it heavier than she expected.
“Okay… stone,” she said. “Levitate that book.” She squinted and nothing happened. “Shoot lightning.” Nothing. “Help me fly.” Nothing.
“What? Can you only do earth pony magic?” She tapped a hoof to the floor. “Fine. Make me really strong. Strong enough to lift uh…” She looked for a suitable object. “Twilight’s big crystal table there.”
But no matter how she strained, she couldn’t budge the table. Perhaps it was affixed to the floor. She also failed to light her hooves on fire, spit acid, or perform any number of other miracles. And she thought, Twilight is full of it.
“I have ambitions. Twilight is full of it,” she said, reaching up to remove the stone. “I bet you only work for unicorns.”
Then, the stone glowed. A horn made out of thin beams of light appeared, jutting out of Applejack’s forehead. It shone like a real unicorn horn, pulsing with magical energy, and a beam of laser light shot out of the tip. It wasn’t very strong, just enough to scorch Twilight’s tabletop.
Then the stone fell from Applejack’s neck, and Twilight returned with the tea.
The next week, changelings attacked Ponyville. “You fools!” Chrysalis shouted. “My hive is reborn. Bow down before the future rulers of all Equestria.”
“Why do you want to conquer Equestria?” Applejack asked. “No really, why?”
“Ignorant pony,” she snapped. “It’s my right as Queen. My divine-”
“No, I mean, like, personally.” Applejack tapped her heart. “Why… aren’t you happy with what you have? What makes you keep trying so hard? Emotionally? Like, inside? Were you born with it?”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Chrysalis asked.
But then Thorax and Starlight saved the day, and they weren’t able to finish their conversation.
“Why if it isn’t our old friend Applejack.” Flim said. Or possibly Flam, she couldn’t be sure.
“Indeed,” said Flam, or possibly Flim. “It’s been entirely too long since we met. Why, you did us a solid back in Los Pegasus, no mistake.”
“No mistake indeed, brother of mine,” the first one tipped his hat. “Why I-”
“I’ll just give you the money,” Applejack said, “if you answer a question for me.”
The two brothers paused. “What, ah…” The second one hesitated. “What money would that be?”
“Whatever money you’re trying to con me out of. I’ll just give it to you, if you answer a question.”
“Well, uh… we would never…” the first one tried to formulate a sentence, but something about Applejack’s eyes knocked him off his guard. It was like she was staring through him, and in the end he could only stammer. “What do you want to know?”
“What do you spend it on?” she asked. “What do you spend the money on, that you want it so bad?”
“Well…” The two brothers looked at eachother. Both shrugged. “Rent, mostly. Food, provisions, supplies for our creations.”
“You could pay for all that with regular jobs,” she said, looking between the two of them. “Probably better. You’re real gifted spellcasters. Not like Twilight, but better’n most. You could make a good living.”
“A working stiff does indeed have the comfort of a steady paycheck,” the first one said. “Not so for a traveling salespony. But our chosen vocation gives us something the common pony can never aspire to!”
“And what’s that?” she asked.
Then the second one said, “Hope.”
Sometimes, privately, Applejack wondered if something was wrong with earth ponies.
She asked Twilight if she could see the Sidewinder Stone again. The second time she made the request, it elicited more hesitation, but Twilight eventually agreed to let her touch it. She didn’t leave the room though, watching Applejack closely.
Applejack slipped the stone around her neck.
“Woah, I said you could touch it, not wear it.” Twilight leapt across the room to Applejack’s side. “Take it off. Now.”
But even as Twilight uttered her command, the stone began to glow.
“I want something,” Applejack said, “and you’re going to give it to me. Right? That’s the deal. I let you into my heart, and in return you give me everything I want.”
“Applejack!” Twilight snapped. Her own horn glowed, and she tried to wrench the stone off her friend. But a bolt of green lightning shot out of the stone itself, knocking Twilight across the room.
“Take that as a yes.” Applejack swallowed. “I don’t… want to betray my friends. Okay? That’s not part of the deal. Maybe I can go too far. Go overboard so the other girls have to stop me. But you can’t make me do something I’d never do. I have to still be basically me, okay?”
Green lightning crackled out of the orb, and Applejack lifted off the ground, her hooves hanging in mid-air. Her mouth was dry, and she struggled to swallow.
“Take that as a yes too,” she said, just as Twilight was forcing herself back to her hooves. “I want to want something. Not something I already have. I don’t want you to hurt one of my friends so I can want them to be okay again. It has to be something new. Something different. I want…”
Then she said: “I want to know what it’s like to have dreams.”
There was a brilliant green flash. Twilight hissed, lifting a hoof to cover her eyes. So bright was the light that green spots danced in front of her. And when her eyes finally cleared, there was Applejack before her.
Her eyes were glowing.
“Okay, Applejack, I don’t know what’s going on,” Twilight spoke first. “But you need to take that off, right now. You know how this ends. Do you want to get blasted with the Elements of Harmony? Do you want the girls to have to come and stop you?”
And yet, Applejack grinned. With a tap of a hoof, she cocked her hat back on her head, and turned to Twilight with a bright smile.
“Woah there, friend,” she said. “Easy now. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were making threats. Them’s fightin words.”
Twilight glanced between them, at AJ’s glowing eyes and the library. “You really want to fight me Applejack?”
“Why not? Friendship and harmony always prevails in the end, so it’s no harm, right? We can do what we like, it’ll all end the same.” She lifted a hoof, and green lightning crackled off the end. “But right here, right now, I’m tired of being the extra in the group. I think I’m going to be the villain for once.”
“Come on, Applejack, this isn’t you!” Twilight summoned a magical shield between the two of them. “Is this really what you want? Does this make you happy?”
“You kidding me?” She leveled a leg at Twilight. “I’ve never felt better.”
Then she shot a lightning bolt out of her hoof, and knocked Twilight clear through a solid wall.
This isn't a story why?
Applejack is tired of all the background pony cracks I guess...
This needs to be a full fledged story
5128234
Clearly because this set of words doesn’t have enough ambition to be a published story.
I think, anyway. That was the intended takeaway, right? Only those who truly strive to become stories will become stories?
5128239
well said
That is very sad.
Well, I guess instead of ambitions Applejack has meta-ambitions.
Unlimited power!
"as a candymakers apprentice"
"as a candymaker's apprentice"?
"the perifery in"
"the periphery in"?
"at eachother. Both"
"at each other. Both"?
Enjoyable; nicely done, as usual. :)
So Applejack was right. She was safe until the stone manifested a horn on her...
To be fair, Applejack had met Aspartame several times before and would have done the same if she'd had the opportunity.
Indeed so. Not necessarily true hope, but certainly something for ponies to put their faith in.
Uh, AJ? I don't think that second one was a yes.
But yeah, Applejack tried having ambitions as a filly and they turned sour real quick. She achieved her life's dream at the moment of puberty. (Now, say, Suri Polomare? She shouldn't be let within a hundred feet of the Sidewinder Stone.)
Can't favorite blog posts why?
Excellent wordsmithing Jaxie
Punctuation, people.
Mad, With Power
That’s better.
Silver Glow often wondered what the use of unicorns was. I suppose to become mad with power is an answer.
Also, agree with the crowd, this should be a story. That way, I can put it in my RiL and get to it whenever, not have to read it right now before I forget it exists.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/8/8/1220394.png
Wow. Twilight's kinda racist. I just figured unicorns went mad with power more often because they were more likely to have enough power to go mad with.
Actually, this was a really fun character study. You should put it up as a story.
"Ah know mah place..."
5128234
At first I thought it would be the word count, but at 2k words it qualifies.
Imho it's better than https://www.fimfiction.net/story/253955/the-lies-we-tell-to-children, partly because this one has an end and the middle isn't missing crucial bits partway through.
I guess my true opinions can be pretty harsh, but by default I just expect everything GaPJaxie writes to be somewhere in the delightful-to-great range.