Even with the light created by Twilight’s horn, it was not easy to walk with a good pace. It was impossible to see one inch in all directions, worse than in the darkest Ponyville’s back alley.
And much more harrowing. Of course, it was hard to see yet it was easy to hear the least of rustling, the least of animals’ sighs, the least cracking twig. Imagination made these sounds seem even more frightening. Though Twilight did not seem to be moved a lot by it, even if she was the one of the two who was in danger the most, Applejack did not feel confident and could not wait for it to be over.
None of them both had said a lot since they left The Militia’s Headquarter. Yet there were things to say, but the hardest was to get started, neither the one or the other had been the instigator of anything. The earth mare considered she had done nothing wrong and could not understand why she would be the one to start the conversation. As for the unicorn, she thought that if Applejack had agreed to accompany her, she did not want to hear her talking for all that.
While they were walking in the silence of words, careful to anything which was happening next to them, knowing well that danger could come from anywhere, Applejack said to herself that she would never have found her way through the Everfree Forest on her own.
However, a few years ago, she had been the one who had found back Big Macintosh to tell him that Princess Celestia had pardoned him. With apologies. The quarrel was stupid and Royalty should have never interfered into love affairs, no matter if that was about a Pony of the Cavalry in a powerful position. It had not erased the years of exile, conversely. And nothing would sort them out but at least, the insult had been cleansed.
“I’m sorry”, Twilight Sparkle suddenly said, curtailing her reflections.
Applejack turned around to look at the unicorn, and lowered the scarf she had put on her muzzle to protect from the cold.
“Sorry for what?”
“For Double Diamond. He was your coltfriend, wasn’t he? Although you apparently weren’t together still, I know it really hurt you to see him this way. I regret what I’ve done, I’m sincere. I wanted to… be accepted again so much that I would have done anything. Really, I’m sorry, Applejack.”
“C’mon, it’s alright. He’s dead now. Can’t see what it’s goin’ to change.”
She shrugged, unable to say anything more than the real truth. Applejack already had regretted enough of her actions of the latest months. For entire nights, she had tortured her mind about what she should have done or not. Then she had realized this would not change the order of things. What had been done could not be undone. All the regrets of the world could not erase the past.
The small path stripped of snow that Twilight had drawn as a landmark for the location of her shack appeared under their hooves. But they barely had made a step that Applejack stopped her associate, putting a hoof across her chest. The little wooden cartwheel harnessed around her neck stopped its rush behind her, with a high-pitched grinding noise.
“Your shack is illuminated”, she said in a whisper.
Twilight squinted her violet eyes, trying to have a glimpse at the small house from behind the foliage. How Applejack could have noticed this detail that she had not seen coming, she would never know, but there really was light at her window.
There they were, willing to kill her. Although she never really been afraid of anything until then, Twilight could feel her hooves shaking and the sweat rolling over her forehead. Obviously, Prince Blueblood had kept his promise.
She thought about Double Diamond, about the way he had thrown his body that was not really a body anymore at her hooves, ordering her to deliver this gift to the Militia’s Head, her old friend Rainbow Dash. The way she had felt exhilarated displaying their friends in that miserable state… She was ashamed and she was terrified. On the face of the white stallion, she saw her own features.
There was no time to think about an action plan. The sound of the cartwheel probably had called out to their assailants. They both were expecting a particularly impressive welcoming committee, something like a dozens of ponies… And they were surprised to meet face to face in front of two teenage colts and one single unicorn mare with a pastel blue coat and a azure mane.
The latter wore a long cloak embroidered with stars that Applejack regarded as ridicule, and she was standing in front of them putting on so much airs that even Rainbow Dash in her worse moments did not look as condescending as her.
“Tremble, you miserable little ponies… The Great and Powerful Trixie is in front of you!”
Facing this more than outlandish introduction, the earth mare’s reaction was not long in coming. She burst out laughing soundly.
“Dat’s the worst introduction Ah ever heard! D’ya think yar at de fair?! Great and powerful, don’t make me laugh. Why haven’t we heard about ya if yar as good as ya say?”
“Because you’re nothing but a bunch of morons understanding nothing to genius. But I didn’t come here for you, I’m here for her”, she claimed while pointing Twilight. “Your fatal hour has struck, you traitor!”
A spark of blue light sprung from Trixie’s horn, that she pointed in Twilight’s direction. Immediately, the latter replied the same way, and the two beams met at equal distance. It was up to the one who would last the longest but they both were determined not to let go.
Meanwhile, the two unicorn colts, one stocky with a blue coat and the other thin with a mustard yellow coat, stepped nearer to Applejack. They did not seem to really know what they had to do, nor to be frankly used to high-flying combats, if not to combats, period. Was it all the Unavowed Army had in store to confront them? A self-important mare decked out like at a street party and too kids without experience…? Insulting.
Applejack barely had the time to avoid Trixie, thrown on the ground by Twilight’s beam, far more powerful. Here was a business smoothly handled. And absurd from one end to the other.
Only when she glanced at Twilight, she noticed that she was out of breath. She had not practice fighting magic for a too long time… It was the kind of things that was not easily forgotten but that came back by dint of training. And although she had started back magic studies in a much more serious way, it seemed that it was not enough already.
In order to help her new Main Quartermaster, Applejack did not hesitate to set forth her hind hooves to charge at the other unicorn… It was to be forgetful that in fighting magic skills, she had, unlike Twilight, all the time of the world to train.
Applejack’s body was discharged against a tree with a strike of magical beam, and Trixie made sure it was her head which received the most violent shock. The earth mare might have struggled, within a few seconds, her body crushed against the trunk, the side of her head hitting the hardest part of it, and she immediately lost consciousness.
“Here. Now, there’s just the two of us, traitor!”
From the moment Trixie had learned that Twilight Sparkle would join the Unavowed Army, she had decided to hate her. She had been praised for her superior magic tricks, her education with one of the finest Fighting Master… But in reality, she had met with some frustrated unicorn, who was here only under coercion, and who was rustier than a horseshoe when it came to magic. She deserved her job in this Army much more than Twilight did, and when her treason had been revealed, Trixie immediately had boasted that she had told everypony she was nothing but a liar, then she had assured she was the mare of the situation when Prince Blueblood had asked who wanted to be her executioner.
She did believe in the cause. She believed the Unavowed Army could overthrow this government that claimed to be peaceful, but only had a poor Militia to contain crimes in Equestria. What the Fallen Heir Apparent proposed was to take over the reins of the people and the citizens. To stop with this idea of cities’ management autonomy. She thought the masses was too idiotic to understand politics and society. Ponies needed a stricter frame, they needed to be told what to say, what to do, what to think. Without it, they were nothing but a bunch of ridiculous puppets.
This little confrontation made of magic beams only had been a warm up. She had prepared much better…
As soon as Twilight started to charge at her with her horn again, she threw the festivities. This idea had come to her mind thanks to the Main Servant Rarity – that she despised as much as Twilight because she knew she was committed only for Blueblood’s love but which fighting skill she admired – at the same time than thanks to the late August Charmer, whom she always had a soft spot for.
It was not very advanced magic, of course… But it worked fine.
A first arrow like from out of nowhere came to brush Twilight’s cheek, who, distracted, immediately lost the stability of her trick. Then a second one drove into her hind hoof. She tried to get rid of it with magic, but another arrow directly buried itself inside her Cutie Mark, and she fell on her side, unable to have enough attention to use her horn correctly again.
She could see Trixie’s triumphant gaze when another arrow touched the tender flesh of her croup, right where Rainbow Dash had injected a sedative doubled with a magic neutralizer. Praying for the arrows not to be poisoned, she only half-listened to her, as she was boasting about her superiority that she thought no pony else could deny.
Twilight was able, not without trouble, to use her horn again against Trixie, but muffled a curse when she saw her avoiding her attack. It had to be a way… Yes, there was a way but she feared it would hurt her more than anything else. And if another arrow came to drive inside another limb while she was performing it, she was not sure she would be able to keep the necessary focalization.
However, she knew she had to try. Many times she could have avoided to be fooled if she had at least attempt to use this advantage. This time would be different. There was no way she could let this unbearable Trixie win.
Helping herself with her right foreleg, Twilight took off the eye-patched she kept on her face, on the same side. Immediately, she felt the scald like acid trimming her retina. It was unsupportable, and she had to bite the inside of her cheek in order to stop herself from blindfolding herself again, forgetting everything. The concentration it asked her was as hurtful as the rest and made her feel as if her brain was compressed by metal. Her other eye started to cry, her vision blurred.
Suddenly, Trixie’s image became clear-cut. Crystal clear. She moved her lips in slow motion. As if each seconds stretched out eternally, she saw her lowering her horn and knew another arrow was about to strike.
Unfortunately, being down, she could not avoid it. As soon as it touched her flank again, the shriek of pain going out of her mouth made her lose her focus, and her eyes started to burn again. She had to put her eye-patch back, it was an emergency. Or the risk would be for her to see nothing at all until the end of her life.
“You want to take that back, don’t you?”, Trixie said, shaking her eye-patch in the air with magic. “Well, you…”
A rope as thick as a snake had just wrapped around the blue unicorn’s body, her forelegs getting stuck along her ribs. Then, she was pulled down without being able to get out of the Lasso’s control, despite her magic.
Applejack made her drag to her, then took back the eye-patch with her teeth, which she threw on Twilight.
“Am sorry, sweetie, but it takes more than a lil’ tree trunk to knock me out!”
As soon as she had covered back her eye, Twilight did not wait to have recover before removing the arrows out of her flesh. Yes, it was painful, but Applejack had just saved her life, and she did not want to leave her on her own to confront Trixie. Although, obviously, with this Lasso which never missed its targets, it was odds on that she did not really need her.
She took a glimpse at Applejack who immediately understood her and released Trixie. The latter could hardly catch her breath. Not only the attack had been hurtful but with it, the Lasso had been so tight around her body and hooves that she had troubles with breathing correctly and could have felt blood had stopped circulating in part of her body.
Twilight did not let her time to recover. She lowered her horn, and with all the strength she had despite her wounds, got a shot out of it that knocked Trixie back to the ground. The latter was writhing in pain, disappointed and really angry at the same time, but too weak to let them know.
“Let’s hurry up gatherin’ yar things, and beat it as fast as we can. Ah don’t think there’s a use in finishin’ her off. What d’ya think ‘bout dat?”
“You’re right”, Twilight said, out of breath as well. “Would be better for her to think about the consequences of her acts. And what kind of pony she offers her loyalty to.”
Applejack came to take back her small cartwheel, then met Twilight. A thick cloud of white smoke suddenly appeared, and they heard Trixie’s voice saying they would both pay the highest price for this insult. Blinded by the aggressive fog, they coughed soundly while shaking their hooves. One could believe the blue unicorn had teleported herself… In reality, they both easily took notice of her running as fast as she could.
Applejack lowered her glance at Twilight, which own wounds kept on bleeding.
“Since Ah think she wouldn’t come back, I’m goin’ to heal you before we leave. We’ll go in a free clinic on our way back.”
“Thanks, Applejack.”
“It’s nuthin’, ya know. Yar one of us now. Ya showed it well tonight. And it’s the least Ah can do, isn’t it?”
Twilight nodded, and accepted without a debate the help given by her brand new friend.
This face-to-face had revealed something precious… She did not regret her choice. Today, she knew she had make the right decision when she had accepted Rainbow Dash’s offer. It was much more than a simple redemption she had gained here. It was the unfailing support from ponies who were loyal to one another, that the hardest ordeals gathered, binding together links that could not be broken, not even by fear or death.
It was what she has always wanted to have, without really confessing it. Friends on which she could rely, no matter the circumstances. If only her parents and her brother could have seen her at this very moment…
----------------------------------------------------
She hoped the Spider God would forgive her. But she needed it. It was not as if this had happened with a stallion she barely knew. And anyway, they had not got to the bottom of things.
These precepts were more than three centuries old. A very few pony kept on following them. As a Master of Rituals, Applejack had to maintain a certain self-discipline. Lies and cheats had been banned from her vocabulary. She followed many other things to the letter, never daring to call them into questions. All the same, this one was a bit old-fashioned.
In the room at the other side of the corridor, a few days earlier, Rainbow Dash had seemed not to care about this “decent date” before physical intimacy between two ponies. And the whole floor could have enjoyed it. It was a luck that little Apple Bloom had been in school at that very moment…
Seeing her lost in thoughts, Caramel slipped a hoof in her loosen mane, falling on the side and stroking his chest, and he smiled warmly at her.
Though she always had her share of success, for some ponies she was nothing but a mare a little uncouth, with this agrarian accent that smelled good like straw and fruit orchards, pretty yet not enough to deserve consideration. In his opinion, she was perfection incarnate. He liked her fragrance of hay and apples, he liked that blond mane always a bit tangled, her big green eyes and her adorable freckles.
They have always known each other or almost. When he was only a colt, they had been neighbors, back when the Royal Tavern and Inn was being renovated, and all that strange family used to live in the South Gate, in this small piece of land they called Sweet Apple Acres which still belonged to the Apple family – it could only work during Spring, and if Big Macintosh and Applejack had worked there when they were younger, today their affiliations to The Militia forced them to subcontracting.
Caramel, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were only very young foals, something like three years-old. The two fillies were playing on the path which led to the barn, under the surveillance of the big brother, who might have something like six. Rainbow Dash could not fly yet, and none of them had their Cutie Mark. They were fighting, if his memories did not default him. Well… In reality, they were rather rolling on the floor laughing. He never had seen fillies enjoying to get dirty as much as colts until this day.
It was how everything had begun. He often came to play with them. They were going to school together.
They could have grown apart. But it appeared that they each had similar desires, tastes and goals. They had been nicknamed “the inseparable”, and though Big Macintosh, older, had been a bit away, he had always come back to them and finally had joined their band.
A bit before teenage years, yet, something had started to change. What Caramel was feeling when Applejack was near him was not at all the same that he was feeling when Rainbow Dash was here. The first one made his heart beat faster, while the affection he had for the second one was the same than what he felt closed to his little sister. All the same, he had kept the secret as long as he could. Everyone had come to understand it – except Applejack. Despite this, Caramel had kept on denying.
A lot of things had happened since then. Rainbow Dash had gone to the Academy of the Cavalry and had come back less than one year later. Grievously injured during a simulation which had taken a turn for the worse, she had sworn this had never been an accident, and that she had been sabotaged. She could almost have not been able to fly again…
Then, there had been The Militia, which he had integrated before them, before even Big Macintosh. First he had been a Second Class Fighter, before climbing the ladder, and to be chosen by Time Stellar in order to be a part of his Council. Then again, there had been Time Stellar’s death and Pinkie Pie’s arrival…
Like an eternity, and yet...
“What are ya thinkin’ of?”, she asked him, putting her chin against his chest, her long blond mane spreading over the sheets.
“I’m thinking about you. About how much I love you.”
“Sigh, idiot. Yar sappier than an apple’s tree.”
Despite it, she pecked the tip of his muzzle, happy for all the kind compliments she could get from him. With Double Diamond, she had always felt as if a prisoner of the flowery words he often used to describe her. Maybe this had come from her embarrassment of not being able to answer his passion by an equal passion. It was different with Caramel. She knew he knew her well enough for her not to do anything and understand all the same what she was feeling.
When finally, they would decide to take the plunge for good, she knew it would be perfect. Clumsy, undoubtedly, and a little strange as well, but perfect in its imperfection. Meanwhile… She could still confess to Rainbow Dash about what she was expecting from it. Her best friend would listen to her without a word, never really admitting what it was like between Soarin and her – though Applejack knew… as well as a good part of the family.
“It must be time to sleep. Don’t you think so?”
“True dis would be good. If Dash sees us tired, she’s goin’ to grumble. But first…”
Caramel watched his marefriend getting up, stretching out her hooves. She did not even realize how charming she was and how adorable she could be when she was doing these simple things, even with her awful bandage around her head.
“I’m goin’ to take us drinks. Ah don’t know how ya feel but I’m damn thirsty.”
“Alright. I’ll wait for you.”
Applejack left her room and trotted along the corridor. She had taken no oil lamps with her, but she did not think it would be helpful. The Inn’s walls had no secret for her. Even in the complete dark, she was able to find her way and not to get lost in the meanders of steps, floors and corridors.
In front of Rainbow Dash’ bedroom door, she thought she could hear her chuckling, and she smiled for herself. It was pleasant to know she had found someone who made her happy again. If they were not going through a period that strange, this morning would have been one perfect morning.
Yet Applejack could sense something was going to happen. The relative quietness of those last two months was nothing but a break before the cyclone would come and take the reins of the last storm, in order to pull up what was left.
It was just a matter of days. Of hours, even, maybe.
She was close to the kitchen when a weird noise caught her attention. Like something that was being put on a table or against a wall. Immediately after, a short giggle, teasing and childish, with a high-pitched note. Pinkie Pie? She had to be home for hours…
Applejack would have passed it by without paying more attention than that, if there had not been another sound right after, the same than before yet a little louder. And Pinkie Pie’s voice, suddenly a bit more oppressed.
“No, please. Not this time.”
Curiosity killed the cat, and Applejack knew it… But the intonation in the mare’s voice had something unusual. Something that made her feel the need to rescue her. She turned back, and she slipped her head by the corner of the wall to have a glimpse of what was happening.
Her eyes went wide under the shock. Big Macintosh was holding Pinkie Pie close, and she could not escape, pinned against the wall.
Her brother. Her own brother, shyness itself, with his eyes always looking a bit tired, and this benevolence one could smell on him on top of the lungs. Only on the battlefield was he ruthless. It was not as if he lacked mares ready to do anything in order to spend a few hours in company of the mysterious member of The Militia who was called Silent Mac – deservedly.
She wanted to take action… What held her back for a short while was Pinkie Pie. Applejack did not dare to embarrass her. The pink mare tried to rebuff Big Macintosh, but did not succeed.
“Please, I don’t agree. Please…”
The echo in her voice was more and more anxious. She was able to do many crazy, unexplainable things… Never falling short or resources. When something scared her, either she laughed to make her anguish leave, either she let what they all called her “survival instinct”, leftover of a dark part of her past, take over her.
It had nothing in common with the Black Blood, which was a hereditary and incurable disease. It was not a gift, like the Acuteness gift or the Sacred Eye. When she was attacked or threatened, beware the one who made the mistake of provoking her. This devastating rage disappeared quickly, and she would become funny and cheerful again as always. Where the Black Blood bearers often tortured themselves for their misdemeanors, she regarded it as something natural and too bad for her victims.
She had to take action. Applejack took a step forward, hitting her hooves in an intent manner against the floor. Immediately, Big Macintosh let go Pinkie Pie, who ran as fast as her hooves could carry her without further ado, blushing of shame.
“Can I know what ya were doin’ to dis poor Pinkie?”
The huge stallion did not dare to look into her eyes.
His younger sister was such an exemplary of integrity and virtue. He wished he could have been the one who would guide her, the one which she would follow the example of, and the contrary had happened, only because despite the heart qualities he held, he was unable to resist a pretty mare.
When Applejack had discovered his little misdemeanors with Rainbow Dash, it had been hard to sweeten the pill, but she finally had accepted it, after she had talked with each of them both and had said what she had to say. As long as they were honest and, most importantly, that the desire was shared, she had found nothing more to add.
It seemed clear that what she had just witnessed did not match the category wanted. Big Macintosh was terribly ashamed now that he realized what were the consequences of his actions.
At the time, he only had thought about his own interests. Because the first time, they had both felt the need to do it, to fulfill a wound of the heart. Because all the previous times, she had not resist although she had not really felt desire on her side. She probably had not wanted to offend him.
This time, she had said no, she even had explained why. Her deceased coltfriend's brother would be there soon and she did not want him to guess what she had done because of the scent of another stallion. What was he thinking?
“Nothing at all. It’s not what you think.”
“Not what Ah think? Are ya fuckin’ kiddin’ me?”
“Nope.”
He had not wanted to lie, not to his own sister, this sister that everypony praised to the skies, particularly Melrose. Big Macintosh could see that although their mother loved them both the same, she was especially proud of her daughter. The valiant, the brave Applejack. One of the youngest Master of Rituals of all Equestria. Second-in-Command of The Militia’s Head, and the Head’s right-hoof pony.
He wanted not to lie but truth was too ugly. She would not stand it. Even if she had seen it by herself, even if it was obvious. To lie. To the honesty incarnate. It was not that he did not want to do better. It was that he simply could not.
“Ma big brother. Ma own big brother who’s spinnin’ a yard… If yar lyin’ to me, at least look into my eyes while ya do.”
“Nope.”
“Dis Ah can’t believe. Not only do Ah see ya doin’ it to a friend, like a lil sista, even if she’s olda than me. But yar lyin’ to me wit it. I’m speechless.”
Big Macintosh heard the sobs in her strangled voice, as if she was trying to hold them back and that, despite her will, they were able to win. Finally, he gazed at her, and only saw a blurred vision of her blond mane and her orange coat. He opened his mouth…
“Don’t speak. ‘Tis too late. I’m disappointed, Big Mac. Ya don’t know how disappointed Ah am.”
Applejack turned around and ran off to her bedroom, without a look behind. The tears she had tried to swallow back were now scalding her eyes and, on her way, she bumped into Firefly, but did not even take a minute to explain what was happening and dashed forward.
Caramel had drowsed and when he saw Applejack show up in a bedroom with no drinks, crying her eyes out, at the moment he thought someone else was dead. She rushed toward her bed, and buried her muzzle against his chest. Although he could not understand what had occurred, he held her tight, and stroke her mane waiting for the tears to run dry, whispering comforting words.
Big Macintosh, on the other hand, was unable to move for a few minutes. Disappointed. Worse than angry. Disappointed. He never thought he would disappoint her one day. Even when he had been banished from Ponyville, forced to live in the Everfree Forest, even when she had surprised him getting out of Rainbow Dash’s bedroom, disheveled and happy, she had never said this word against him. This dreadful word.
Even after he would apologize to Pinkie Pie, what he promised himself he would do tonight, it was going to take time before he would redeem himself and most importantly, before he would look at his own reflection in a mirror. A whole load of time, for sure.
Disappointment. The most unbearable feeling ever. Because disappointment led to animosity.