The door handle creaked, causing Applejack to instantly look up from her spot against the wall and see it start to swing open.
She quickly pulled up to a stance. “Hey there! Wait just ah minute! How long y’all plan on-”
She couldn’t get anything else out. The door had barely opened before a pair of trays bearing simple rations and water were shoved in through the doorway, so fast that half of the water was shaken out of one of the cups, before it nearly slammed shut again.
Applejack made a fist and growled at the now-closed door. She advanced on it a moment, looking like she meant to smash her fist against it, before she relented and spun around. “How’d ya’ like that? We go an’ save their necks last night and this is the thanks we get? Treatin’ us like we’re criminals!”
Twilight Sparkle, seated on the floor, knees drawn up to her chest and looking rather dismayed simply sighed. “I told you that more people knowing about this only causes more trouble…”
Applejack frowned and pounded her fist against a support. They were in one of the smaller buildings now. It had been used for storage but was mostly emptied except for a few smaller boxes of minor supplies, but it only had one door and high windows with bars to prevent anyone from stealing from it. Following what had happened with the wall, the lt. colonel had been at a loss about what to make of the two of them for some time, as had everyone else. Even some members of the Apple family were hesitant; not sure whether to be appreciative or fearful. At last, the lt. colonel asked if they could come to this building and wait until they had a chance to talk this over. Applejack had been upset at that, especially the insinuation that they had somehow done something wrong by saving the fort, but reluctantly complied. Now it was noon of the next day and getting hot, yet still no word.
She pulled her fist back and looked at the back of it. Following the fight, her new clothes, weapon, and, most importantly, power had disappeared fairly quickly. One new thing remained, however. She now had an emblem on one of the points of her hexagon just like Twilight. Looking closer at it, she could make out it was a bit more detailed and intricate than a spot, but right now she was just sick of new things popping up on her hand without her say-so on top of everything else. She winced a little as she started to walk back in the room. Her abilities had simply faded of their own accord shortly after the fight ended, but what really got her now was the fact that all of her bruises and soreness from before she gained that power were now back with a vengeance. Even sitting around was painful.
She finally looked up again to Twilight. Her dog Spike had been allowed to be in the room with them, as the people seemed as uneasy about him as the two of them, and he now lay at Twilight’s side along with her. “How much longer ya’ s’pose they plan on keepin’ us in here? I reckon after last night, I could just punch my way right through these walls if need be…” She grimaced after saying that, looking at her fist. “If I could figure out how that damn fool thing worked… Don’t s’pose you could tell me how?”
Twilight put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “Right now, we don’t know what they think of us. But if we try to just bust out of here by smashing through a building, we’ll definitely get on their bad sides.”
“They ain’t really thinkin’ we’re some kinda monsters ‘r somethin’, are they? I mean…sure, that was pretty crazy last night, but we defended the fort!”
Twilight looked to one side. “Nobody thinks too highly of anything unusual ever since the Lunar Fall… They may think it’s all got something to do with the Nighttouched, the Light Eaters, or anything else. Especially Appleloosans.”
Applejack frowned. “Now ya’ take that…” However, in the middle of speaking up, and even raising her fist, she cut herself off and frowned. She sadly lowered her hand soon after; clearly knowing it was the truth. She put her hands back on her hips and stood there silently. Twilight continued to look at the floor without moving.
Applejack finally looked back up. “Reckon at some point they’re gonna come in here and ask us ‘bout what happened.”
Twilight sighed again. “You’re probably right.”
“So…what exactly did happen?”
Twilight looked up at her, spying Applejack staring back with narrowed eyes.
“An’ please…none of that pig swallor ‘bout needin’ ta’ keep it a secret. Least not to me. I figure at this point I’m in it ‘bout as deep as I’m gonna get, and seein’ as I lent you a hand last night I think I deserve the full truth.” She crossed her arms. “Figure maybe if I know everything I won’t go blabbin’ nothing you don’t want me ta’ say ta’ the lt. colonel.”
Twilight hesitated, thinking that over. Finally, she slumped and exhaled, seeming finally resigned. She patted her side. “Sit down.”
Applejack crooked a brow.
“You want to know the whole truth or at least everything I know about it? Start by sitting next to me.”
The cowgirl stood still a second longer, but finally uncrossed her arms and walked over to her. A moment later, she was plopping down next to her on the floor.
“Hold your hand out. The one with the Promethian Sigil.”
Applejack was confused a moment before she remembered that was what Twilight had called it the other day. She did as she was told. Twilight, in turn, began to uncover her own hand. “Do you remember what I told you about this sigil the other day?”
Her confusion grew a bit more; her lips twisting. “Uh…um…somethin’ ‘bout spirits, souls, and somesuch?”
She groaned a little. “That it’s a symbol that your body can house spirits and souls that aren’t its own and use them. What do you remember about last night when you transformed?”
“Easy. I got bigger, stronger, all them fancy duds, and had a big hammer I could swing ‘round like it was nothin’.”
Another groan. “Do you remember something before all that?”
Applejack thought a moment. “Wait…yeah, I do. I remember…” She trailed off, pausing as the full memory came back. “I…I remember Pa. Ya’ told me ta’ call his name and say them words and…” Her pupils shrank. “That’s right…I thought I heard him call back ta’ me…”
“You didn’t think anything. You did hear him.”
She looked alarmed. “Wait…what? But…that ain’t possible. He’s been dead fer years!”
“I saw you holding that hammer the other day. You almost didn’t put it down after we talked. When you were holding onto it, you felt like he was nearby, didn’t you? Like he was somehow right there with you?”
Applejack’s jaw loosened. “How’d…how’d you…?”
“That’s the real power of a Promethian Sigil,” Twilight cut off. “That hammer of yours was your father’s, wasn’t it?”
“Well, yeah but-”
“It was his favorite tool, wasn’t it?”
“Y…Yeah…”
“And that’s why you keep it now, isn’t it? Because it reminds you of him?”
As uneasy as the conversation made her, Applejack nodded. “Yeah.”
“What happened when your father died is he imparted a piece of his spirit onto it. People do that sometimes with things that they had a strong attachment to in life. Usually it impacts places, but sometimes it impacts common objects. Once your Promethian Sigil appeared on your hand, it gave you the ability to resonate with those pieces of spirits. Last night, I saw your hammer start to glow. Your father’s spirit was reaching out to you. After that, all I had to do was tell you the words for the Binding Ceremony.”
She reached over and pointed to the new spot on one of the points of her hexagon.
“That symbol right there? That’s your father’s. His spirit is now bound to you.”
Applejack’s jaw hung lower. She held up her hand, staring at it and especially the point. Yet now, she grew even more surprised. Impossible as it was, even though she couldn’t read the symbol at all, something funny was happening to her. Just looking at the symbol and the strange emblems on it…somehow seemed to fit her father. Like it suited him in some way.
She blinked and turned back to Twilight. “But…what’s that mean?”
Twilight leaned back and took a deep breath. “The true power of a Promethian Sigil is that it allows its bearer to unite their own soul with that of others. When that happens, not only does the essence of the spirit flow into them along with their power and knowledge, it acts as a multiplier. Both the bearer and the spirit become stronger than they ever were on their own when it’s used properly. The bearer also takes on their own Role.”
“Er…roll? As in…rollin’ a log or rollin’ out a barrel? Or a dinner roll?”
Twilight grimaced a little. “No…Role. Here…look at this.”
She held out her own hand next to hers, so that the symbols were adjacent. “What do you see?”
Applejack looked them over and shrugged. “A pair of six-sided things with a point standin’ out.”
“Really? Look closer.”
She leaned in a bit more and looked them over. After a moment, she began to make out other details. The points weren’t exactly the same, the symbols weren’t turned the same way, and some edges were emphasized more over the others. After looking for a bit longer, she began to see how they might have been identical at a glance but were really quite different when one studied the details.
“They…ain’t quite the same,” she finally admitted.
She nodded. “That’s why we both looked different when we united with the respective spirits. They had something to do with it, but so did we.”
Applejack scratched the back of her neck. “But I didn’t do no fancy magic like you did. I just felt bigger and stronger.”
“That’s because your sigil is that of the Warrior,” Twilight explained. “Mine is that of the Caster. That’s why my teacher tried to teach me how to do spells even before I got my Anima Viri.”
“Uh…beg yer pardon?”
“It’s…another word for one of the souls you can use. That’s the easiest way to think of it. Anyway, she tried to teach me so that I’d be able to use my power more easily and safely when I got mine.”
The farmer leaned back against the wall when Twilight finally finished. She looked to the ceiling and thought. For several minutes, she simply sat there thinking about everything she heard.
“Y’know,” she spoke at last, “until now I was thinkin’ this here sigil was somethin’ spooky or nasty. But hearin’ all this and after last night?”
To Twilight’s surprise, she suddenly sat up and turned to her with a grin.
“Well, yee-haw! Ain’t this sure somethin’!”
The other woman recoiled in surprise sharp enough for Spike to look up. “Wha…huh?”
She gave another start as Applejack slapped her on the shoulder. “I mean, think about it Twilight! Last night, the two of us took on a whole hoard of Nighttouched by ourselves! Sure, I was plum tuckered out afterward and I kinda feel like gum under a shoe, but that was my first time! I reckon if I get better at it and we work together, why…I bet we can rid all of Appleloosa of them Nighttouched fer good!”
Twilight was rather alarmed at the suggestion, yet after staring at Applejack only a moment her face began to sink.
“Why, I’ll bet we can even take back the land they took!” She looked skyward and slapped her fist in her hand. “We can finally drive ‘em out! Well…or at least keep ‘em from ever comin’ back. The two of us ‘r as good as a whole gang of soldiers. This here sigil thing might be jus’ what we need! Heh, the funny thing is ‘til now I kept thinkin’ this might be some sort o’ curse, but after last night? Well then-”
“It won’t work.”
Applejack’s grin faded as she looked back to Twilight, seeing her head bowed low and rueful.
“Huh?” she echoed back, rather confused at her dismal response. “Well, why the hell not? I mean, look at what we did last night! That was nothin’ I’ve ever seen before!”
Twilight grimaced. “You really don’t think we can take on every last Nighttouched in Equestria, do you?”
She paused. “Well…I, uh…well, I’m sure it won’t be easy and it won’t be done in one night, but-”
“You saw those parasprites last night and what they did. Those are weakest of the fully transformed creatures in Equestria. There’s things a lot bigger and deadlier than them in there.”
Some of Applejack’s enthusiasm died. “Er…really?”
“And you’re not forgetting the Light Eaters, are you? So long as no one kills them, no one can take any territory back from Equestria. You know things like swords, bullets, cannons, and even hammers don’t hurt them, right?”
Now Applejack began to look uneasy as well, but then looked hopeful again. “Say, you don’t suppose that magic of yours…”
Twilight cut her off with a sigh. “I can kill little ones with it so long as I only have to fight one at a time…but there’s ones that are stronger or even gigantic. We have no idea how many of them there even are. Even assuming that you can find a way to hurt them too, only two of us against dozens? Or hundreds?”
Applejack winced, but snapped her fingers a moment later. “Wait a sec…Braeburn! And not just him! You said more people would turn up with these things! Maybe it’s a sign! Maybe-”
Twilight grit her teeth, beginning to look exasperated. “I already told you!” she nearly shouted, cutting the farmer off again and starting to sound angry. “Most of the people who develop the Promethean Sigil go crazy! And when they do, you either have to kill them or seal them! I sealed Braeburn, so that means he can’t possibly get an Anima Viri of his own or use his sigil in any way! So either way, whether they end up dead or sealed, other people can’t help! And Anima Viris don’t just pop out of the blue! There’s only a handful of them in the world and only a fistful of ways you can get one to join with you! I was shocked to see you resonate with one last night because that’s the first one I’ve seen since I got mine!”
Applejack was stunned into silence now, not only at the response but more so Twilight’s sudden surge of emotion. She glared back at the farmer a moment before moaning and turning back. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Her voice grew quieter but also sadder.
“Do you think I haven’t tried thinking of a way to use my power to actually put a stop to all of this? I can’t even put a stop to it when they surge across the borders. It’s just no good. We’d need an entire army of us to be able to stop this, and the one person in the world who was trying to make one got wiped out the same night that the Lunar Fall happened. Now there’s no hope.”
The last part confused Applejack. “What’dya mean…”
She trailed off, though, before she could finish the question, and looked to the wall with a frown.
“What the hay…?”
Twilight, hearing the change in her voice, snapped out of her momentary funk. “What’s wrong?”
“Jus’ listen.”
Twilight was puzzled herself a moment before leaning her head closer to the wall. In truth, the walls weren’t the best at being soundproof and there had been a good deal of noise that day. The army was scrambling to resupply and the sounds of rubble moving and hammers pounding rang everywhere as they did their best to repair the gaping damage in the walls of Fort Chestnut. Yet now that they stopped and listened, they found out there was much more. The sounds of voices and moving about were drowning out the sounds of construction. A whole multitude seemed to be muttering.
The two continued to silently listen for several minutes, and they only heard the noises get closer and louder until they became a rather resounding din. Some of the sounds got so near they began to hear them directly through the walls, indicating whoever was saying them was standing right up against the wall of the structure. It started to move around them soon after, and judging by how many were there it became clear that it wasn’t just the resident population of the fort.
Applejack nearly questioned what this meant, when she heard the door turn again. This time, both women and Spike turned to it. It opened soon after, nearly knocking over the food that had been set inside, and swung wide enough to show a pair of Appleloosan soldiers.
Both still seemed a bit nervous to spot the two of them, but after a moment they beckoned on.
“The lt. colonel would like to talk to you two.”
If the two women had been meant to be escorted under armed guard, that fell through rather readily. Even a basic escort soon proved impossible. The two had scarcely stepped out of the building with the dog when they saw that Fort Chestnut was now fully overcrowded. More civilians than ever had poured into it, these ones looking even more hurried, dirty, and confused than the first batch. Most of them looked like they only had time to bring food and weapons, if even that, for some of the children were still in their nightclothes. They were crowded everywhere with more arriving all the time. It was all the current soldiers could do to watch over them while struggling to continue to repair the walls of the fort, which weren’t even fully barricaded yet.
Fortunately, Applejack knew the way to the officer’s barracks from yesterday, because they soon got separated from the soldiers and nearly separated from each other. She desperately scanned the crowd looking for anyone from the Apple family, but there were so many different people of so many different kinds it was impossible to make out anyone. There was one group that looked like a pair of families from the hills that seemed to be ready to kill each other just for being forced to occupy the same space. And somehow, over all of the noise and the din, there was what looked like a photographer, her assistants, and an entire wagon load worth of equipment compressed into a ten-foot-by-ten-foot square with her yelling out audibly over everyone as she struggled to get pictures of the entire event. (It didn’t work too well, considering how thick her accent was. Applejack couldn’t place the city-state.)
At one point, she yelled out something to what Applejack thought was her assistants, but with her volume it easily could have been anyone in the overcrowded fort. She turned to Twilight. “Uh…did she say somethin’ ‘bout ‘magic’ just now?”
“I think it was ‘magics’…but at any rate I don’t think she meant the stuff I do,” she answered shrugging.
“Applejack!”
The farmer looked up on hearing a far more familiar, and quieter, voice shouting through the crowd. She was just in time to see Braeburn, a hand clamped on his hat to keep from losing it, pushing forward toward her.
“There y’are!” he yelled as soon as he got up to her. “The rest of the kinfolk have been wonderin’ what happened ta’ ya’ all day! Uh…” He leaned in closer. “Ya’ do remember what happened last night, right? ‘Cause…”
She sighed. “Easy, Braeburn. I had my head the whole time.”
“Phew…saves a lot of explainin’. A few of the folk ‘r a bit nervous, but...ta’ be perfectly honest, cousin?” He suddenly burst into a grin. “That was amazin’! Whoo, I always knew ya’ could send any Nighttouched back packin’, but last night was somethin’ else! How did ya’ manage-”
“Uh, Braeburn,” she cut off, holding a hand in his face, “I’d really like ta’ catch up on that right now, but the reason they let us outta that there shack was ta’ see the lt. colonel, and we’re kinda in a hurry.”
He blinked twice before growing sheepish. “Oh…oh yeah, sorry ‘bout that. But…just hurry back real quick, ok? The family’s all wonderin’ how yer doin’. Or how ya’ pulled that off last night. Um…”
His eyes glanced behind Applejack for a moment, but she only needed to turn her head a bit before she realized he was looking at Twilight. He leaned in closer. “She, uh…she didn’t happen ta’ have anythin’ to do with it or nothin’, did she? Cast another one of them spells ‘r somethin’…?”
Even over the din, Applejack could hear the unease in Braeburn’s voice. She knew why now, but she didn’t answer immediately. She glanced back at Twilight, and saw her looking right back at her. Maybe she had heard Braeburn and maybe she hadn’t, but she thought about how she herself hadn’t trusted her until too long ago. And how she might still not have trusted her if she had been the only one who jumped in last night, in spite of what she did…
After a moment, Applejack’s face tightened, almost looking a little upset, as she looked back at Braeburn.
“Twilight’s totally on the level, Braeburn, and she helped save the fort jus’ as much as me last night.” Her voice didn’t have the slightest waver or give in it.
It made both Twilight and Braeburn alike look up in a bit of surprise.
“Now I’ll be along to see the rest of the family soon, but until then, you run on back and you tell them the same. Ya’ hear?”
Braeburn was put on the spot a moment, but nodded. “I…I hear, coz. Sure thing!”
He turned and began to push his way back into the crowd. Twilight, on her part, came up to Applejack’s side now that she was stopped. She stared at her a moment, before she finally ventured a weak smile. “Um…thank you.”
It took Applejack a moment, but she half-smiled back. “Well, I reckon I owe you my life after last night, and jus’ ‘cause this trip’s been one burr in the saddle after another don’t mean you haven’t been tryin’ ta’ help us through it. Sorry I didn’t act that way sooner.”
Twilight smiled a bit more at the encouragement, and soon the two were off again.
It wasn’t too much longer before they were able to push themselves to the officer’s barracks, although due to the thick crowds they had somehow lost Spike. Twilight seemed alright with it for now, and so was Applejack as they would be headed indoors soon. By the time they arrived, the soldiers were already there, but they simply framed the door and told the two to walk right in. As they reached the door and pushed inside, it was a surprising relief to them both to be back inside an enclosed shack. It beat being pressed on and having to almost shout to talk to each other. However, the inner room was nothing more than a few longer tables with chairs at them; obviously for multi-purpose with the officers. Two more soldiers were at the back at another door, and looked to both of them expectantly. As they both approached, they tensed a little, but in the end pulled open the door for them.
Inside was probably the only private room in the fort—the inner chamber or office for the lt. colonel or whoever was the CO at the time. A map and some markers were out on his desk, and the room had been cleared to make space for others to come in. It seemed there had been a lot of activity in it not too long ago, which only figured given last night. However, Burnt Oak was the only one in there now. He looked up as soon as they arrived.
“Come in. Have a seat.”
The response was neither too friendly nor hostile, but that in and of itself was an improvement over the other day, and so both stepped inside. Applejack turned back on seeing the soldiers shut the door behind them, but looked back more easily soon after. Twilight herself went for a chair, but the farmer stayed standing as she moved up to her, squaring her gaze on the older man.
He moved around the front of his desk and leaned back against it. He focused his eyes fully on Applejack, which the farmer wasn’t sure was a sign of hostility or not. He was quiet a moment before he finally spoke even more quietly.
“You’re Bright Mac’s kid, aren’t you?”
This caught her by surprise. “Wha-what?”
“I thought I noticed something about you yesterday. Didn’t see it clearly until that little lightshow you put on last night. You got to be his now that I’m taking a good look at you. He only ever wore that one hat.”
Realizing what this meant took her further aback. “You…you knew pa?”
He nodded. “Sure did. Lived only three miles down the road from him growing up. Pardon the pun, but it looks like the apple don’t fall far from the tree. You look just like him and Pear Butter smashed together.”
Applejack was astonished; struck mute for a moment on seeing one of her father’s friends right there in front of her. “Well…how come I ain’t never seen ya’ ‘round the house?”
“My family was in the firewood trade, but there weren’t places to cut it around where you lived once I got older. Besides, I wanted to see if I could find a different future for myself outside of just chopping logs. I ended up enlisting. I got out eventually but…” His mouth swished wistfully. “Between the Lunar Fall, everyone starting to use coal and boilers for heat, and it not being safe anymore to stick around forests chopping wood, I had to go back in. I’ve moved up since then, as you might have guessed.”
He frowned.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t in town for the funeral proper. I was stationed at another fort just like this one. I came by a month later to pay my respects, but I only managed to talk to a few of the older folks. Never got a chance to say hi to you, Big Mac, or Apple Bloom, and…”
Applejack’s own look dimmed. “Yeah…I know. We were too busy really to think about guests when the whole family started to move to the farm and we still had a harvest that had to get in…” She frowned as well. “Looks like everyone’s gotta be accommodatin’ for that damn Lunar Fall nowadays…”
Burnt Oak looked at the ground a moment before glancing back up. “Well…nothing for it now. At least we finally got a chance to meet up. Though I’m kind of wondering what you’re doing out here to begin with. And I’m sure you know it goes without saying that everyone is wondering what the hell that was we saw last night.”
Applejack paused. She glanced back to Twilight for a moment. The woman was wincing uncomfortably, saying nothing as she wasn’t the one being addressed, but giving the farmer an anxious look. Applejack, in turn, stared for a short while, looking likewise hesitant, before she finally turned back.
She exhaled. “I’m sorry…but for now, I can’t tell ya’. The important thing is we can do that trick and that we did when we needed to, and that’s all I can say.”
Burnt Oak looked a bit surprised at that remark, but Twilight even more so on seeing that Applejack followed her advice.
“As for why we’re here, well…” she grew more uneasy. “It’s the Homestead Act. They’re gonna push us off our farm. Say it’s too dangerous to keep protectin’. Figured if a bunch of us enlisted, we could not only keep it but keep it safe to boot.”
The lt. colonel eyed her a moment. It seemed he had picked up the order Applejack answered those questions and her attempts to cover her evasion of the first. “Well,” he finally spoke up, “I’d prefer a little more to go on than that, but seeing as you went and saved the fort I can’t really complain so I’ll let it slide for the moment. I don’t suppose you two could do that again if need be?”
The last question was unexpected by both women. They looked to each other a moment, then back. “Um, sorry, but…did you just ask if we could do that again?” Twilight asked. “As in…you’d like us to do it again?”
“If you can, I’d be mighty appreciative, and I’ve got a feeling the rest of my company would too even if they ain’t showing it at the moment. Fact is after seeing what you two did last night I can’t afford to ask too many questions or be too cautious. We need all the help we can get.”
The sound of that didn’t settle well with either woman. “What’dya mean?”
“Your farm isn’t the only place in danger of getting overrun by Nighttouched. Not anymore. You’ve gotten a good look outside, haven’t you?”
“Sure did. I can still hear that one photographer from in here…”
Burnt Oak straightened up from the desk uneasily. “That attack we went through last night wasn’t all of it. Thanks to you two, we managed to hold down the fort. We barely started trying to repair the walls this morning before we got a message courier on horseback. At least three other towns got hit last night along with another outpost. All of them are gone.”
Applejack went white. Twilight sat up and gasped. “Wait what? Did…did you just say three other towns? Plus an outpost? And all last night?”
Burnt Oak frowned as he looked back at his map. “We haven’t seen a surge like this in a dog’s age. Not since the first Lunar Fall. We were right at the head of the push, so the fact that we were able to hold them back here might have actually helped. Otherwise even more towns would have gone down. Now, most of them were evacuated already, but of those who were fool enough to stay behind, well…” He sighed. “We got what’s left of them holed up here now. There were more of those giant mites in the attacks and they got rid of any other shelter.”
Applejack remembered that all too well from the night before. “Landsakes…” she half-muttered to herself.
“Wait, not only were there more Parasprites,” Twilight interjected, “but you’re saying they intentionally destroyed any other shelters?”
Burnt Oak looked up. “Now, I never said that. Nobody’s got any clue what drives the Nighttouched. They always just seem to run out every now and then whenever a Light Eater’s ahead of them.” He frowned and crossed his arms. “Only there wasn’t a Light Eater with them this time, but they had those giant mites or whatever you called them headed out with them at the front. I’ve been blowing up these things for almost ten years. I’ve never seen them act like this before…like they knew what they were doing…”
“Wait, wait…knew?” Applejack echoed. “I’ve been fightin’ these things as long as you and hand-to-hand. They ain’t got a lick o’ sense between the lot of them. They’re just like big wild bulls. They ain’t never had any plan save trample in and attack.”
“I don’t think that’s true anymore.”
Applejack looked up to Twilight as well, and saw she was growing more uneasy.
“Lt. colonel, sir…I’ve seen parasprites once before, and they should be deeper in Equestria unless something drove them out. If it didn’t and they’re appearing on their own, not to mention if they were circling your fort for a few nights on purpose and trying to weaken the walls, then…” She swallowed uncomfortably. “Then things have changed for the worse. They know what they’re doing now. Or at least they’re getting the ability to make some sort of rudimentary plans.”
“That’s kind of what we’re afraid of…” he answered. “Appleloosa never really had much of a telegraph system even before we had to start shutting down. Following these attacks, it’s likely most of the country doesn’t even know about this yet. All morning we’ve been trying to spread the message via relays, but we can’t afford to wait. This fort is the only real protection for eighty miles in either direction.”
“We’ll lend a hand!” Applejack immediately volunteered. “Won’t we, Twilight?”
“Uh…um…” she fumbled.
“I don’t think even with your help we can keep the fort standing with all these folks in it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a watch. Flicking it open, he looked at it a moment before collapsing it again. “We got about seven and a half hours until the sun goes down. Before that happens, I’m going to try and get a message out to the army that we need to risk lowering the blockade long enough to move one more train through. We got to move out most of these people. It’s the only way we can do it in the span of a day. Hopefully, we’ll start shipping them out before evening. Once they’re gone…” He exhaled. “We’ll see if we can still hold Fort Chestnut.”
“You’re going to stand your ground here?” Twilight spoke up again. “Even with the fort as damaged as it is?”
“Got no choice,” he grimly answered. “The army’ll reinforce us soon enough once they get the message and they find out what we’ve been finding out—namely that the Nighttouched are trying to push through here. Until then, we have to hold.” He leaned back against the table again. His eyes lowered and his voice dropped a bit. “Who knows? Organized or not, last night might have just been one of their normal surges. They may not come back at all, in which case we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Neither Applejack nor Twilight looked comforted by that. It was true that surges usually happened only on one night and then not again for months, but Applejack remembered how Twilight had informed her that she heard the parasprites had been encircling the fort for a few days.
Before anyone else spoke again, though, the wood of the door to the room resounded with a rapid knock. All three looked up. “Come in.”
The entrance swung wide a moment later, with a tense-looking officer poking his head in. “Sir, we’ve got a problem.”
“What is it?”
“One of the civilians has gone wild. She started pushing into the crowd and attacking anyone who got in her way. I sent four men to stop her and she threw them off like rag dolls. She’s trying to push through eight of them right now to get to here.”
Applejack and Twilight alike both tensed up. They exchanged a glance with one another, then looked back to the officer.
“One of her hands doesn’t happen to be glowing, does it?”
The soldier turned to Twilight, rather puzzled she had addressed him at all, but after a moment he looked more confused. “Y’know, come to think of it, I thought I saw something on one of her hands like a hot coal, but I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me…”
Now the two really looked anxious. After swapping an even more nervous glance with one another, Applejack spun back to Burnt Oak. “Bur…I mean, lt. colonel, I know this is gonna sound freaky, but…ya’ got ta’ let me an’ Twilight handle this.”
He leveled a more probing stare at the two. “Why is that? What’s going on?”
“We really ain’t got time ta’ explain, but if ya’ don’t let us yer gonna be in big trouble,” she answered hurriedly.
He was quiet, and now gave the two a more critical look. Clearly, he realized this had a connection to what happened last night, and didn’t like that he was still in the dark about most of it. Applejack swallowed and shrugged.
“I mean, if she’s throwing off your men, then I’m the only one strong enough to hold her down anyway, ain’t I?”
“Sir,” the soldier spoke up again, “we got to do something about her soon, because we got other problems. The western watch spotted some-”
Burnt Oak didn’t let him finish. “Alright,” he stated grimly, “but after this, I’m not going to let everything slide anymore. I’ll want to know what you two know about what’s going on.”
That wasn’t what either one wanted to hear, but it was good enough for Applejack. She turned and went for the door, seizing Twilight by the wrist and pulling her along as she did. “Come on, now!”
“Wait, but…!” she yelped before following. In moments, they pushed past the soldier, through the door, and were moving through the room on the other side.
Since the soldiers that had previously been posted there were gone, Applejack started talking right away. “This is one of them crazies you were mentionin’ earlier, isn’t it? Like Braeburn was acting?”
“Y-Yeah…” she muttered as Applejack kept pulling her, “but…”
“Ok then. Just like before. I’ll hold her down and you do your mumbo-jumbo and everything’s fine.”
“Well, hopefully it’ll be that easy…”
Applejack stopped in her tracks. She wheeled to her with a critical look. “What’dya mean ‘hopefully it’ll be that easy’?”
She winced. “It’s just that…Braeburn was one of the weaker ones I’ve seen going wild…”
Her eyes widened. “Wha…‘weaker’? He almost killed me!”
“Let’s just see before we jump to any conclusions.”
Rolling her eyes and groaning, Applejack turned back around and led Twilight onward. Soon they reached the door and pushed it open. On stepping outside, they almost were pushed back as the crowd was already rapidly making an open space in the middle of the yard with the violence breaking out, and a furious scuffle was going on just ahead. Both women had to brace themselves and then push back through the widening group to look forward. Nevertheless, both forced themselves through the group until they got a clear view.
At that, Applejack jaw dropped. “Ya’ gotta be kiddin’ me…”
The photographer was currently surrounded by eight soldiers. Three of them were latched on to her but didn’t seem to be doing much good. Most of her clothing had been torn or roughed up by fighting already, which was shocking enough as she looked to be at least twice the age of the Appleloosans upon her. It was impossible to make out most of her features or where she was looking as she was wearing large glasses with tinted lenses for the sun, obscuring much of her appearance, but Applejack assumed her look was as soulless as Braeburn’s had been. And sure enough, as she seized one of the men grabbing her and flung him off by the back of his neck, the farmer made out the burning hexagon on her hand.
Twilight herself only looked a moment before also looking skyward, to the west. She reached out and pointed. “I think that’s an airship incoming. Maybe that’s what he was trying to tell the lt. colonel…”
“Forget ‘bout that, I’m more worried ‘bout what’s right here in front of us,” Applejack retorted. She reached behind her for her belt and, a moment later, pulled out her claw hammer. It had reverted along with her body the night before, but none of the soldiers were bold enough to try and take it from her. She held it in the air soon after and opened her mouth…
Only to close it and look back to Twilight. “Uh, do I gotta say that big long bit like last time?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. You can do it the same way I do it now that the binding is complete.”
“…Which is?”
She groaned. “‘Member of my house, I command you to come to me.’ Then you call on his title and name.”
She nodded, hefting the hammer again. “Member of my house, I command you to come to me!” Again, she opened her mouth, but was quiet. Her look began to grow anxious again. “Uh…”
Twilight slapped herself in the face with her own palm. “He said it last night! ‘Bastion of the Fields’!”
“Oh…oh! Right, right! Bastion of the Fields – Bright Macintosh!”
Everything immediately came over Applejack again. The same orange-hued light, the same transformation to her clothes, and the same feelings of her father being there with her. In moments, she was once again standing there in the full Appleloosan armor and hefting the warhammer. Exhaling, she lowered it and crossed it in front of herself, a bit overwhelmed at the second transformation, but then glanced about. Most of the crowd was now focused on her, including two of the soldiers trying to restrain the photographer, and they all now rapidly began to back away.
She grinned a bit sheepishly at them. “Heh…sorry ‘bout that folks. Shoulda warned ya’… Anyhoo…”
Setting her sights on the photographer, she broke into a charge right at her. It was good timing, for she was throwing off the last two soldiers just as she did so. Her head was pointed straight forward; what Applejack took to be a challenge. Nevertheless, she left her hammer in her lesser hand and readied her dominant one into a fist. As she broke into the clearing, she quickly started to build to full speed.
Yet she ground to a surprised halt soon after when the photographer began to mutter something and took a step toward her. At once, a whole “group” of photographers, each one identical to her, stepped out from her wake and quickly fanned out. Applejack blinked in astonishment, now seeing five different ones all breaking into a run at the same time.
“What…what the heck is she doing?” she called behind her.
“Oh no…she must be a Magician Role!”
“Well what in Greater Everfree does that mean?”
“It-”
Twilight’s explanation was aborted a second later as the photographers reached the two of them. Applejack was further ahead and braced herself as one barreled right at her, but the moment she struck her she simply disappeared like light on layer mist. The others quickly ran past her and into the crowd, and three of them instantly did the same on striking other random onlookers. The last, however, was quite solid and seized Twilight by the throat. With a grunt, she actually threw her to the ground and got on top of her, struggling to wrap her other hand around her neck as well while starting to choke her.
Applejack snapped out of her daze and looked back around; stunned to see she was already on Twilight. Quickly she turned and ran over to her, practically diving on the photographer on reaching her side. She seized her by the wrist before she could bring it around Twilight’s neck, then grit her teeth as she tried to pull her back. Even with her added strength, and the fact this woman didn’t seem quite as strong as Braeburn had, it was a struggle. Nevertheless, she managed to keep her other hand free, move it under her arm, and wedge it under the hand on Twilight’s throat. With some help from the lavender-haired woman’s own struggles, she managed to pry her fingers off and start yanking her arm back, causing the prone woman to gasp for air.
As soon as Twilight was free, however, the photographer spun about and began to claw for Applejack’s face. Even though the farmer was fortified by her new strength and constitution, the assailant was strong enough to actually hurt a bit as she scraped, and she explicitly scraped out for Applejack’s eyes on spinning about. That caused her to loosen her other hand, which now lashed out to try and seize Applejack’s own throat. That stroke was enough to leave the farmer fed up. Swinging her weapon arm around, she braced it against the woman along with her free hand, and in a lunge that forced her own body back to her feet she lifted her off the ground and flung her backward into the yard.
She landed roughly enough, and for a woman of her age that should have stopped her, but she almost immediately began to scramble back to her feet. Twilight was still gagging, coughing, and pulling herself backward along the ground away from them both.
Applejack risked glancing back to her. “Was that a spell just now? I thought ya’ had to learn ta’ use magic!”
Twilight rubbed for her neck as she tried to get her other hand up. “Do you want me to try and explain how it works right now or stop her first before… Oh no, don’t look at her!”
Applejack was puzzled at why she had yelled that, before a blinding flash went off from the photographer’s body. The farmer had still been facing Twilight the whole time, but nevertheless slammed her eyes shut and cried out as, in spite of that, the light radiated so powerfully that it hurt her eyes even not facing the source. Fortunately, it cleared soon enough, and as it dimmed she blinked and opened them again.
Twilight was now using her free hand to grasp her eyes, seemingly in pain. Not only her, but the rest of the people in the crowd were also crying out and clutching their faces.
“What the…? What in tarnation happened now?”
“She used a blinding spell!”
“A wha-”
Applejack was cut off yet again as she saw the photographer rush right past her from behind, dashing straight for Twilight while she was stuck on the ground. The woman couldn’t even see her coming, apparently, for she didn’t react, and neither did the rest of the crowd around her. Fortunately, Applejack snapped up to her and reacted in a flash. She reached out and seized her by the shoulder before she could fully run by.
Pain radiated through her face a second later as the photographer responded by driving her arm back and smashing her elbow into her face. Had she not been using her own spirit, Applejack realized the power would have been enough to make her lose some teeth. As it was, it made her angry enough to yank the woman back and spin her around toward her. Yet without missing a beat, the photographer snapped her other hand around and belted the farmer across the face.
While it wasn’t enough to put her to the ground, it still hurt and stoked her anger further. She quickly took a swing of her own, only to watch her fist go straight through the photographer’s head before her image broke into nothingness, much like when she split into copies. An instant later, much to Applejack’s surprise, the air right next to her seemed to do the same thing; only this time making her body appear out of thin air. An instant later, Applejack suffered a second blow from this one; strong enough to actually split her lip.
Gritting her teeth, Applejack finally used her other arm and snapped out the end of her hammer in a wide arc about her. It caught the woman and flung her back again, but this time it wasn’t enough to force her to the ground. She simply slid back several feet before planting her footing and quickly rising again.
“What’re ya’ waitin’ for?!” Applejack shouted behind her. “Do that bindin’ trick again!”
“I can’t! She blinded me! Until my eyes clear I can’t even see where she is!”
She groaned. “Great…” A moment later, she crossed her hammer in front of her. “Guess I’ll jus’ have ta’ knock the fight outta her…”
“Wait!” she instantly shot back. “Go easy on her! With how much power you have now, you could kill her if you’re not careful!”
“What the… ‘go easy on her’? You nuts?! With her comin’ at-”
For the third time, Applejack cut herself off as the photographer muttered again, before splitting into ten copies of herself. Each one of them began to rush at her. The farmer let out a curse; realizing by now that the goal was again going to be distraction and keeping her busy. Quickly she snapped forward to meet them. She drove her fist into the nearest one, but it simply vanished. She quickly snapped around and swung the back of her hand into another, only for it to disappear too. Grunting, she charged forward and leveled her shoulder into a third, but went right through it.
By now, several of them had already passed her and were still going. Realizing this, rather than try to deal with any of the others, she looked up and behind her. At least three of them were headed right for Twilight, whose eyes were open now but clearly not seeing yet as she wasn’t even trying to shield herself.
Applejack grit her teeth a moment but finally made a move. Snapping her arm back, hoping that she was aiming for the “right” one, she hurled her warhammer in a spinning arc for the legs of the nearest copy to Twilight. The timing was a bit close, but she couldn’t afford to wait any longer or the hammer would have sailed on past and into the lavender-haired woman. As it was, the spinning shaft went about several times before meeting the legs of the photographer. This time, they got jammed up in her ankles, and a moment later she stumbled down onto all fours. As soon as she did the other images of her vanished into vapor.
“That’s one way of doing it!” Applejack shouted as she quickly dashed at her. Spreading her arms open wide, she leapt into the air. Her intent was to slam herself on top of the woman and leave her pinned until Twilight could finally finish.
Yet as soon as the farmer came down, all she did was hit bare ground before getting a mouthful of dust. She was surprised only a fraction of a moment before she realized she forgot about her other trick. Sure enough, a moment after landing, the air to her side again rippled before the photographer emerged, having rolled just out of the way. She quickly lashed out with one of her heeled boots and smashed Applejack in the face. The blow was solid enough to dazzle her even in her current state, and the power was enough to send her rolling onto her own back, before the photographer quickly began to scramble to her feet. Again, she was charging after Twilight.
“Damnit, fight me ya’ crazy idiot!” she snapped, before kicking her heels up, digging them into the ground so strongly that her boots cut into the dirt and packed it down like an angular springboard, and leapt off again. The photographer nearly reached Twilight when Applejack seized her by the middle in a tackle, and both of them tumbled into the ground over each other in a violent tussle.
Even then, Applejack could feel her writhing and struggling against her grip, so as soon as they came out of one roll she gave another yell before flinging her away. Between the momentum and Applejack’s own power, the photographer was thrown aside hard enough that she went flying into the crowd, which parted in shock in her wake, before smashing against a side of one of the damaged barracks. Her impact fractured the ramshackle fixes even more, knocking several poles being used as temporary supports loose, before she again fell to the ground.
Applejack quickly tried to get to her feet, but she was still rather dizzy from the roll as well as the few blows she had taken to the head. The photographer, at least, seemed somewhat slowed. It took her a bit longer to rise this time. However, she still beat Applejack to her feet, and as soon as she was standing she snapped out and seized one of the support poles she had knocked loose. Taking it up, she swung it down over a knee and snapped it in two; making a pair of sharpened stakes. She discarded one as she started to advance again.
As the farmer finished getting to her feet, she saw the photographer’s lips already moving. Before she could react she split again. This time, to Applejack’s great displeasure, one copy of her after another poured out until twenty of them were gathered. And the second the last one came out, each one hefted their respective stake and barreled forward for both her and Twilight.
Without her hammer, getting sore with all the running around, and her temper now getting the best of her, Applejack clutched her hands into fists and stomped forward as angrily as she could. “Aw come on!”
It ended up being a better move than she thought. Not knowing her own strength, she smashed her foot down so powerfully that, with her enhanced power, she sent out a small tremor over the entire courtyard. Several of the nearest onlookers cried out as they stumbled and fell back, but far more importantly the ripple instantly evaporated all nineteen false images of the photographer…leaving only the true one stumbling and trying to regain her footing. Applejack was surprised at her own accidental move, but only for a moment. Seizing the opportunity she charged for the woman again.
While she was still coming forward, however, the photographer regained her footing. She looked again at Applejack, and this time held up her unarmed hand and chanted again. The farmer nearly stumbled in her step, wondering what that meant and trying to think of everything she had pulled so far. Yet her more “bull-headed” nature wouldn’t make her hesitate more than a moment. Rationalizing that she was trying to pull off another illusion move, she simply closed her eyes, spread her arms wide, and yelled a war cry as she barreled forward even faster and tried to catch her before she could move far.
That, as it turned out, ended up being the better move, for a moment later a blinding flash went out from the photographer’s hand—another attempt at a blinding move. Yet Applejack, in her fury to try and push herself faster, had kept her eyelids shut. While it was still blinding and glaring, it didn’t stop her from continuing to move forward until the glare died down. She opened her eyes again and, through the beams of an after-image, just noticed the photographer crossing the stake over to try and impale her.
Before she could succeed, Applejack lashed out and grasped the weapon, then forced it back with her momentum across the woman’s neck before tackling her to the dirt. As soon as she slammed down, she moved quickly. Her feet tucked up and pinned themselves on either of the woman’s arms while her own limbs slammed the shaft of the pole down on her throat. As mad and painless as she was, there was nothing the photographer could do to free herself from that. It didn’t stop her from trying, however, by wiggling like mad.
“Ugh…ya’ ready yet?!” Applejack shouted behind her.
“Right here!” Twilight shouted back. A moment later, she came running up to her side. It took her a moment to spot the woman’s head directly, but then she quickly dropped to her knees. The photographer seemed to go even wilder when Twilight got that close, enough to where Applejack had to struggle to keep her still again, but in moments she performed the gesture, drew the sigil on the air, and then slammed it into her forehead.
The photographer instantly went rigid beneath Applejack; the sigil on her hand flaring one more time before it rapidly dimmed. After it did, she finally went limp. The farmer sighed in relief as Twilight pulled back, slowly pulling herself off the woman’s neck and taking the precaution to remove the stake from her and toss it to one side. Once there, she tried to grab for her hat to wipe her brow, only to find the headband there from her new attire; causing her to frown mildly.
Nevertheless, she looked over the photographer a moment. Braeburn had taken some time to recover but, then again, they had given him quite a beating. As it was, it was only a moment before she let out a mild moan. Her head lolled slightly from side to side.
“Vat…vat…” she murmured. “Vy am I being sat upon…?”
Applejack gave a relieved sigh as she rolled back, finally stepping off of the woman’s wrists. She continued to lay there confused as she stood up from her. “Think that settles it, Twilight. Now we jus’ gotta worry ‘bout explainin’ all this…”
No response.
“Uh, Twilight?” The farmer looked up, only to realize that most of the crowd in front of her was no longer paying any attention to them. They were looking skyward. She turned around to Twilight herself, and saw that not only could she apparently see again but she was looking very nervously at the sky. Her dog had finally pushed through the crowd to join up with them only to start whining. Lastly, Applejack began to realize she was hearing the sound of rather large steam engines hovering overhead. Finally, she looked to the sky as well.
The airship they had spotted before had gotten closer. Much closer. It was now hovering no more than 200 feet above the fort. Fort Chestnut was built to deal with the threat of Nighttouched crossing into Equestria. Even if they hadn’t been so disheveled and disorganized with then onset of the civilians and the damage from last night, to say nothing of the photographer’s rampage just now, they wouldn’t have been able to do much to keep it from approaching. The guns didn’t even go high enough. What soldiers hadn’t been distracted had been powerless to do much except try and sound an alert. They might have very well done so while the two of them had been trying to stop the photographer, for all the good it did in the scuffle, but it hardly mattered now.
For a moment or so, Applejack saw nothing but its bulk rapidly passing overhead, while the crowd went silent; allowing the noises of numerous gun clicks and the gears of artillery struggling to reposition now that the airship was low enough rang out. She could see the airship not only had the colors of Trottingham on it but all of its own cannons were deployed. The beginning of an order began to be shouted…
When a bay on the bottom of the airship opened and a pair of cylindrical objects fell from it. Before Applejack could fully realize what those were, its cannons erupted.
She wasn’t exactly sure what happened in the next few seconds. Deafening booms went out over her head along with gusts of hot wind followed by fire and the sounds of the structures around her breaking. Then came screams of over a hundred people, right before a wave of light and heat burst in front of her with enough power to almost knock her back in spite of her strength. Flames towered to the sky, and the assault on her senses was too much. She covered her eyes and staggered back as the chaos around her rose to full momentum.
The sounds of the engines of the airship overhead picking up, men and women shouting, and firearms erupting among the screams brought her back to her senses. She uncovered her eyes and saw everyone scrambling for cover now save the military. They were fighting back scores of people who were practically trampling them as they fled for cover. Wooden debris was raining down around them from the remains of two of the cannons. The other two were already being rotated to return fire, but again they were too slow. The airship was accelerating and hovering away past the two destroyed guns; an opening it had just made.
Most of all, fire and ash was roaring right in front of Applejack. One of the two cylinders, obviously bombs, had landed right in front of them while the second had hit another one of the one-story buildings. That building was now in flames while the ground before them was towering in fire and smoke. It had to have been an incendiary bomb. To her horror, she saw at least seven people were partially enflamed in its wake. Another five hadn’t survived the initial eruption.
One of them had been the very photographer they had been trying to save.
The farmer was aghast as she saw several people running while enflamed, as a few of the soldiers got out enough from the crowds to return rifle fire against the ironclad ship swerving over the fort perimeter. That snapped her out of it enough to look back down and spot the nearest person with their arm on fire screaming toward her. She nearly stepped in at that.
Before she could, however, she heard another noise behind her. She spun to it, just in time to see Twilight, now fully in her robe and hat again, and having converted the very broken stake Applejack had cast aside into a staff, take aim at the flames. A moment later she chanted and drew a symbol with it in mid air, causing a hailstorm of bitter cold and ice crystals to pour out of the end. She quickly swept it over the people, dousing their flames, before moving it to the fire and crater. It took several moments, but soon it was out.
Seeing that she was no longer needed to extinguish anyone, Applejack instead spun to her. “What the blazes was that?!”
“A Trottingham airship!” she shouted back as she began to move over to the flaming building, aiming at it with her staff again.
“Well what’d they want ‘round here? This fort’s in the middle of nowhere right ‘longside Equestria!” She turned back to the remains of the first fire, and the sight made her grit her teeth angrily. The charred remains of the people who had been initially hit were still there. The photographer likely never even knew it had been coming…
“About face!” a soldier’s voice cried. “Against the East palisade!”
Applejack looked up again, seeing most of the soldiers breaking into a run for the eastern fortifications. They struggled to urge people to do the same, but most of them were panicking so much they were fleeing inside the buildings or trampling each other to get to the main gates; not realizing neither route was safe. She wondered why only a moment before looking skyward.
The steam engines of the airship were blasting full tilt, but not the propulsion ones. The reverse propellers were now rapidly causing the ship to halt and bank around, turning its broadside against the fort. Applejack winced, thinking for a moment that they were going to rip the wall apart. She quickly looked around, spotted her hammer, and kicked it up into her grip to brace herself…only realizing after doing so that neither that, nor her own power, would likely protect her from something as strong as cannon fire.
However, Twilight quickly stepped to her side, drove her staff into the ground, and traced out a new sigil. An instant later, the broadside cannons erupted just as a small tempest formed in the area in front of the two of them, rapidly splitting into two miniature cyclones. The cannon shells sailed toward them, but the fury of the wind was enough to disrupt their path enough to spread apart any that sailed straight at them. Nevertheless, a second later Applejack quickly moved behind Twilight and spread her body over hers.
A good move, for even though the shells missed a direct hit, they still exploded upon landing around them. Fire and shrapnel was sent up in their way. The farmer grit her teeth in pain as she felt several pieces strike her, but she had bet that with her improved body her constitution was enough where even they would have a hard time piercing her skin. Fortunately for her, the assessment was right. Whereas any one of those pieces should have been a bullet to her body, instead they only opened a half dozen light gashes across her unprotected parts.
Applejack, still wincing a little, pulled off of Twilight soon after. She looked back up to the airship, which was already gunning its engines again and ignoring the attempts of the bullets to strike it. The surviving cannons, meanwhile, were finally nearly about to have their target, but it didn’t wait. As it moved forward, it simply slid back out of range again. Its broadsides remained aimed below.
“Cowardly sons of bitches!” Applejack yelled as Twilight used the lull to move over to the house and try to extinguish it. Looking around for a moment, she saw a fairly good-sized hunk of stone rubble from one of the blasts. Quickly, she snapped her hammer out and knocked it skyward toward the airship. It was a rather pathetic gesture. Even with her power, her trajectory was far off, and the stone had lost more than enough power to fall to the ground before making impact. The airship sailed up along the southern side of the wall, prompting another call to the soldiers to move as the cannons struggled to reposition. Soon, however, it started to slow again.
“Twilight!” Applejack shouted.
Only half of the flames were out but there was no time. She stopped and ran back into the previous position alongside Applejack. This time, the farmer winced on seeing several people were nearby and had only a few wooden walls or wagons for protection before she quickly shielded Twilight. An instant later, the cannons thundered again.
This time, one managed to hit the dirt right at the base of the tempest before going off. Both Twilight and Applejack alike cried out in alarm as the explosion burst. This time, the power was too much for her to withstand and both were swept off their feet. For a moment she thought that was the end, that she’d be torn apart by fire and debris…
Yet she landed a moment later on her rear end, and Twilight let out an oof of her own as she landed practically in her lap. Both were a bit sore and slammed around from it, but their respective spirits seemed to have protected them. A quick glance at the fires around them from fresh blasts indicated others weren’t so lucky.
Gritting her teeth, Twilight got back to her feet as quick as she could and drew an electric symbol. A cloud quickly massed in the sky before a bolt snaked out and struck the airship, but it didn’t even react on impact as it gunned its engines again. The last volley had destroyed another fort cannon. Now only one was left vainly trying to target it.
Twilight groaned at her failure. “Should have known… It’s an airship. It has anti-lightning measures. Anything else I got is too slow to hit it when it’s moving this fast from this distance.”
“Gutless polecats…” Applejack snorted as she got to her feet. “Can’t hit ‘em from down here! Why the hell they shootin’ up common folks anyway?”
“They aren’t.”
Applejack turned to Twilight briefly when she said that, but before she could argue the point, she noticed the area around them. They were surrounded with flames and dust from the two broadside volleys, but now that she looked at them she realized they were almost all clustered around them. A few buildings about them had gotten damaged, but aside from the shots aimed at the cannons most of the fort about them had gone untouched. The broken walls were almost still entirely intact.
A moment passed, but then it clicked. “They’re tryin’ ta’ hit…us?”
Twilight began to tense up. “I think so.”
“That don’t make no sense! Why would they want us?”
Twilight looked back at Applejack, straight in the eye. She, in turn, looked at the both of them, then back to the square. Especially at the remains of the photographer. Her eyes widened at the realization.
“How do they-”
“I don’t know, but somehow they do!”
Applejack looked back into the sky. The airship was already repositioning itself to ready another broadside volley. Once it fired this one and destroyed the final cannon, nothing would stop it from dropping more bombs to turn the entire fort into ash and everyone in it. Including her family members.
If Twilight’s assumption was true, there was only one thing they could do now to help them.
After a moment of hesitation, Applejack finally shifted the hammer to one hand, spun around, and grabbed Twilight by the wrist. She yelped a bit as she found herself being dragged along with her straight for the nearest wall. “Whoa...! What…? What are you-”
“You say they’re targetin’ us, right? Then we’re gettin’ outta here!”
“What?! There’s nothing but fields all around us! We’ll be sitting ducks!”
“There’s gonna be nothin’ but a field in here and a lotta corpses pretty soon if we don’t split now!”
Twilight didn’t protest any more, but Applejack hardly gave her a chance. She heard Spike start barking as he ran up behind the two of them, but she kept going until she reached the wall. Remembering how strong she was last night, she targeted a part that was already mostly damaged, hoisted her hammer, and drove it against it as she came. The blow connected and smashed out two of the logs. She dashed through it, not letting Twilight go until they were both out. A moment later, Spike scampered through after them.
Sure enough, the airship abandoned its attempts to fire another volley. Instead, it quickly stowed its guns on that side and picked up speed again, swinging its way wide and away from the fort to avoid the path of the final cannon. The result bought them a few moments, and Applejack used that to get away as fast as she could.
Twilight was less than enthused as she reluctantly ran after. “Well now what are we going to do?”
“Er…still thinkin’ up that part…” Applejack admitted.
She groaned, but kept running a bit farther before stopping and spinning around; prompting Applejack to do the same. They hadn’t gotten that far from the fort, but they could look back and see that the airship had gained enough distance from the final cannon to come about and angle straight at them. It started to pick up speed afterward, meaning to fly right over them and, no doubt, use its bombs again.
As soon as it became that straightforward of a target again, however, Twilight drew another symbol on the air. It was a fiery one this time. However, unlike before, she didn’t stop with the first symbol. Rather as soon as it was made, she swept her staff over it, seeming to “wipe” it from the sky and collect the traces of the sigil into the end of her staff. As the airship continued to get closer, she quickly began to draw another symbol slightly different from the first; all while her staff now gleamed with the same fiery light.
Applejack tensed on seeing the bottom panels on the ship open again, when Twilight finished the second symbol and drove her staff into it. The power of the first one emerged and combined with the new, and the farmer was nearly blown off her feet yet again as a blast of searing heat erupted from the stave. She gaped on seeing a small ring of fire ripple out from the front of Twilight before a ball of flame the size of her body shot away toward the closing airship. The way it was coming, it couldn’t pull aside in time. The blast struck the bow an instant later.
Applejack actually heard the sound of the fireball explode before bathed the entire front of the airship in fire. At once, the ship pulled to one side and gained altitude. Twilight’s hat was nearly taken off and Applejack shielded herself as the force from the propellers blasted over the both of them, but it kept sailing right by, picking up more speed as it went higher. When the wind died, the farmer turned and looked, but saw it continuing to ascend as flames and smoke continued to emit from the front of it.
“Whoo-hoo!” she hollered. “Ya’ got it!”
Twilight sighed as she lowered her staff at last. “Hardly… That was mostly smoke and mirrors. All I did was spread a fire over the front of their ship. They’ll think they’re in worse shape than they are after that, but once they realize they aren’t that hurt and snuff those flames they’ll be back around.” She turned to her anxiously. “Any ideas?”
Applejack hesitated. She glanced around the field a moment. Plenty of craters and scorched earth from yesterday, but nothing they could hide in from an aerial assault. The fort was still the safest spot and that wasn’t on the table. However, after looking a second longer, she spotted one other possibility.
She pointed to the trees. “In there!”
Twilight’s eyes seemed to nearly fall out of her head. “Are you crazy? That’s the way to Equestria!”
“But it ain’t right on the border! Some of it’s still in the light! So long as we stay in there an’…an’ not accidentally walk on a Nighttouched in a shadow somewhere…we’ll be fine!”
“That’s the direction last night’s attack came from!”
The farmer was caught at that. “Well…I know the two of us can handle at least a bunch of Nighttouched, which is more than we can do ‘gainst that airship.”
Twilight hesitated, realizing the logic in that. She turned and looked back to the sky. The airship was slowing but hadn’t turned around yet. The fires, however, were rapidly going out. She looked back to the forest and winced yet again, but finally rolled her eyes and groaned.
“Fine! If that’s all we can do!”
“Let’s hurry ‘fore they recover!”
Applejack quickly took off for the woods. Twilight groaned a second time before calling out. “Come on, Spike!” Soon, both she and the dog were running in the same direction.
By the time the airship was ready to turn about, its two targets were only fifty yards from the tree line. It gunned its engines and aimed it fore guns, but by the time it drew a bead they were already vanishing into the woods. The airship continued to pursue them regardless, chasing their path all the way to the tree line before slowing. Once there, however, it fired the retros again and slowed rapidly. It was practically in a hover after a few moments, staying at the edge and looking into the woods.
After about twenty seconds, it rotated to its unused broadside and fired a volley across the tree line for a good five hundred feet in either direction. Trunks were snapped, branches and leaves went flying, and fire filled a considerable distance into the woods. However, as the echoes of the blasts slowly died out again, there was nothing but silence and stillness. No sign of life or movement from wildlife or anything else.
The airship hovered a moment longer before, with a series of clicks, its guns retracted. Moments later, it began to turn and ascend in the air to proceed to its original destination.