//------------------------------// // Dirge in the Dark // Story: Forbidden Fruit // by Vargras //------------------------------// Despite several brief bursts from a levitation spell, Twilight Sparkle still had a rough landing, falling to her knees as she came into contact with the stone floor. Whatever this place was, it wasn't natural - it had been intentionally built, but how long ago or by whom were questions that likely would never be answered. She closed her eyes and grimaced, smiling as she summoned a floating orb of light beside her. While the unicorn could make some light of her own with her horn, it wasn't nearly as bright as this orb and would require less concentration in the end. "That's strange... there's only one hole and one way down, but I don't see Applejack. Where did that pony go to?" The mare closed her eyes once more, casting a modified seeker spell this time. It was one she had picked up from Rarity, and with Applejack's hat as a focus, she would hopefully be able to find her friend. She quickly opened her eyes, grinning to herself as she felt the spell work - she began to regret opening them, however. The path to Applejack was clearly shown before her, but Twilight was more disturbed by how the path was displayed. A trail of blood spatters gently glowed in the darkness, and Twilight Sparkle felt her pulse quicken as she charged head-long into the blackness, desperate to find her friend. ----- Elsewhere within the ruins, Applejack lay huddled by a fire she had made, carefully tending to her wounds. It took a while for her body to really register that anything had happened to her, but once it caught up, it hurt far more than she would have liked. She was almost certain she had sprained her ankle, and a series of makeshift bandages wrapped around her head and body took care of the scrapes, cuts, and bruises she had suffered during the fall. With her ankle in its current condition, there was no way she would make it far - all she could do now was just wait and hope that rescue would arrive soon. The orange mare sighed and lay her head upon the stone floor, none too pleased with the turn of events. First she had admitted being afraid of being alone, and now she actually was alone. The rest of her friends and family were miles away, and Twilight Sparkle was somewhere else. For all Applejack knew, the unicorn might not have even noticed that she was gone, a thought that certainly didn't make her feel any better. "...I really hope yer lookin' fer me, Twi. I don' wanna be down here ferever." She cringed at that thought. Forever. Applejack knew full-well that these weren't just ruins - she had seen the bones as she had limped her way to some place safe, and knew it was really a crypt. It was something she preferred not to think about, however. If tombstones made her uneasy, being surrounded by the bones of the deceased certainly exacerbated the problem. The mare sighed and pulled a blanket over herself, curling up by the fire and watching the dancing flames within. Staring at a flame didn't seem like much, but it was her only solace within the crypt, and the only thing that kept her mind from wandering to darker subjects. The halls of the dead were never meant to be inviting, and the walls themselves seemed to press down upon her. Applejack pawed at the floor with the side of her hoof, watching the fire as she did her best not to remind herself that she was alone. In a crypt. Filled with dead ponies. She gulped and pulled the blanket over her head, using the cloth to shield her eyes from what lay around her, but it was too late - thoughts already began to race through her head, and she placed her hooves over her face in some vain attempt to stop it all. Twilight Sparkle would never come for her, and eventually, her supplies would run out. Then she would be just like all the others down here - bones. She would never see sunlight again, or the green pastures of Equestria. She would never walk upon Sweet Apple Acres again, nor would she ever see her family or friends. She would die down here, all alone, and the mare violently sobbed because of it. The warm glow of the fire was not enough to help her now. ----- It felt like she had been down here for hours, wandering the dark and lonely halls of the crypt in search of Applejack. The seeker spell still seemed to be working, and Twilight Sparkle eagerly followed it as the orb of light bobbed up and down at her side. Had the situation been any different, the young unicorn would have loved to study these walls - frescos and friezes lined every inch of the stone walls, and it was a potential treasure-trove of Equestrian history, some of it possibly being completely unknown. Somewhere within, however, was a wounded Applejack. The earth pony had risked life and limb to pluck her from the river, and Twilight wasn't about to let her down. She raced through the corridors, the spell growing stronger as she drew closer and closer. "Applejack! Hold on, I'm almost there!" It was fruitless to try calling out for her, but she tried nonetheless. Her hooves thundered through the halls, the bones of the dead rattling as she raced past. In the distance, she thought she could see the faint glow of... something. Whatever it was, the blood trail lead towards it, and she continued to charge forth in pursuit. As she approached, she recognized it was a campfire of sorts - her gallop slowed to a canter, then to a trot, and eventually to a slow walk as she cautiously walked towards the light. Beside it sat a pair of saddlebags she quickly recognized as belonging to Applejack, and next to that was Applejack herself. The mare had seemingly cried herself to sleep, her mane an absolute mess and a bit of blood staining her face. She had seemingly stopped the bleeding herself, as there wasn't a trace of blood within the small camp, and Twilight Sparkle took a seat beside the slumbering earth pony. Her horn softly glowed as she gently rocked her friend back and forth, waking her up in the process. Applejack brushed her mane away from her eyes, blinking at the unicorn. "...Twi? What are ya doin' here?" "Finding you, of course. Are you alright, AJ? I saw the blood trail on my way here." "I... yeah, I'm fine sugarcube. For th' most part, anyways." She sighed and briefly glanced away before sitting up. "I didn' think you would come fer me." Twilight waved a hoof, directing the orb of light to float over the both of them, rather than just her. "Why would you think such a thing? You know I'd never abandon you." "Yeah, I... I know it sounds awful silly. Thanks fer comin' after me, though. It means a lot ta me." Applejack felt disappointed in herself for even daring to think that one of her own friends would abandon her in her hour of need. She had told herself that nopony would come for her, and yet here was Twilight. "C'mon, AJ. We need to get out of here." "I can'. I think I sprained mah ankle durin' the fall down." The unicorn stood up and moved the blanket away from Applejack's legs, quickly spotting which one was sprained - the ankle on one of her hindlegs was bruised badly. "Applejack, I'm going to try something, and I need you to stay absolutely still. It might feel really weird though." "What, are ya gonna try an' magic it or somethin'?" The orange mare eyed her friend incredulously. "I thought ya said magic couldn' heal anythin'?" "Well... that was a bit of a lie." Twilight laughed nervously before continuing. "Magic can heal, it's just horribly impractical. It takes a lot of effort without much real gain, which is why traditional treatments are so common. Trust me, if there were an easier way to use magic to heal, ponies would have been using it already. Just... hold still, okay?" Applejack nodded and Twilight Sparkle physically braced herself before beginning to cast the spell. Her horn glowed with a piercing light, and the earth pony had to shield her eyes from its intensity, and it didn't take long for sparks to begin to shoot from the horn as well. The unicorn grimaced, her eyes tightly shut as she channeled the spell as best she could, and dust and pebbles alike flew about the area, quickly snuffing out the fire. Despite the blinding light emitted by the spell, Applejack's eyes shot open as she felt one of the oddest sensations she had ever experienced - inside her ankle, she felt the sprain slowly begin to mend itself. Ligaments and muscles began to knit themselves back together, forming a tighter and stronger bond than what she even managed to have before the sprain. With the spell complete, Twilight released her hold on it and let out a pained groan as she collapsed to the ground and vomited, her entire body still shaking from exhaustion. Without thinking, Applejack tore off a fresh bandage and dipped it into a nearby puddle, hobbling over to her friend and pressing the cloth against her forehead. The lavender mare vomited repeatedly, making pained expressions with every dry heave she underwent, and likely would have toppled over into her own bile if it weren't for her friend supporting her. Though still feeling incredibly sick to her stomach, she wiped her mouth clean and slowly walked back over to the makeshift camp, the earth pony mirroring her every step. With a grunt, the unicorn took a seat upon the floor and rolled onto her side. "...Applejack, please remind me to never do that again." "Uh... sure thing, sugarcube. I can' believe ya actually fixed mah ankle, though! I've never seen ya do anythin' like that!" Twilight Sparkle didn't hear. She was already snoring, completely and utterly exhausted from the spell. The earth pony chuckled softly and and gave her newly-mended ankle a short test. It felt good - better than it used to, even. Twilight hadn't been kidding when she said it was impractical, though - the unicorn was regarded as having exceptional magical abilities, and yet the simple act of mending a sprained ankle had made her violently ill and completely exhausted. Applejack relit the fire and dug into Twilight's saddlebags, pulling out her blanket and covering the sleeping unicorn with it. With that complete, the orange mare lay upon the floor once again and pulled her blanket back over herself, taking time to reflect on what had happened. It had been an odd trip thus far, with both of them running into their own share of troubles and the other soon rescuing them from the thick of it. At the very least, they were now even, though such a thing hardly mattered when friends were involved. Applejack would have gone to the ends of the earth for her friends, and she now realized her friends would do the same for her. "G'night, Twilight. An'... thanks. Fer everythin'." The orange mare set her own head down and soon drifted off to sleep, but before doing so, she could have sworn there was the faintest of smiles upon her friend's face. She wasn't wrong about that either. ----- They had wandered the crypts for hours at this point, and still had no real idea if they were close to finding a way out. Twilight Sparkle still felt nauseous from the spell she had used earlier on, and the most magic she could muster was the floating orb of light that had been following them around. The unicorn could seemingly read the glyphs that were etched upon the walls, and had used that to gauge their location - more recent dates meant they were closer to the surface, and older dates meant they were deeper. At this point, the two mares were in a section that was but a few hundred years old, and though Applejack still felt uneasy from being both underground and surrounded by the dead, it was comforting to know that one of her friends was right behind her. "AJ, look at the floor - is it just me, or is it going up?" "Kinda looks like it, sugarcube." "Well... up is definitely a good sign. And based on these friezes, this section of the crypt is no more than two-hundred years old. I think we're on the right path." "I sure hope so, Twi. I jus' wanna feel th' grass beneath mah hooves again." The earth pony briefly eyed the walls before continuing onwards, leading the two of them as they slowly ascended. She felt her mane get rustled about by a breeze of air, and knew that they had to be close to the surface. Almost anything was better than being stuck underground, and Applejack simply wanted to get away from the crypt and the graveyard as soon as possible. Rushing forward, the orange mare rounded a corner and saw it - the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' made manifest. Thought Twilight Sparkle did her best to keep up with her friend, it was pointless. Applejack had already sprinted far ahead, emerging out of the crypt and into... the morning light? It had been mid-afternoon when she had first fallen in, and yet it was now dawn. Had they really been inside there that long? The earth pony happily trotted in circles, thankful to feel the ground beneath her hooves once more - her companion wasn't nearly as fortunate. Still feeling sick from the healing spell, the unicorn promptly fell to the ground upon emerging from the crypt and vomited once more. Sprinting apparently hadn't helped her stomach at all, but like Applejack, Twilight was thankful to simply be out. "Say, Twi! How 'bout a victory lunch, since we got outta th' crypt an' all?" At the mention of 'lunch', the lavender mare keeled over once more and threw up again. That was a 'No'.