By nightfall Sweetie Belle had removed the dark magic taint from the main farmhouse, central barn and even a few apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres. Although at the moment she was passed out on the bed in Apple Bloom’s old room.
The house was fairly packed with ponies, even considering how many had agreed to stay in the barn for now. As a result Scootaloo hovered over head as she made her way to the stairs to join her friends up stairs.
Once upstairs she found Apple Bloom fitting small a pink bow onto a cowboy hat. Basically having borrowed a spare of each from the old hats and bows closet she’d cut the pink ribbon down to size and wrapped it around the hat, just above brim. In a way it reminded Scootaloo of a sheriff hat, only with a bow instead of a badge.
“Look’s good on you. More fitting for a mare.”
Bloom nodded, and looked out the window, partly to see her reflection in the glass, partly see the actual apple orchard beyond it. “Good,” she said. “That’s what Ah was going for. The old bow just didn’t feel right any more.”
Landing beside her friend, Scootaloo flicked her tail toward the room Sweetie was in and said, “Sweetie Belle’s already told me her story. You ready to tell me what happened to you all these years?”
The yellow mare looked to her pegasus friend only to find that she was also just staring out the window. No demanding eyes, no puppy eyes, nothing to hint that she even cared if she got an answer any year soon. And that was all the pressure Bloom needed, eternal patience that might not ever give her the excuse to answer again.
First she sighed, then she said, “Ah suppose it might do me some good to vent a little.
“Ah guess Ah should start at the beginning huh? Well after Spitfire grabbed ya off the balcony of the clubhouse and started shouting for everypony to get the hell out of dodge, Sweetie ran home to warn her folks, but Ah suppose ya already know that part. Anyhow, Ah ran back to the house, and Big Mac didn’t waist any time tossing me and Granny in to the nearest cart he could find and hauling us out of town.
“Don’t know if he ever stopped to rest or not, but next thing Ah know he’d brought us all the way to Appleloosa. Probably the best thing to happen to me. As Ah’m guessing you already know, after the demons finished killing everypony who didn’t flee Ponyville they headed north and sacked Canterlot then on to the Crystal Empire. Turn’s out a small frontier town of no significance ain’t significant enough to get noticed.
“Technically the war was over by the time we got our first demon wandering by. Probably because the demon army had scattered and demons were wandering about alone, looking for places to hide from the Wonderbolts and such.
“Big Mac helped the sheriff and such fight the demon. They won. Only problem was that between the mail having stopped in the first week of the war and being a frontier town of no significance also meant nopony had bothered to send word that demons explode when ya kill em. Big Mac was still standing over the corpse when it blew up.”
Bloom paused to bow her head for a moment.
“Granny died a few weeks later. The doc said she just got too old, but personally Ah think it was the heartache of watching Mac die in those black flames. After that Ah just stayed on with cousin Braburn, farming the years away.
“Until one day, about three years ago, I got up and noticed a mare looking back at me in the mirror. That was when Ah decided to come back to Ponyville, see if I could put back the pieces and such. Bought some of that enchanted holy water to cleanse taint with and headed out. Ah knew Ah didn’t have enough to clean up the town, but it was enough to use on myself whenever Ah felt the taint messing with my mind. And that’s how Ah mapped out what parts of Ponyville were safe and what parts were still tainted.
“Ah wound up setting up camp in the old city park, Apparently the demon’s didn’t think to spread their poison magic in an open field. Anyway it was enough to set up a nice little garden. Started selling food to travelers and traders who came by, warning them what parts of the ruins to avoid and what paths were safe. Word spread that a member of the Apple Family had returned and was looking for help putting Ponyville back together.
“Some of the old town folk came back, like Rumble and Dinky. Heck, I even managed to talk a unicorn who’d learned how to cleanse the taint into joining.” Apple Bloom gave a cynical laugh, then continued. “That lasted all of a day before the slavers showed up.”
Pausing again, the earth pony let her gaze grow unfocused before she finally said, “Can’t say there’s anything Ah want think about between then and when you showed up.”
Scootaloo let silence fill the hall for a second after her friend had finished, but then she asked, “You said they had another unicorn who could cleanse taint? What happened to them?”
Bloom just looked at her friend as one might look at any naive friend. “Really a slave who can cleanse taint, and ya have to ask? They sold her inside of a weak. Made a fortune from sound of it.”
“Right. Sorry, business was never my strong suit. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that when everypony wants the taint cleansed somepony would be willing to buy that ability by any means. I was just hoping that Sweetie Belle might have some help.”
“Ah know. After everything Ah’ve seen today, Ah figured you were only thinking of others when you asked.”
With that Bloom put a hoof across her pegasus friend’s back and the two just sat, watching the sun set.
Once it started getting dark, Scootaloo finally got up. On instinct she tried to flip the nearest light switch and was caught off guard when nothing happened. She blinked at for a moment before voicing her confusion. “The power’s out?”
“Well duh!” Apple Bloom answered. “Ah bet no pony has been in the old dam in years! Let a lone some pony who was there to fix the equipment.”
“But the lights were on at the hospital.”
Apple Bloom shrugged, “Yeah, Ah guess we should go get the backup magic-powered generator. But… Well… Ah really don’t want to ask Dinky to keep fueling like the slavers had her doing.”
“I see. Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow.”