Applejack, relatively speaking, hated waiting. She tended to be a girl of action. Granted, she wasn’t as bad as Rainbow was, but she still hated to wait. She’d been waiting for the past few hours, and as the clock turned close to midnight, she still didn’t feel comfortable about everything.
“You’re getting antsy again,” Jade observed as the two watched played videogames. Or rather, Applejack was playing videogames, and doing a bad job of trying to relax. Jade, on the other hand, meditated, only half-watching Applejack, opening a single eye. “The Last of Us? Really don’t like that game, but got it because Braeburn likes zombie stuff. I keep telling him zombies aren’t real, but sometimes I wonder if he’s hoping for a zombie apocalypse, so he can grab his shotgun and go play hero around the countryside.”
“And you’d be there by his side?”
Jade nodded. “Without a doubt! Although…I’d rather it not come to that. I suppose I could live fighting zombies, but the collapse of civilization? Sorry, humans are far more advanced technologically than ponies are, and I’m not sure I could live without running water or my cellphone.”
“So no zombies for you?”
“Zombies can’t really exist, anyway. Sure, cordyceps does have some effect on lower-reasoning animals. But if you ask me, toxoplasma gondii is something humans have more to worry about than some fungus that only messes with ants’ minds. Besides, there’s tons of things here that are even more dangerous than either of those.”
“Like what?”
“Like nuclear weapons, for example. Celestial-class spells are restricted to alicorns for a reason…and here you guys are just tearing apart the fundament of the universe just for shits and giggles!”
“Ah think it’s a bit more complex than that, sugarcube. For one, there was a war on back then. Secondly, nobody likes nukes, especially the military forces with them.”
“I’m not going to comment on that, mainly because I haven’t had enough time to be here,” Jade said. “Maybe after I’ve got enough time under my hooves, but not until th—” She paused. “Did you hear that?”
“Not really. I—” In the distance, Applejack could suddenly hear giggling. “What is that?”
The giggling started getting louder, as well as everywhere at the same time. “That,” she said sadly, “is our problem.”
Summerfree floated in the air, her body glistening. She was a goddess ascendant. She was one with everything, and it felt better than a thousand moments of perfection.
The wolf spirit followed behind her, timidly. He looked worried.
“Oh, my precious pet,” Summerfree cooed, floating down to embrace him. “Don’t worry. After tomorrow, we’ll be free to do whatever we want. And the world will be ours.” She thought about it for a moment, then summoned Fastrunner – and the girl he was with. Both screamed, looking at her.
“Summer?” he asked, shocked, trying to get off his partner while staring at the luscious, gorgeous girl floating just before him. “What…?”
As the other girl ran away, screaming at the top of her lungs, Summerfree floated down to Fastrunner. Looking at him with unreadable eyes, she said, “Do you love?”
“Summer, Ah don’t know what’s goin’ on,” he said, stepping back from her, “but you stay here an’ Ah’ll go for help.”
“I love,” Summer said, taking Fastrunner’s face in her hands. “I love Jade. She will be my sister. She is my sister. She is love.”
“Look, Ah don’t got nothing to do with that ni—”
Summerfree pressed her lips to his, not quite a kiss, but a transfer of essence. “You do not love. I shall give you love.” She breathed multicolors into him, and he stepped back, dazed.
“What the fuck’d ya do to me, bitch?” he asked, before his eyes started to glaze over.
“I have given you love,” Summerfree said. “I now give you a gift.” The neophyte goddess snapped her fingers and another girl appeared, an African-American. She had short celeste hair in a slightly modified style and wine-colored eyes that were a bit vacant at the moment. She was dressed in a t-shirt and fuzzy pajama pants, but that went away. “Dear Heart wants to love you,” Summerfree told him. “Show her you can love.”
“Look, no way am I—” His words stopped as his eyes glazed over with a rainbow light.
“Love her,” Summerfree whispered in his ear. “Be who she wants.”
Dazed, he wandered over to her and touched her face. She looked at him. “Fast? Ah thought y’ hated me,” she said, her voice woozy.
“Because Ah couldn’t love ya like Ah should,” he told her, kissing her. “An’ now, Ah’m gonna do just that.”
Leaving the couple as they started to make love on the grass by the road, Summerfree smiled. She was a goddess of love, of all. She deserved to be free, so the world could experience her as she deserved to be. And once she finally ended this prison she was in, the world would.
She felt a shudder of epiphany flow through her, stronger than any orgasm.
I am one with the world and nothing will keep me from it.
The sudden flash of light behind her indicated that wasn’t exactly true. Summerfree turned around and gazed upon two familiar figures looking up at her floating form with expressions of uncertainty.
“Summer, whatever it is you’re doing, it has to stop!” Applejack demanded. Beside her, Jade said nothing, but the look on her face indicated that they were in agreement on this matter.
“Why?” Summerfree asked, floating down to touch the ground in front of them. “Do you not wish to know love?”
Her cousin tilted her head and looked at her as if she was insane. Of course, she sighed internally. The unenlightened always view anything they don’t understand as madness.
“I know you yearn for love, cousin,” Summerfree continued, glancing over at Jade. “I have seen the way you look at my brother and his paramour. You want what they have. You see love all around you, but none for yourself.”
Jade and Applejack shared a glance as Summerfree tenderly stroked the latter’s hair. “I could help you find someone,” she cooed. “If there’s a boy – or girl – that you want to make yours, you have but to name them and it will be done!” Summerfree’s smile seemed genuine in its earnestness. “I know we’ve had our disagreements, cousin, but we are family and I want to help you because I love you.”
Applejack seemed unsure what to think at first, but Summerfree was certain she knew what her answer would be.
“That’s mighty nice of you to think of me, sugarcube,” Applejack told her, “but you’re wrong. Ah have plenty of love in mah life, even if Ah haven’t met that special someone yet.” She removed Summerfree’s hand from her hair. “But Ah can see that there’s a little bit of the old Summerfree still in there somewhere…and Ah’d like to have her back.”
To Summerfree’s surprise, Applejack’s hand began to glow with a bright orange aura. “It’s like you said,” Applejack intoned. “We’ve had our disagreements, Summer, but we’re family. And because we’re family, Ah’m gonna help you because Ah love you.”
“You…love me?”
A fist clenched. “Yeah. Tough love.”
A second later, Summerfree went flying through the air – involuntarily. An explosive blast of power from Applejack’s hand sent her careening, smashing through two trees and a nearby barn before she skidded to a stop with enough concussive force to cause a small impact crater.
Standing from where Summerfree had been a few seconds prior, Jade crossed her arms and glared at Applejack. “You just had to do that, didn’t you.”
Applejack blazed with golden power, the orange aura around her illuminating her like a star. “Ah’d be lying if Ah said it wasn’t cathartic, and you know Ah’m not one for lies, Jade.”
“Please don’t hurt her, AJ.”
Applejack pointed at the distant glow. “Did you look at her? Ah’m surprised Ah landed the punch! Ah’m not even sure that did more than tickle her!”
They heard a deep, guttural growl behind her. Both turned around to see a mountain of fur behind them as the wolf spirit, protecting its master, grew to the size of a house.
“This is not good,” Jade said, just a second before Applejack pushed her out of the way, avoiding the spirit’s lunge and the bite that would be fatal. Instead, the jaws snapped shut on closed air, and both girls hit the dirt, otherwise unharmed.
“You go take care of Summer,” Jade told Applejack. “I’ll deal with the furball here.”
Applejack looked at Jade as if she were insane. “Ah’m not leaving you with this thing!”
Jade called a ball of violet fire to her hands. “AJ, I’m the animist here. I’ll be fine,” she insisted. “I’m more worried about Summer and what she’ll do if we don’t stop her.”
“You take care then, okay?” Applejack insisted.
The fireball in Jade’s hands got bigger. “I’m not the one you need to worry about. My master taught me everything I need to know.”
“Fine, but if you get hurt, don’t say Ah didn’t tell you so,” the blonde said as she rushed off.
“Right back at ya!” the former unicorn shouted back, just as the wolf lunged again, its mouth open and sharp teeth signaling. Jade didn’t even move, instead closing her eyes and her fist, the violet flame pouring out of her closed hand and encircling her like a sash. Just as the mouth started to close around her, the mage opened her eyes and said, “Bad doggie,” releasing a blast of energy.
The first detonation made the wolf back away in pain. The second one knocked it off its feet. Jade stood in a small crater, energy enveloping her as if it were a lover. “I brought you to this plane,” she told the wolf, “and I can take you right out of it!”
The wolf spirit rushed her once more, and Jade decided that it was already time to end it. “THIS ENDS NOW!” she roared and a massive wave of mystic energy rushed towards the wolf.
Getting up off the ground, Summerfree briefly felt dizzy, the runes on her body fading briefly in their intensity. She was a goddess. This was not how it was supposed to g—
The would-be deity never saw the uppercut, much less the spin kick that sent her flying again. But she felt both – oh, did she feel both. As a taekwondo practitioner, if Applejack’s punches were solid, her kicking was outright lethal. And as the stronger blows pushed the girl that much farther eastward, she was lucky that there was a large pickup truck in someone’s house to stop her. Unfortunately, the owner was not as fortunate as they no longer owned a pickup truck, but instead a truck-shaped pile of scrap.
Summerfree stood up and wiped away a rivulet of blood from her mouth. “That. Hurt,” she said aloud as the lights in the adjacent house came on and a man with a shotgun came out.
“What the fuck?” he wondered, aiming his shotgun at the glowing naked girl. “Don’t know what th’ fuck you’re on, pothead, but ya’d better get off mah prop—GAAK!” His words were stopped as the potted fern right next to him exploded into instant growth, tying him down and pulling the weapon out of his hands.
She walked up to him. “You do not know love,” she said.
“What th’ fuck are ya—” The neophyte goddess placed a finger on his lips and he stopped.
“Your wife is visiting her sick mother in Little Rock,” she said, “and here you are, lying with….” A smile came onto Summerfree’s face, and she beckoned at the door. “Come here, child.”
A girl with blue-and-yellow hair about Summer’s age came out of the house, covering herself with a sheet, humiliation and fear showing in her soft pink eyes. “Who are ya?”
“He has blackmailed you, hasn’t he?”
“He said if Ah didn’t sleep with him, he’d fire mah Ma,” the girl said. “Mah little sister’s real sick and Ma’s doin’ all she can t’ pay fer th’ medicine!”
“What is your name, sweet one?”
“Crystal Rose.”
“Be at ease, Crystal,” the pixie-like goddess said as she smiled. “He will never bother you again.” She snapped her fingers and a basket of jewels and gold appeared before the girl. “Go, and tell the world your goddess is merciful.”
“My goddess?”
“I am Titania Arum, your goddess,” the glowing being said, “and I will be fr—”
“Titania” was slammed headfirst into what had been the cab of the truck. “GET OUT OF HERE!” a blonde, glowing with power commanded. Not planning to argue, Crystal Rose grabbed the basket and raced inside the house. The man, hanging there and with no chance as two otherworldly women fought in his front yard, wet himself, which was all the more embarrassing, given that he’d been hung upside down.
“I TIRE OF THIS,” Titania said, her voice booming. “I WILL NO LONGER SHOW MERC—”
Her words were cut off by another blow to the face. “Unfortunately for you, Ah’ve faced a would-be omnipotent being before,” the martial artist told her opponent. “She didn’t win, either.” Applejack threw another fist at Titania’s face…
…which was caught. Titania then picked up Applejack by the fist and snarled, “You do not know love. You do not deserve to know love,” and promptly threw her against a nearby tree. The tree cracked from the blow, and Applejack went down.
“You will be an example,” Titania said. “History will know you as the unyielding evil which prevented me fro—”
“SHUT UP!” Applejack roared as she launched herself back at Titania. “Even Sunny wasn’t this much of a chatterbox!”
“You will fall, you evil demon! I shall smite thee!”
“Shut the fuck up with your ‘Ah’m the baddest bitch this side of the Mississippi’ shit!” Applejack grabbed Titania’s head and slammed it down against her knee. The crunch could be heard as something broke. “Ah told you: you don’t get to win, Summer. No way, no how.”
“BEGONE!” Titania rose into the air, her wounds prevalent. “THIS WORLD WILL WATCH ME BURN YOU WITH CLEANSING FIRE!”
“NOT EVEN!” Applejack closed her eyes and her aura flared even brighter. Her ears elongated and became triangular, shifting from the side of her head towards the top. Her waist-length hair grew longer, reaching towards her feet. And her eyes shone like glittering emeralds. “If you’re not going to listen the easy way, we’re gonna do it mah way!”
Titania summoned a ball of fire in her hands. “DIE!”
“Ah told you: You don’t get what you want!” Applejack replied, “and that’s the TRUTH!” Applejack bent down and punched the ground on instinct. Below Titania, the ground opened and a massive blast of golden energy rocketed upwards, roasting her. The blast became a flare of rainbow power, and as it vanished, a screaming girl fell to the ground, completely on fire.
“Summer?” Applejack gasped as her body returned to normal. “What the?”
A raincloud appeared out of nowhere and started pouring water on Summerfree’s burning body. Applejack turned to see Jade rushing forward, riding a horse-sized wolf. “Wow, did you guys make a mess.”
“Sorry,” Applejack shrugged.
“I guess you had to do whatever it took. I’m not sure I could’ve done it,” Jade said as she summoned a blanket to cover Summer. She looked at the wolf. “Cover me; I need nobody except AJ around,” she ordered. The wolf nodded and started loping off into the distance.
“Ah see you made a friend,” Applejack said.
“Not now, AJ. The stones are starting to break down, and they’re breaking down inside her. If I don’t remove them, she’s going to literally roast from within.”
“What?”
“Don’t blame yourself. You did what you had to do,” Jade said, casting a magical circle around Summerfree’s unconscious body. “Now let me do what I need to do.”
“I wish we could stay,” Cornflower said, hugging a tear-stricken Studious.
“It’s okay,” the other woman said, crying. It was two days later. Authorities in Arkansas reported that they’d found Summerfree, along with another girl, and both had been kidnapped by a man intent on having their way with them, promising them both the night of their lives. Summerfree had helped Crystal Rose escape, but at a price: the man threw a Molotov cocktail at Summerfree. She was now in the hospital with second-degree burns, a few broken bones, and some inexplicable internal tissue damage. The Apples, along with Jade, who was exhausted recovering from a bad case of influenza, were at the Trauma Center at Riverside County General Hospital, in Belle Point, where Summerfree was recuperating.
“What was she thinking?” Scoops asked, holding Macintosh for comfort. She’d come expecting a nice vacation, and it had all ended in tears.
“She wasn’t,” Braeburn said. “Police told us she had traces o’ several drugs in her system, as well as a BAC of 0.15 – we’re lucky she was conscious enough t’ help that other girl.”
“Can we go see her?” Applejack asked.
Stayman nodded. “Go ahead – Ah need t’ go fill out some paperwork.”
“Ah’ll go with ya,” Appleseed said to his brother.
“Want company?” Braeburn asked his girlfriend.
She shook her head. “AJ, will you come with me, please? I’m feeling a girly moment coming on, if that makes sense.”
Seeing Braeburn’s disappointment, Scoops reached over and took his arm in hers. “How often does a girl get to have two hunks escort her to lunch?”
“I’ll lend him to you for now,” Jade laughed, “but please don’t break the merchandise.”
Scoops grinned. “No promises.” With Macintosh and Braeburn looked at each other evilly, they both picked up Scoops and set her on their respective shoulders. She shrieked with laughter as everyone left.
“Glad someone’s happy right now,” Jade said, as she opened the door to Summerfree’s room; mercifully, the girl was asleep. “I’m not.”
“You did what you had to,” Applejack said. “Ah’m not condoning it, mind, just that…Ah know you had to come up with something.”
“AJ, how would you feel if you framed a man for rape—”
“Ah saw the fear in that other girl’s eyes. You weren’t framing him for anything.”
“And what I did to your cousin – my future sister-in-law?” Jade’s eyes started to tear. “I’m supposed to protect her, AJ! I harmed her by not stopping her and letting all this happen! She’s going to have scars from the stone burns for the rest of her life!”
“When was the last time you slept?”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“When?” Applejack asked.
“I haven’t. I’ve spent the last two days cleaning up the mess and covering up the tracks, including all the ‘memory reconstruction’ I’ve had to do.”
“Brainwashing?”
“No. Brainwashing is when you want to enslave someone. What I did is a lot subtler, and a whole hell of a lot more illegal: I implanted certain subliminal messages in their heads to make them remember certain things certain ways. It doesn’t matter if it happened or not, because they remember that it did, and that’s enough for a lie to become the truth.” The unicorn-as-human looked sad. “I have broken my vow to use my magic fairly and righteously, all because I wanted to save my boyfriend’s sister. I turned the world a-swirl, and now lies are truth and truth are lies,” she intoned.
Applejack frowned. “Why do Ah feel like Ah should be seriously offended by that?”
“You wouldn’t be wielding the power of Honesty if you weren’t,” Jade said. “Believe me, after this is over, I’m going to go sleep like the dead as much as I can next week. I’ve still got a lot of searching to do for missing stones. Fortunately, Rascal’s been a big help in finding many of the missing stones, so far.”
A brow rose on Applejack’s face. “Rascal?”
In turn, Jade pointed to a spot on the bed, where a small wolf lay on top of it, comfortable and next to Summerfree. “Somehow, he bonded with her. He was worried about what was happening to her and he wanted to keep her safe,” the former unicorn explained. “She even named him – he’s not a guardian spirit anymore; he’s a pet.” As if answering that, Rascal lifted his head, looked at the two girls, then yawned and put his head back down. “He’ll be with her for the rest of her life, and if you’re lucky, he’ll end up an ancestor spirit for the Apple family, watching over her descendants.”
Applejack shrugged. “Could be worse, Ah guess. What happens next?”
“Braeburn told me. His parents have applied to send her to Fort Coffee Military Academy. It’s a year-round military boarding school up in Fort Coffee, forty-five minutes north of home. It’s probably for the best, though I can’t help but feel I failed her.”
“Do you love her, Jade?”
Jade nodded. “She’s probably the closest thing I have to a sister.”
“Then you didn’t fail,” Applejack said. “Remind me sometime to introduce you to Sunny – Sunset Shimmer. She’d understand what both you and Summer are going through. In more ways than one, too: she’s a unicorn, just like you.”
“I guess that explains your access to Equestrian magic and how you know an alicorn,” Jade replied. “But I’m not really ready to meet another fellow Equestrian just yet.”
“Ah can vouch for her, Jade. She’s one of my best friends, and she’s got a tie to Princess Celestia.”
“No. I’m done with Equestria,” Jade said. “There are stones around here still – there were thousands of them, and I’m not sure I found them all. Plus, something doesn’t feel right with what you said: The Queen should reign in Equestria, and if her daughter is in charge and not the queen herself, something is very wrong. I won’t risk my loved ones for that – not ever, even if it means giving up a chance to return to my homeland.” She smiled. “Besides, home is here now.”
“Jade….”
“Someday, if I understand what’s going on, I’ll change my mind. Hopefully by then, Lord Starswirl will come looking for me and he’ll explain everything. I still trust my lord and master, and I know he won’t steer me wrong.”
Applejack decided to table the conversation, which turned out to be a good thing, given that there was a knock at the door. Rascal immediately turned invisible and Jade and Applejack dropped their conversation. “Come in,” Applejack said.
A girl came in, wearing what looked to be a military uniform: a gray tunic with black piping and white pants. She had chevrons on her shoulders as well as a patch that read FORT COFFEE MILITARY ACADEMY. In one hand she held what looked like a combination cap, while in the other she held a dozen roses. “Excuse me,” the girl said. “Ah came t’ see how she’s doing.”
Though neither said it, both girls were astonished as they recognized the newcomer: Crystal Rose. “Can we help you?” Jade asked.
“Yes’m,” Crystal began. “Mah name is Crystal Rose, and Ah’m here t’ thank Ms. Apple fer what she done fer me. Ah heard she got hospitalized an’ Ah had t’ come – Ah owe her so much. Mr. Swindle threatened t’ get me kicked outta Fort Coffee an’ get mah ma fired if’n Ah didn’t sleep with him. Mah ma works ‘round th’ clock to keep me at Fort Coffee an’ take care o’ mah little sister – she’s got autism. But Summer told me that Ah had nothin’ t’ fear, ‘cept fear itself.”
“And do you?” Applejack asked.
“No, ma’am,” Crystal said in a respectful voice, though the ma’am made her feel suddenly ancient; she and Crystal had to be around the same age! “An’ Ah don’t because o’ her here. Is she gonna be okay?”
“She’s going to be in the hospital for a while, but she’ll be fine,” Jade said. “But she’ll need some help – she’s fragile right now.”
“Her? She’s th’ bravest soul Ah ever met!” Crystal replied.
“My boyfriend – her brother – and I head off to college in the fall. And Summer’s friend recently moved away. She doesn’t know many people, and she could use a friend.”
“So could Ah, Ah reckon,” Crystal said. “If’n Ah had one, maybe Ah’d’ve had someone t’ go to when Mr. Swindle started t’ blackmailin’ me.”
“Then I’ll leave that to you,” Jade said, standing up. “It won’t be easy – she can be stubborn and headstrong…but she’s worth it.” As Crystal nodded, Jade looked at Applejack. “Let’s go get some lunch, AJ. My treat.”
“You sure?” the blonde said as she got up. “What if Summer wakes up?”
“Then she’ll have a friend waiting for her.” Jade opened the door and nodded at the girl in the military outfit. “See you around, Crystal.”
“You can bet on it,” Crystal said with a smile.
“So, you use magic to make her come her and be Summer’s friend?” Applejack asked as they walked away from Summer’s room.
“Color me surprised at that,” Jade admitted. “I never planted any such thing – I didn’t even think of it. Apparently, Ms. Rose wants to make a friend on her own accord. And as a wise mare once told me, there’s nothing more powerful than friendship.”