//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Lazarus tower 
// by FacadeArt 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 2


After all the good byes and numerous "good luck" wishes including some offensive "if you don’t come back, can I have your stuff?" comments, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood on the Canterlot Castle balcony. They were fully equipped and ready to go on yet another dangerous adventure that included dark magical powers.

"Ah don’t feel too comfortable wearing all this fancy stuff."

Both were wearing hooded dark blue capes, complete with golden brooches shaped like the crescent moon. They were also wearing saddlebags and harnesses that were holding a blade. The blade’s handle was decorated with the stars and the moon of the beautiful night sky. The blade itself was magical, shining white as if it were made of moonlight.

"C’mon Applejack, this is cool! I heard Luna’s night guard scouts get to wear this stuff. And look."

Rainbow Dash pulled out the blade with her teeth and swung it around.

"It’s like I’m swinging light around!"

"Hey! Careful there, sugarcube! These ain’t toys!"

"That is correct Miss Applejack. I hate to make you carry weapons, but the island is unpredictable and one should prepare for everything."

Luna entered the balcony carrying some kind of map with her magic.

"The capes i have given you will hide you in the darkness from any unwanted eyes, but they will not shield you from danger or hide you in the light."

"Thank you kindly your majesty."

"It is the least I can do until the rune has been erased...now i have brought this map to locate the island once more. You will not be able to enter it by conventional means. The only way to get to the island is by teleportation."

"That means..."

"Yes, once I teleport you there, your only hope of returning is to complete the mission...are you ready to make the jump?"

Now that the mission was about to begin, both mares were hit with the gravity of their task.
They weren’t so excited anymore, especially when there was no way to escape the island if things went south. Still, they weren’t the type of ponies who backed out at the first sign of danger, and certainly not the type of ponies who would leave their friend to die.

"Ok let’s do this, but your majesty..."

"Yes?"

"Don’t you EVER build another freaky dark magic tower!"

Luna giggled at that and answered slyly.
"Well, I was always a fan of freaky dark magic towers, but I guess I can let it go."

The time had arrived. The sun was rising in the distance and the two ponies stood there watching it, knowing that the next time they’d see it wouldn’t be so soon.

"You know, Dash, we’re completely crazy for agreeing to this..."

"Hey! It takes a little bit of craziness to be an awesome stuntpony."

Applejack turned to Dash and looked her in the eyes.

"Promise we will both come back?"

Dash stared back and answered in a surprisingly serious tone.

"I promise."

Then they shook hooves on it, Applejack style, which included some good ol’ farm spit.



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A bright flash later Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood on the infamous island of the Lazarus Tower. The ground was as Luna expected: riddled with black grass that used to be green. In the distance they could see the tip of the tower looming over the island. The whole island had an atmosphere of dread, as though even the grass itself would jump off the ground and attack them.

"Oh hay! Out of all the places in the world she had to be captured here!"

"Ok I’ll take a little flight and scout around."

Rainbow Dash was about to take off when once again her tail had to meet the fate of being grabbed by somepony.

"Seriously? This is getting old!"

"Ya can’t fly around like some showpony around here! The weather will do a number on ya. Besides, we’re supposed to stay hidden remember?"

Dash landed with a look of disbelief.

"Wait...I can’t fly here?"

"Ya can...but not above the tree line. I reckon you stay on the ground for now."

"Ugh. This mission just got a lot more boring...it’s not too late to back out is it?"

"C’mon Dash, this is serious! Twilight’s out there and she needs our help!"

"Yeah, I know, I know. I’m just joking around. Lets get moving then."

In front of them they could see a wall, and on it was an obsidian gate decorated with the symbols of the night sky. Behind the gate was an overgrown path that, they presumed, lead to the tower. Surrounding the path was a twisted looking forest with mysterious vines sticking out of the ground.

"Dash look!"

On the path they could see a dark green orb levitating around as if it were looking for something.

"Ah bet that there orb is some kind of a drone looking for intruders."

"And we are the intruders."

"Yeah...we better get moving. I think we should avoid the path and go throu the forest."

It didn’t seem like the two ponies had a choice between being caught immediately or going through some twisted forest that looked like it would just consume anypony who dared to venture there. Applejack and Rainbow Dash walked away from the gate and followed the wall for a while.

"Clearly this wall wasn’t designed for the best flier in Equestria. C’mon AJ, I’ll give you a lift."

Suddenly Dash grabbed Applejack with her hooves and lifted her off the ground. Naturally AJ eeped in surprise.

"RD, next time, tell me before you just go ahead and grab me like some apple off the ground!"

"And miss that expression on your face? No way."

Their bickering was cut short though when they landed on the other side of the wall and were meeted with the sight of the forest. The whole place was completely unnatural. Some of the trees were massive while others were small like bonsai trees. Most of them seemed to have twisted faces, that of course looked like they were looking right at the mares.

"Whoa nelly...Ah don’t think we can sing those faces away."

"Lets just put on the hoods of our capes and try to uh...sneak past the trees?"

So the two hooded figures made their way past the black forest in silence. They couldn’t feel the stares of the trees on their backs anymore. It was as if the forest wasn’t aware of their presence.

"Hey Applejack." Dash whispered suddenly startling the earth pony when the silence was broken.

"What?" She hissed back at the rainbow maned-pegasus.

"Do you think the trees can hear us, like do the trees have ears or something?"

"How should ah know?"

"Well I kinda remember, back when we went to Appleloosa, you were telling stories to some tree and..."

"Pardon me but that wasn’t some tree, that was Bloomberg. And he was an apple tree, not some common tree rubble."

"Did that tre...uh Bloomberg have ears of some kind?"

"Of course he did! He was a proud member of the Sweet Apple Acres tree family!"

"How do you know that? What if you were blabbering to that tree but he couldn’t even hear you?"

"Don’t ya question traditional Apple family knowledge! We have known these things since the day when my granny came to Equestria."

"There’s gotta be some kind of proof...ouch...some kind of...uff... stop that!"

Rainbow turned around and both mares realized they had gone from subtle whispering to a full blown argument. Needless to say the trees had noticed and had begun to move towards them. Dash noticed the rude tree that interrupted their conversation. It was a small bonsai tree; however its bigger cousins were closing in, roots moving like snakes.

"Run!"

They both shouted in unison and immediately galloped towards a gap that lead to the path in the line of trees. The gap was suddenly closed by vines when they arrived. AJ wasted no time and pulled out her sword.

"If these here trees think they can hold us, they got another thing coming!"

She swung her sword and, sure enough, the moonlight blade cut through the dark vines with no effort. More vines popped up from the ground to replace the fallen ones. Rainbow Dash took her blade as well and joined Applejack in the attempt to cut past the vines. The progress was slow, and it didn’t help that the vines were full of spikes.

The trees closed in, their twisted faces moving unnaturally. Rainbow saw them coming and decided to try to hold them off, however desperate it might be.

"Im gonna keep them busy!"

AJ wanted to protest, but she knew if she stopped cutting the path for a single second they would be doomed. Dash stood behind her, holding her moonblade up in the air, and snarled at the attackers.

"Any of you want to be turned into firewood? Just step right up!!" she said between her teeth.

Sure enough the trees were hesitating after seeing the moonblade cut through the tough vines with ease. Still one of the attackers decided to try its luck and swung its arm like branches at Rainbow. She reacted with lightning speed using her wings to dodge the swing and her blade to cut the branch with no ease. Another branch was on its way however. This time she wasn’t so lucky, the branch left a nasty-looking cut across side.

"RD, you still alive and kicking back there!?" Applejack managed to blurt out between her teeth and continued with the desperate cutting.

"Yeah! yeah! I’m not telling you to hurry up or anything but PLEASE HURRY UP OR WE DIE!!"
She shouted when another branch swung above her head barely missing.

 Applejack couldn’t stand the fact that her friend was fighting for their lives while she had the simple job of cutting some damn vines. Filled with new found anger she swung the blade relentlessly around going on a full vine massacre. The path was finally starting to form even though going through it would leave them with some scratches. AJ didn’t have the luxury of time however.

"IT’S OPEN! THE PATH IS OPEN!"

She shouted and immediately saw a streak of Rainbow speed towards her. Both ponies struggled to get through with the vines cutting them on both sides. Finally they managed to squeeze out of the clutches of the forest and they both lay down on the path. The forest gnarled behind them and it seemed the trees could not follow them on the road.

They lay there panting for a while. The night had fallen, even though the stormy clouds above them covered the moon and stars.

"Ok Applejack, you win..."

Rainbow said between her breaths and Applejack turned her head to look at the mare.

"...the trees do have ears!"

Applejack chuckled and soon enough both ponies were laying there laughing the night away. The laughter was interrupted however when they saw a familiar green glow approach.

"Oh no no no! It’s the drone!" Rainbow Dash hissed.

"We can’t go back to the forest."

"Quick get to the side of the road and hide under your cape!"

The two friends galloped as close to the forest as they dared and lay low in the black grass hiding under their capes. Sure enough the capes of the night princess blended with the dark night glow; the two ponies were practically invisible. Laying between certain deaths, the two mares were nervously sweating, peeking under their capes, and watching the green orb float right in front of them. The orb suddenly stopped and floated in place as if it had smelled something or somepony.

Then it started to slowly move towards the hiding mares, who were close to panicking.

"We’re doomed, we are so doomed." Rainbow mumbled to herself when the orb approached.

She swallowed nervously when the green ball from hell was floating right above them. Just when they were about to charge back into the forest a branch swung right above their heads hitting the orb. The branch bursted into green flames immediately when it touched the ball of magic and the trees gnarled behind the mares. Satisfied that nothing was out of place, the orb made its way back to the path and continued on its patrol.

The two friends stood up after they were certain that the orb was long gone.

"Them capes won’t hide us from that thing... we just got lucky some dumb tree decided to give it a piece of its mind."

"Did you see how close that was!? We almost died twice!"

"Yeah it almost scared the apples off my flank..."

"Speaking of your flank...AJ you look terrible."

Dash looked at Applejack and noticed how they both were covered in scratches caused by the miraculous escape through the wall of spiked vines. RD got the top price of injuries from the ordeal, though; she had a long nasty cut on her side. The capes, however, were undamaged.

"Whoa nelly Rainbow! Those trees sure did a number on you, let me take a look at that..."

Digging into her saddlebags Applejack pulled out some bandages and proceeded to play medic for Rainbow Dash. She stared at her wound in silence for a long time.

"Umm Applejack, this is getting kinda awkward."

"Oh, shut up, I’m gonna patch you up is all."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"Ugh, I should have listened to Fluttershy when she told me how to use these things...now first I hafta use some disinfection liquid?"

Applejack pulled out the bottle and proceeded to splash some of the liquid on the wound. Rainbow Dash eeped.

"GAH! Warn me before you throw some medical stuff on me!"

"And miss the look on ya face? No way."

Applejack snickered and Rainbow just shrugged.

"Haha...really funny."

Applejack tied the bandage around the wound and pulled out some apples from her saddlebag as well. She couldn’t help but feel guilty for letting her friend fight alone even when she knew that there was no other way.



"Look I’m sorry ya had to take one for the team. Next time when we’re in a life threatening situation you let me play the hero ok?"

Dash took a bite of her apple and smiled.

"Sure thing AJ."

Then she looked around the path and noticed the forest had fallen silent once more.

"We can’t stay on the path... It’s back to the forest for us, only this time we stay quiet under our capes, no matter what!"

As they snuck through the forest they managed to find cover under a rock formation that at the moment didn’t look like it was about to attack them. The formation created a comfortable hiding spot so the two mares could finally rest. Applejack digged through her saddlebags again and pulled out a map of the island, courtesy of Luna. She pointed her hoof at a village located on the map.

"This is where we’re going... Luna said that it’s where the researcher’s families used to live before the island was abandoned."

"You think theres still somepony living there?"

"I reckon there’s someTHING living there. Luna was sure that nopony could have survived there for a thousand years. The village is most likely abandoned."

"Whoa. Are we going to some creepy abandoned ghost town?"

"Uhuh. The village is connected to the tower by a tunnel system that we are going to use to sneak in."

"A tunnel system? Why would they build something like that?"

"Umm well it’s actually the old sewer tunnels."

Rainbow Dash winced.



"Oh, great, like the scratching of tree branches wasn’t enough. Now I’ll be covered in sewage waste."

Applejack held her hoof up.

"Now ya realize that all the failed experiments and all the other nasty dark magical things were thrown down to that sewer?"

"The sewage waste is probably going to attack us isn’t it?"

"Eeyup."

Rainbow just took another bite of an apple and sighed.

"But at least we can sneak in unnoticed."

The night passed outside, accompanied by the casual noises of twisted creatures, typical for a dark island of doom. Applejack agreed to keep watch, feeling guilty for the whole "leaving your friend to fight" thing, and leaned on the wall of the rock formation. Rainbow Dash dreamed next to her, once again soaring through the skies with somepony called Spitfire that Applejack had probably seen in some kind of a poster.

Sudden flashes of light outside however grabbed her attention, not the fact that there were flashes outside but that the flashes were purple in color. Applejack sneaked to the entrance of the rock formation and looked for the source of the lightning. In the distance she could see it. The purple lightning was coming from the top of the tower. There was only one unicorn Applejack knew of that could be behind the purple colored magic.

"Just hang in there Twi..."