//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Salvation Through Destruction // by RoflLuxRay //------------------------------// Salvation Through Destruction Based on Concepts from: The Conversion Bureau by: Blaze Chapter 9 “Damn this thing is heavy,” I complained at the weight of the saddlebags Twilight loaned me for the trip. Even though they were small, they were built to hold lots of items. Uselessly, I spent the whole trip to Sweet Apple Acres trying to fly. “Having problems?” a familiar voice asked behind me, I turned to see it was Rarity wearing a peculiar pair of red glasses. “Just getting used to being a work horse,” I sarcastically replied with a chuckle. “A stallion of your class shouldn’t work that hard,” she giggled, “so tell me, Leighton. Are you visiting Sweet Apple Acres too?” she trotted to my side. “Yeah. I’m supposed to help Applejack with a classified matter.” “Oh please, there’s no need to hide your true motives. I know you and Applejack are going to Fillydelphia, but I do not know the motives behind it.” “Well, it has something to do with Apple Bloom and their mother. Talking more would mean an insult to her privacy,” I noticed she had saddlebags like I did, but much lighter ones. “That’s very interesting. I have to tell you everyone in Ponyville is talking about you. Saving Apple Bloom like you did the way you did was just marvelous, some even say that you may be bearer of an element of harmony.” “I’m flattered, would you mind telling me more about the elements?” Sweet Apple Acres was still a long walk from where we stood, and I always wanted to talk to Rarity one-on-one. “They are values, in essence. Ancient pony tales claim that those values hold a great power here on Equestria, and I proved it myself when I met Twilight and defeated nightmare moon using the elements of harmony. There’s supposed to be six elements, honesty, laughter, loyalty, laughter, generosity and magic, but Twilight said that there’s more scattered out there with a wider range of values.” “You defeated someone with Twilight using the elements of harmony?” I asked skeptically, Rarity giggled in amusement. “Yes I did, it is common occurrence that people act skeptical towards this tale. My element is generosity, Twilight element is magic and Applejack’s element is honesty. There are other three ponies you’re not acquainted with, Pinkie Pie the bearer of laughter, Fluttershy, the bearer of kindness and Rainbow Dash, bearer of loyalty that were also involved.” “I’ve heard all of those names but Pinkie Pie before. I assumed there was more interesting ponies around here; I never suspected you would be so full of story and culture!” “We sure are. Oh, as I was saying, there’s supposed to be more elements of harmony around. Certainly not as powerful as any of the six, but still worthy of being named, I’ve heard tolerance, love, hope, among others have appeared on ponies around Equestria.” “Those are the values mankind lost and I’m trying to get back!” “Well, some say valor lives within you. Nopony ever stood to a gryphon like you did before; you earned the respect of all Ponyville for your action. If humans are half the pony you are, they will be welcome here!” she said with a chuckle, silent fell for a minute in our walk. Sweet Apple Acres grew closer and closer, I had to use the moments I was spending with Rarity to the max. “So, why are you visiting Applejack anyway?” I broke the silent with a question that sounded forceful and thought over. Rarity, however, was not taken aback by the question and smiled at me. “My little sister tipped me off about Applejack’s travel, so she asked me to make a few gowns and coats for the occasion.” “I’m assuming you’re not doing this for free.” “Leighton!” she exclaimed with indignity, “I am the bearer of the element of generosity. It almost insults me the thought of asking my friends for something in return for my handwork.” “My apologies, lady Rarity. My question was merely for information; I did not mean to offend.” I bowed my head in apologies; a smile slowly took over the white unicorn’s face. “As expected, your chivalry saved you once again, Leighton McRae,” Rarity looked down for an instant, “Would you concede this humble unicorn a date upon your return to Ponyville?” she asked with excitement. I didn’t know until that moment my charms also worked on the pony dimension, and even without wanting to. “I am flattered by your proposal Rarity,” my mind analyzed the situation as fast as it could; reaching the conclusion of: “and I would be glad to join in the venue of your choice, I’m not used to the restaurants around here.” “I know the perfect one, fit to ponies of our class!” she said overjoyed, pointing her left hoof to the road, exactly to where Applejack was waiting with a cart and two Pegasi ready to leave. “Leighton! Rarity! So good you’re here,” she rushed to me and began pushing me to the cart with haste. “What’s the hurry, darling?” Rarity asked with a big frown. “Big Mac already noticed I’m missin’, we ain’t got that much time. Rarity, did ya bring the clothes I asked?” “Yes, I brought two gowns for you and-” “Thanks!” she snatched Rarity’s saddlebags and tossed them inside the cart. “Watch it!” Rarity said offended. “I’m sorry. But we really have to go now. Guys, set course to Fillydelphia!” Applejack whistled and climbed in the cart, slamming the door shut and ducking under the window. The Pegasi felt Applejack’s rush and took off violently; we lost footing, tripped over each other and our heads crashed violently “Was that really necessary?” I rubbed my head from the impact. “Yeah, I can see Rarity talkin’ to big Mac down there,” she looked out the window with extreme caution, even though we were a hundred meters above the ground and quite far from them. “Well, you don’t need to worry about him now. Why did you have to sneak out like you did?” I sat back on the cushion and she took off her hat, placing it right next to her. Applejack’s long blonde mane fell to her right side as she turned to see me straight in the eyes. “Look, Leightn’. I have a very good reason to take this chance and go to Fillydelphia, ya know. Do… ya know what is like to live yer life without knowin’ mom or dad?” sadness and melancholy took over her voice, her body language and her green eyes. “I don’t, but my wife was orphan too. I wish you could meet Angelica; she always had the correct words to make anyone feel better.” “Then she must have been really strong. I’ve lived my whole life without even knowin’ their names, ya know…” she took a deep breath and let out a melancholic sigh, “but for sum weird reason, Granny Smith n’ Big Mac are really overprotective over that data, no matter how hard I beg n’ cry, they just won’t tell me at least their names. In moments like that I hardly feel part of the family.” “I’m sure they have good reasons, there is no need to hold something against them. Your situation actually reminds me of Angelica’s; her uncle was extremely overprotective on everything regarding her parents. She worked so hard to find out about them that she winded up meeting me in the process” I remembered with a chuckle. “I’m sure hearin’ your story oughta make me feel better. So tell me, how’d you met yer wife?” My mind drifted off in the memories, trying to find the exact moment where to begin my story. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “It was a cold November in Liverpool in the year if 2021. I was just twenty four years at that time, enjoying my brand new job as an average reporter in the Liverpool Echo. I remember that particular night for being especially long, working on a note about the vanishing towns in Africa. My office floor became deserted once my good friend Jamie left; it was just me and the sounds of a nocturne city. A mid those sounds, footsteps were heard breaking through a lonely room. “Who goes there?” I asked with no response, focusing back on the note and its moral complexity in my small cubicle. With a steady rhythm, those footsteps began growing closer and louder, infusing fear in me. I was just a kid back then, fresh out of college and not used to working hard and on my own. “Who the hell goes there?!” I asked even louder this time, still getting no response. The footsteps, however, stopped after my shout. I decided that matter was now irrelevant and returned into my note, losing my head in it for another thirty minutes until I heard a door being slammed. I shot up from my chair and pepped above the edges of my cubicle, seeing only a row of at least other ten cubicles under the dim light of the ceiling light, the city lights visible in the distance. “This is not funny, show yourself!” My shouts were simply useless, and I was too scared to walk outside the fake security of my cubicle. A shadow moved through the walls, I could see it clearly; it was getting closer to the archive room in the far left side of the room. “Who are you? You’re not supposed to be here!” I remember yelling with a sense of authority in me, hoping that thing would at least say its business. I saw his head moved towards me, and running with something on hands. Instead of facing it, I ran like a little girl to the exit. “No, you’re all mine now!” I was tackled on my back and hand tied by someone with a feminine voice, my pride was just as hurt as my back. This woman grabbed me and made me walk towards the archive room. That room was protected by a regular four number password, one that’s easy to remember but hard to crack. The assailant was quick and firm in her commands. “Tell me the code!” I felt a chilling cold metal piece on my neck, I sang like a bird in spring. “Three, One, Four, One,” I squeaked with my eyes shut, hoping the thing on my back was not a pistol. The door opened and she tossed me aside, dashing inside the room and typing hastily something on the computer used for searching a determinate note. Unable to move, I was only able to see one word on the monitor in front of me: ‘Eiselstein’. She turned and frenetically dug through the archive looking for her file, and stopped suddenly when she found it. “This… Can’t be…” she muttered with sadness in her voice, I was intrigued despite she attacked me brutally, tied me like an animal and forced me to help her against my will and work code. And it was in that very same moment when I first saw her face for the first time; a long straight raven dark hair ran all the way down her back. Her olive green eyes began to fill with tears as she fell to the floor with a piece of paper in hand. “Are you okay?” I tried not to drool in front of her, for I had never seen someone so beautiful at the moment. She turned to scowl at me; I staggered upon contact with her gaze, “I’m trying to be a nice guy, you know. Are you okay?” “No, I’m not. And why the hell do you care?” she said slightly angry and I do not blame her, a stranger’s curiosity can really offend someone. But let me tell you, Applejack, there are times in life where the best person to talk to is a mere stranger, in that case, the man you assaulted a few minutes ago. “I care because anybody with a slight sense of humanity would. I know you just met me, damn; you just attacked me and tied me like a bloody animal, but I don’t care. You look like you could use a friendly ear right now, and I’m willing to listen to you,” she stared at me like I was someone out of his mind, a gaze I was going to get used to. “How do I know you’re being nice to me just because I’m a girl and you happen to like me?” she was always good at analyzing me, knowing the reality behind someone’s mind and actions. But I was always good at hiding my true purposes, even from someone so witty like her. “I don’t like girls who break into my office, assault me and tie me down like a pig. Sorry honey, but you’re not my type.” “Really?” she said with a scoff, “well don’t get too excited because I don’t like boys who like scream like little girls when you take them down,” we both giggled in that instant, I was quite comfortable talking to her as I laid on the floor immobilized. “I’m Leighton. Leighton McRae, I work here as a reporter, what’s your name?” I said with a huge smile on my face “I’m Angie,” she cleaned a few tears off her eyes and glanced at the paper she held. “I assume your last name is Eiselstein?” “Yeah, how the hell did you know?” she asked with genuine amazement, I twisted like a worm pointing the computer behind her. “I saw what you typed on the computer; it’s the most logical train of thoughts.” “Yeah… I figured,” she turned back again to her paper, breaking into tears just at first glance. “What’s the matter?” I crawled in a similar way to a worm to her side, my white shirt ended up as if I took a bath in mud, and I knew it. However, I couldn’t care less about it in that moment. “I…” she struggled against that inner voice that impeded her to talk to me honestly, “I broke in here trying to find about my parents.” “And was it really necessary for you to attack me like you did?” she grinned playfully, interrupting her weeping for an instant. “Would you have cooperated with me?” “You could have just asked…” I sarcastically implied and she giggled again. When a person is going through a rough moment, it is always good to make him or her laugh, but not with silly jokes. It’s about finding the right moment and the right words, it all comes together, some say. She decided to untie me after that last comment, I could have just ran towards the emergency button like any good employee would, but I stayed with her like any good person would. “Now tell me, what’s the matter?” I sat next to her; she stared at me with those puppy wet eyes I could never forget. She told me her story, how she had been living with her uncle ever since she had memory, how bad was the desire to know whatever happened to her mom and dad. How her desire led her to my office just by hearing her parents died here on Liverpool, how much money she saved since college to make the long trip from Glasgow to Liverpool and her plan to stay there until she learned the truth. Her parents were killed brutally shortly after she was born, no one could stand such horrible news, no one could live knowing your parents only by a picture of their blood covered corpses. In only one night, I ended up knowing more about her than any other person she met before, and so she acknowledged herself. Angelica spent her entire life talking only to a few people, not really showing how she felt to not even her closest friend or even those she dared to kiss but not truly love. I felt flattered and overwhelmed at the same time, I had never seen someone open her heart in such honest and pure way like her before. We finished talking around four in the morning; I offered to take her home, where our talk continued for another twelve hours. I felt the urge to share with her my darkest secrets and wildest dreams, and she found them to be marvelous. In less than twenty four hours we felt like we had known each other for years. Even though our initial impressions were those of persons who repulse each other, we ended up falling in love after a few months of seeing each other in a regular weekly basis when she found a job teaching biology in a small school near my work. Meeting me was the greatest thing that ever happened to her, she used to cry out every once in a while when remembering that shadowy, creepy way we met in a bench inside a room filled with newspaper from all ages. Who would have thought the very same night she found the fate of her parents she met the love of her life? Be careful what you wish, some say, because I can tell she never really got over her parents death; I remember her mourning them every fourth of April. We got married after a year of officially dating, I remember printing a newspaper headline with a picture of us with the words ‘will you marry me?’ just for the occasion, and of course she said yes after breaking down into tears in my arms. The wedding was held in a small church outside my hometown, Knowsly with a humble ceremony and few guests a tenth of August; our honey moon was a travel all across the Americas, all the way from Canada to Tierra del Fuego. With the neofage ravaging all across the world, having babies was a difficult task for any couple, we tried for at least seven years until she finally got pregnant of a baby girl we named after our mothers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “You see, Applejack, my wife was a strong person, and quite lucky to meet me that night. Don’t despise your family for protecting you from a truth that can destroy not only your life, but Apple Bloom’s life as well,” I turned my gaze away from the cloudy sunset on the window and saw her trying to hide her tears behind her hoof. “Now that you told me that I know… but I want to do this anyway. And… thanks for sharin’ your story with me, you must have really loved your wife,” she sobbed in an effort to hide her tears. “I still love my wife; I’m never going to stop loving her. But I live my life with the certainty that she’s happy here on Equestria, safe,” I let out a huge sigh. “And… ya know where she oughta be?” she asked with a more clear voice this time. “I read during my mission in Russia that both my daughter and wife were transferred to a safe house on Fillydelphia.” “That means you may find ‘em too!” she said enthusiastically. “I don’t take that for granted, I read they left Fillydelphia and their current location is unknown. Once I’m done with this whole human extinction madness, I will devote my life in finding them, and making sure they are safe even though they don’t know who I am,” Applejack’s face turned depressed, looking out the window once more. “That’s… so brave of you. I’d never met anypony as brave as you, Leighton. I’m glad you’re takin’ this trip with me,” she smiled at me honestly, a clear, pure honesty worthy from the bearer the element of honesty. “I’m glad you are allowing me to join you in such a special occasion, now please, tell me more about you.” I always found Applejack to be an interesting pony, and this was no better occasion to listen to her complete story. I learned about the cutie marks and all of her life as an apple bucking pony, how devoted she was to her family. We spent all the way to Fillydelphia talking, truly enjoying our company.