Setting hoof into the ancient ruins left one feeling like stepping into another world. All around them, a mix of solid stone and deep shadows made it impossible to tell at first glance what was real and what was just illusions cast by the light of the moon. Past the front gate was a dilapidated courtyard with curious sun and moon motifs. A long forgotten fountain held the sun above and the moon below its ornate carvings. Broken cobblestones held carvings of the sun and moon in an alternating pattern. And engraved on the wall furthest from them was a bas relief of two rearing alicorns, their bodies facing outwards while their heads and horns were pointed inwards, the sun and moon blazing high above them.
Crossing the courtyard felt almost anticlimactic as the group reached the inner gates without any difficulty or obstacles. Pressing forward, they entered a vast hall, the roof having long crumbled to dust and half the pillars having fallen to ruin. Still, despite the neglect, some stain glass windows remained, all depicting a large white alicorn with a pink flowing mane.
“How long have these been here?” Sparkle asked idly as she looked around the hallway.
“No time for sight-seeing. That Starlight mare has to be around here somewhere,” came Applejack’s terse reply as she began to pick up speed, running faster down the hall.
Rushing up the large double staircase at the end of the hall, Applejack turned towards Spike. Taking a sniff of the air, he pointed towards the right as the group continued their chase.
Ancient moss-covered stone-work and stairways echoed with the hoof beats of living ponies for the first time in millennia as the group made their way deeper into the ruins. Racing forward, they soon made their way to the entrance of an inner courtyard, a loud crash breaking their focus and causing them to stop.
“Where the Tartarus is it!?” the voice of Starlight Glimmer echoed past the entrance.
Five ponies and a dragon peeked around the corner to see their target angrily stomping around a large broken fountain in the center of the courtyard. In the middle of the fountain, the sculpture of stylized angular tree rose from a marble base, the trunk inscribed with the symbols of the sun and moon at the top and bottom of the trunk, with a heart carved out of the center of the trunk between the two. Above it, the branches of the tree held various orbs, each fitted with a different jewel in the center of them.
Or at least it looked as if it had at one point. Now several of the orbs lay broken at the base of the fountain, with an angry unicorn reaching up and grabbing another from its perch only to throw it down, shattering it.
Picking up the jewel that was once encased within the stone orb, the unicorn inspected it before tossing it aside and reaching for another orb.
“What in the world are you looking for deary?” a confused Granny Smith asked from the side. No longer being held within the other mare’s magic, she did not want to risk raising Starlight’s ire by making a break for it. She had no delusions as to her chances of making it to the exit before the other mare noticed her, not did she believe that she would be able to over power the younger mare either. So she stayed put, wincing as the unicorn shattered another ancient relic and piece of pony heritage that had survived countless incursions of the storms, wild animals, and the long march of the years.
“Damn it! You said it would be here,” Starlight yelled up to the sky, completely ignoring the older mare. “You told me that I’d find a power that rivaled Destiny here! Well here I am, so where is it?!”
Granny Smith and the group outside waited with baited breath as they took in the unicorn’s rantings and waiting with her for an answer.
But only silence followed.
With a disgusted grunt, Starlight went back to ripping the stone orbs from their mountings.
“What in the hay?” Carrot Top muttered as she watched the apparently deranged unicorn desecrate the ancient site.
“Doesn’t matter if she’s right in the head or not, right now she’s not paying attention to Granny so now’s our chance,” Applejack replied, focusing on the light green elder. “Bon-Bon, you and me are going to charge Starlight to distract her. How well is that armor going to hold against unicorn magic?”
“It was made to survive anything lower than a level five spell,” the simple candy maker answered.
Nodding her head, Applejack continued. “I honestly have no idea what that means,” she started, quickly shushing Ms. Sparkle’s explanation with a wave of her hoof. “But unless anypony else has something stronger-“ she said looking directly at Ms. Sparkle who shook her head that she did not, “then I’ll be right behind you as you lead.”
“Carrot, Tree, you two will flank her on her left and right. I’ll be depending on you two to take her down while she’s distracted with Bon and me.”
Nodding their heads, the two mares reached into their respective travel packs. Passing along a carrot to each member, Carrot Top urged them to eat. The crisp taste of the orange root sent an invigorating tingle throughout their bodies and washed away the fatigue of the long night.
Tree Hugger pulled out some leaves as well and passed them out, the strong medicinal herbal scent erupting within their mouths jolting them awake and alert as if they had just drank a gallon of caffeine each.
“Whoa, you guys know your stuff,” Sparkle noted as Spike nodded in agreement next to her.
“Right, that leaves you, Ms. Sparkle and Spike. With the four of us keeping Starlight busy I’ll need you two to grab Granny and get her the hay out of these woods,” Applejack concluded.
“Wait, you don’t think we’ll just leave you here do you?” Spike shot back incredulously.
“I don’t know,” Sparkle added with much greater apprehension. “I mean, logically it makes sense but I would really like to try to get some information from this Starlight. Isn’t there some way to negotiate with her first?”
Gritting her teeth, Applejack held her impatience in check. “Look here Sparkle, I get that you’d like to know what’s going on and why that crazy mare took my Granny; I’d like to know too. But Granny is right there,” she said pointing at the mare in question. “This may be the only chance we get to surprise Starlight. What if we try to talk to her and instead of talking back, she just grabs Granny and flies off like she did before? Is there any way that you can keep her from doing that?”
Crestfallen, the other pony thought about it but could not come up with a satisfactory response. Any reply though was cut off by Spike’s next question though.
“Hey guys? Why’s it suddenly so quiet in there?”
All planning stopped as every being there peered around the corner and into the courtyard. Standing there facing them was Starlight Glimmer, charging her horn.
Carrot Top gave a startled yelp as she instinctively flinched back while Bon-Bon charged forward. Before she could get to a full gallop though, Starlight’s blast went off striking her directly on her chamfron. While the armor did hold, the force of the blast knocked the mare back a step as she struggled to maintain her position under the force of the magical onslaught. Kicking off the ground, Applejack shot out from behind Bon-Bon and flew like a fired bullet straight towards the unicorn. Switching targets, Starlight threw a magical shield in front of her. The discus-shaped construct buckled as Applejack struck it, but it held, and soon was pushing the orange mare back.
Back at the entrance, Carrot Top stood in stunned shock at the suddenness of the whole situation. It took a light nip by Tree Hugger to break her out of her stupor as she turned to the mare and realized what her next action needed to be. Loading a carrot into her crossbow, she raced left as Tree Hugger ran right.
Blinking back the sudden explosion of sound and movement, Sparkle and Spike also regained their composure as they quickly followed the wall and tried to keep out of sight as they made their way to Granny Smith.
Charging once more, Bon-Bon unhooked her massive war hammer and swung down on the unicorn.
Throwing up another shield, Starlight was unprepared for the explosion of sound and the shockwaves ripping through her magic as the hammer unleashed its sonic blast. Recoiling back as her shield cracked and splintered, she shot a burst of flame to her right as Applejack charged in, jumping away at the last second to avoid the inferno.
Seeing the armored mare raise her hammer once again, Starlight abandoned her damaged shield and, picking herself up with her magic, leapt back. The hammer strike destroyed the shield but did little else. Charging up another spell, she suddenly lost her connection to it as a loud thunderclap rang out and the ground beneath her hooves shook and rattled.
Satisfied at knocking the unicorn off balance, Applejack reared on her back hooves again and, with a mechanical whine from her greaves, slammed her front hooves on the ground once more sending another shockwave though the stone floor of the old ruins.
Knocked down once more, Starlight was barely able to recover fast enough to dodge the next hammer blow, the sonic blast still catching her and flinging her to the side. Where an unfriendly Tree Hugger stood. Tossing a vial at the floored unicorn, the glass container broke and a green mist rose from it.
Before it could envelop her though, Starlight let lose a guttural scream as she blasted everything away from her. “Enough!” Rising to the air once more she encased the mist in a bubble before sending it straight towards the charging Bon-Bon.
Choking on the gas, the armored pony fell instantly with a shocked Tree Hugger rushing towards her.
“I have had enough of you earth ponies and your stupid empty ruins! I am going to make all of you pay for wasting my time!” Starlight yelled as she shot off a multitude of magical beams streaking in every direction and hitting everything around her.
Jumping away, Applejack was able to dodge the assault while Tree Hugger had no choice but hide behind the downed Bon-Bon, whose armor could still withstand the attack. Popping a cork off of another vile, the mare poured it into Bon-Bon’s mouth. Thankfully, she slowly stopped choking and took in a deep breath.
Away from everything, the town librarian and Spike reached Granny Smith. “Psst, Mrs. Smith?” Sparkle called out as she crept up behind the older mare.
“Eh? Oh it’s you,” Granny Smith half-heartedly replied as she saw who it was that was rescuing her.
“Yeah, yeah, try not to get too excited there,” Spike muttered as he checked over the old mare for injuries.
“Please Mrs. Smith, we need you to come with us out of here.” Sparkle continued as she began to gently pull on the senior.
“Now you cut that out, I’m not some invalid. I’m perfectly fine with helping my granddaughter out. Just get me some seeds or some rope or something and I’ll be ready to go.”
Smacking his claw into his forehead Spike let out a groan. “Oh gosh, not this.”
“Eh?” “What?” Granny Smith and Sparkle replied.
“Oh come on Twi, you’ve read enough comics to see that this is one of those situations where the hero tries to rescue the hostage only for the hostage to jump in and try to help. The hero then gets so distracted in trying to get the hostage to safety that they forget about the villain and then get’s blasted. Cue big ‘NOOO’ and villain gets away and then wait for the next issue for the start of the revenge arc.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Granny Smith spat as she looked around for a suitable rock to chuck at the enraged unicorn attacking the rest of the party.
“Actually I’ve got to agree with Spike here,” Twi responded. “As soon as you step in, Applejack is going to die,” her statement bringing Granny Smith to a stop. “Probably when she throws herself in front of a magical blast meant for you.”
“Good guess, but my bits are on Granny and Applejack getting into an argument in the middle of the fight and Applejack being shot from behind.”
Hesitating, Granny Smith looked between the rock she had picked up and her granddaughter dodging a shower of frozen spears summoned by Starlight. With a grunt, she tossed the rock aside and turned towards her rescuers. “Alright, fine. But I’m just going to the entrance. Can’t expect a mare to head through the Everfree in the dead of the night by her lonesome self do you?”
“Actually, we’re supposed to lead you back to town.” Twi sheepishly replied.
“Come on, if we leave now then what was the whole point in coming out here?” Spike asked his hesitant companion.
Furrowing her brow, the younger mare chewed on her lip as she thought. There had been a plan, and even though she had not technically agreed to it, it was more or less working. Did she really want to abandon it? On the other hoof she did want answers…
“Spike,” turning towards her assistant, Twilight took out a bundle of metal tubes. “I’m going to need your help setting this up.”
Stones erupted from the ground as Starlight summoned a wall to block Applejack’s charge, only to then jump out of the way as a mass of vines tried to ensnare her. Blasting a gout of flame towards Tree Hugger, Starlight ducked as she avoided having her head cut off from a rocket-assisted axe. Putting up another shield, she grunted as hundreds of cuts appeared across it from the spinning axe blade before it collapsed and she was forced to fly away once again to put enough distance between her and Bon-Bon.
“Grrr, you are way too much trouble,” Starlight growled as she shot another blast at Bon-Bon, only for it to harmlessly impact the surface of the barding. “Go be a nuisance back in Ponyville!” Grabbing the stone floor beneath the armored pony, Starlight launched it and pony alike through the broken ceiling and far off into the sky.
Seeing her opponents down by one, Starlight readied another spell, only for her ear to swivel to her back at the sound of a bow string going off. Casually flicking the incoming carrot away, Starlight shot a blast of magical force towards the ineffective snipper.
Or at least that was the plan, had the casually flicked carrot not exploded in a massive fire ball, knocking the flying unicorn to the ground.
“What the HAY?! You have combustible carrots? Why do you have combustible carrots?! How is that even a thing?”
“When life gives you rabbits,” Carrot muttered as she loaded another bushel of carrots onto her mechanical crossbow, “you make combustible carrots!” Pulling the trigger, she opened fire once again.
“Mwahahahahaha! Come little bunny, come to my carrot patch!” she mocked as she rained explosive roots down upon the running Starlight.
All around them explosives rained down, the sheer magnitude of the detonations causing half the floor to erupt in flame.
“Gyah! Look where you’re aiming that thing!” Applejack yelled as she sprinted away from the carrot-bombs exploding behind her.
“Not cool, dudette!” Tree Hugger added as she also ran for cover.
Unseen by all, a little dragon padded into the flames and set a small metal cylinder on the ground that he then extended into a standing rod before jogging off to set another.
Blowing away the flames, Starlight shot a blast of magic towards the shapely young carrot farmer, only for said farmer to grasp a knotted bundle of carrots by their stems and whip them in front of her. Springing out into a circle from the central knot, the carrot shield absorbed the magical blast and in fact actually looked to grow thicker and healthier.
“… what in Tartarus am I looking at here?”
Shrugging, Carrot Top reloaded her crossbow and once again took aim. “Rabbits can be darn near impossible to get rid of sometimes. It’s when they start using magic that you know that they’re getting serious.”
“Magic,” Starlight deadpanned.
“Well yeah,” Carrot Top replied, “why else do you think magicians hire rabbits as assistants?”
Starlight had little time to contemplate that before the courtyard once again filled with the sounds of explosions as more flames burst forth.
Zipping away from the inferno of beta-carotene, Starlight was grabbed midair by another mass of vines before being pulled down towards a large venus fly trap. A blade of magic cut the vines in time to stop her from being pulled into the waiting jaws of the pony sized fly trap, but her victory was cut short when Applejack slammed into her from above, bouncing off the unicorn and sending her right into the jaws of the carnivorous plant.
Landing next to Tree Hugger, Applejack took in the scene before her. “Should we pull her out of there before she's digested?”
From within the leafy executioner, a white hot light began to glow. Reacting on instinct, Tree Hugger tackled Applejack to the ground as the fly trap exploded, with white lightning searing the skies and ground around them.
Taking a strike to her barrel, Tree Hugger screamed out before collapsing to the ground, knocked unconscious from the pain.
Raising her crossbow again, Carrot Top let loose another barrage, only to watch in stomach-dropping terror as a cyan glow surrounded all of her projectiles and held them in place only feet from where she stood. Ducking behind her shield once more, the mare was blasted back by the force of the explosions, knocking her into the wall of the ruins and sliding down in an unconscious heap.
The disheveled form of Starlight took a step towards Applejack as the orange mare struggled to move Tree Hugger off of her without hurting her. Seeing Starlight raise her horn, Applejack could only try to shield herself with her forehooves as Starlight brought her horn down.
Wincing in anticipation of the oncoming pain, Applejack held still for a moment. As the moments passed by and nothing seemed to happen, Applejack ventured opening an eye to glance at the unicorn before her.
A baffled looking Starlight blinked in surprise at the lack of dead earth ponies and pointed her horn at Applejack once again, only for nothing to happen a second time.
Not sure what was happening, the two became aware of the sound of panting softly filling the otherwise still silence of the air. Turning to look, the two beheld Ms. Sparkle, hoof slammed down upon a button atop a silver box with wires extending to a ring of steel rods placed around the courtyard, each one glowing a silver white as they diligently sucked any magic away.
*huff huff huff* “Magic Suppression Field successfully tested and deployed.”
Completely stunned by the turn of events, Starlight was caught completely off guard by an armored hoof slamming her down to the ground. Standing atop of the now powerless unicorn, Applejack’s greaves hummed softly in grim warning as to what she would do if Starlight dared to move.
“Wait, the greaves; how are they still working when my horn isn’t?” Starlight questioned before being shoved further down by Applejack.
“Quiet you; you’re in no position to ask questions.”
“I never really thought about it before but my magic suppression device only absorbs ambient magic in the air like unicorn spells. Earth pony magic is transferred primarily through touch directly from the earth pony to their target,” Sparkle explained in a slight pant as she trotted up to the pair.
Seeing that her Granny was no where in sight and thankful to still be alive, Applejack looked at the town librarian with new appreciation. Turning back to the struggling unicorn beneath her she motioned towards Starlight with her muzzle, “so what do you think we should do with her?”
A pensive look crossed the other mare’s features as she gazed upon the trapped unicorn. Feeling a claw stroke her back, the little librarian looked over to her assistant as he silently urged her onward. Taking a deep breath, she moved forward. “What does Unitopia hope to gain from these ruins?”
Snorting contemptuously, Starlight looked away as she continued to attempt to unleash her magic. “Who cares about Unitopia? They’re the worst of the lot with their obsession with bloodlines and cutie marks.”
A sense of relief filled Sparkle as she felt the weight of her worries lessen considerably. So her family and home wasn’t caught up in some unsavory plot. Still, that still left so many other unknowns.
“Then who are you working for? And what did you hope to find in these ruins?”
“I’m not working for anypony!” Starlight shot back with such venomous force that it caused the lavender pony to stumble a step back.
“Hey, we heard you trying to yell at somepony,” Spike shot back, clutching at his partner's back.
“Ugh, I certainly don’t work for him. If anything it’s a partnership,” Starlight responded before turning away again to try to focus on her magic.
“Him? Him who? And what were you looking for here?” Sparkle pressed on, trying to re-engage the other pony. But her words seemed to fall upon deaf ears as the unicorn continued to stare at the opposite wall, her brow furrowed in tight focus.
“Hey, the lady asked you a question,” Applejack injected as she pushed once more at the mare beneath her hoof.
Still Starlight remained silent.
“Look, maybe if we knew what you were looking for we could…” trailing off Sparkle looked towards Applejack for assistance only to get a stern look of reproach in return.
“Do I need to remind you what she did tonight? I don’t care what she was looking for, or why. Nothing could excuse her for what she did.”
“I’m not looking to help her, just maybe if we knew more about all of this we could find some kind of-“
“Uh, guys?” Spike interrupted. “Are those rod things supposed to be getting brighter?”
Swinging her head to look at the magic suppression device and its array, the librarian saw that they were beginning to glow brighter, the absorption rods even beginning to hum slightly. Looking down towards their prisoner, Sparkle saw that Starlight wasn’t just looking away, she was focusing directly on a rod across from her, her horn now beginning to slowly emit a cyan field as she overloaded the prototype invention.
“Applejack! Her horn! You’ve got to –“Anything else Sparkle was about to say was lost as the control box of the magic suppression device gave a small pop and puff of smoke while Starlight’s magic erupted into an enormous dome of power, knocking everybeing back.
“Congratulations, you’re my new target!” Starlight roared as she fired off an azure beam of pure magical power at the prone form of the small earth pony.
Struggling to get back to her hooves, Sparkle froze in shock as her mind locked up at the sight of the deadly onslaught. Only to then have her vision blocked as a young reptile jumped in front of her.
“Look out!” Spike yelled before the beam of magic hit him, his head jerking back violently with the impact. Tumbling uncontrollably in the air, his body hit the ground behind everypony, bouncing once before slamming into the hard stone floor once again and coming to a stop.
“Spike!” Staggering to her hooves, Sparkle stumbled towards her assistant and only companion. Her breathing hitched and, choking, she collapsed to her knees, gently rolling the young dragon to his back. Gazing at him though brought a confused gasp as she saw the azure blast of power now firmly clamped in the jaws of the small dragon as he seemed to focus all of his concentration on crushing the magical attack. With a final grunt of effort, Spike bit down and swallowed the arcane energies, his dragon flame consuming the raw magic just as readily as it would one of his employer’s magic experiments. A loud burp followed as he smacked his lips.
“Hmm, tangy with a slight hint of sweetness, but a sort of burning garbage after-taste. I’d eat that again,” Spike mused on his meal.
“Spike, you scared the daylights out of me!” a relieved librarian shouted as she swept him up in a hug.
Slapping a hoof to her forehead, Starlight glared at the assembled group. “Really, does everything here have some sort of cheating ability?”
“Considering that you’re a unicorn with access to every type of magic there is, I don’t think you’ve got any room to complain,” Applejack noted.
“Heh, guess you’re helpless now that we know I can just eat anything you throw at us,” Spike gloated as he stood tall and placed his claws on his hips, his cocky smirk daring Starlight to try to shoot him again.
Glaring back in response, Starlight levitated a large piece of stone rubble up and, with a pulse of energy, broke off its outer edges, sculpting it into a stone spike half the length of an adult pony and pointed it directly at the dragon’s head.
“Eep!”
With half-lidded eyes, Sparkle watched as the formerly swaggering dragon scampered onto her back and held onto her neck for safety.
“Yah!” Vaulting over the two, Applejack kicked the stone spike out of the air. Hitting the ground hard with her forehooves, she reared her legs back and kicked out towards Starlight again, only for her hooves to hit air as the unicorn ducked under the blow and rush to the side.
Raising a shield, Starlight blocked Applejack’s follow-up strike. Blow after blow landed on the cyan barrier, but the unicorn held firm, pushing Applejack back and launching a fire-ball at her.
Leaping out of the way, Applejack put some distance between her and her target as she saw Ms. Sparkle toss a boxy cube covered with a speaker on each side at Starlight. A piercing wail erupted from the box, the skull rattling pitch threatening to break Starlight’s concentration. But rather than lose her grip on her magic, Starlight shot the cube and whipped her head towards the small mare.
Sparkle shrieked in surprise as her saddle bags suddenly began to glow. “No, no, no, no, no!” she desperately pleaded as she and Spike both grabbed onto the bags trying to keep them in place as Applejack once again began to charge towards Starlight.
But with a toss of her head, Starlight ripped the bags from Sparkle and, with a thought, crushed them both within her grip. Sparks and shrieks of torn metal filled the air and smoke poured out of the bags.
Laughing with glee, Starlight swung the ruined bags in a tight arc at Applejack, striking the surprised mare in the face with the make-shift metal sling and dazing the orange mare as she tumbled to the ground.
Looking at the destroyed remains of her tools, then to the downed form of Applejack, Sparkle stumbled back as the now confident unicorn advanced towards her. Staring straight into the eyes of her assailant, Sparkle gulped before steeling her expression and lowering her head in one last desperate attack.
Raising an eyebrow, Starlight cast an incredulous gaze at the pony and dragon combo before her. “You’re kidding right?”
Snorting out a puff of vapor, Sparkle pawed the ground with her right forehoof as she readied her charge, Spike leaning over to grip her neck even harder.
“What are you doing?” Spike asked nervously.
Stomping her hoof, Sparkle let out a desperate yell as she charged with all her might straight towards the amused unicorn.
“You’re not actually kidding?” an entertained Starlight giggled as she lowered her horn and retrieved the stone spike she had made earlier, pointing it at charging earth pony.
Screaming in terror, Spike gripped his roommate with all his might as he wished to be anywhere else at the moment.
Charging forward, Sparkle continued to yell as she rushed the unicorn, a flash of light enveloping her as Starlight shot out the granite javelin just as Spike shot off a panicked burst of dragon fire.
The magical green flames consumed the duo in an instant, the stone spike fired by Starlight passing harmlessly through the spot they occupied just a moment before.
Rearing back in surprise, Starlight watched as a vortex of green fire appeared behind her and, with a flash of emerald flame, a very confused earth pony and dragon dropped to the ground. Jerking her head left and right, Sparkle tried to orient herself at the sudden displacement as Spike continued to grip onto her neck, eyes bugged out in fearful shock.
Gathering her wits first, Starlight lashed out with a wild swing of her horn, an unfocused blast of force knocking the duo back towards Applejack before a much stronger spell sent all three crashing back into the ground and rooting them in place.
Her horn blazing with power, Starlight Glimmer stood over the two ponies and dragon that had fought so hard against her. “I’ll give you credit, you three actually gave me trouble, but it ends now.” Lowering her horn she pointed it directly at the group. “Any last words?”
Glaring at the unicorn, Sparkle and Spike were ready to cry out their defiance, when an orange hoof raised itself unsteadily up, catching everyone else by surprise.
“Um, if you don’t mind, I do have something that I’d like to say before we go,” Applejack bashfully admitted as she looked away from her companions.
“Uh, I wasn’t actually serious about that last word thing. It just felt like something I was supposed to say before blasting you all into oblivion,” Starlight admitted as she was taken aback from the blonde earth pony actually taking her up on her offer.
“Yeah, well, mean it or not, you’re the one that said it,” Spike injected.
“Right, and if you’re going to offer something like that then you have no pony but yourself to blame if somepony takes you up on it,” Sparkle added.
Coughing into her hoof, Applejack brought everyone’s attention back to herself. “I just wanted to tell you Ms. Sparkle, and you as well Spike,” she trailed off before taking a deep breath, “I’m sorry.”
“What?” the librarian asked incredulously.
“Yeah, what she said,” Spike added.
“Ugh,” Starlight grunted in disgust. “Are you kidding me?”
“Ever since we entered this forest, I basically wrote you two, Ms. Sparkle especially, off as well… a pain in the flank,” Applejack continued, bringing a look of hurt and surprise to the lavender pony’s face. “I never liked gossip or rumors and always tried to judge a pony on their own merits; I even tried to stand up for you whenever I heard somepony talking about you behind your back.”
Hearing this both Sparkle and Spike’s hurt subsided a bit but their confusion only grew as they tried to figure out what Applejack was getting at.
“But the honest truth of the matter is… I think you’re weird!” Applejack shouted as she lowered her head. “You came in on the same ship as Lyra Heartstings, but she’s become a fixture to nearly every birthday party and gathering. We practically know everything there is to know about that pony, from her favorite foods to her grandsire’s name. But you… I don’t think I’ve ever met another pony that tried so hard to be by themselves as you! I try to be a good member of the community; I try to get to know everypony and help them out whenever I can. But for the last year you’ve barely come into town and when you do, you barely say a word to anypony, you barely spend any time with anypony else, and you immediately head back to your library acting as if we all’ve got the plague. It’s just so...so...so frustrating trying to keep looking at the positives of a pony when you treat us like that. Tartarus, I don’t even know your first name!”
With each accusation, the librarian winced as she saw what her actions looked like to other ponies.
“So when you volunteered to help save my Granny, I should have been grateful, I should have been happy about it. But with Granny gone, I just didn’t have any time to spare for you. I needed your knowledge of the forest, but beyond that…” Taking a deep breath, Applejack looked sadly over to the other earth pony mare. “I just don’t know you, and with something so important as trying to get my family back, I was so sick with worry, so scared out of my mind, that I just thought, ‘I just don’t have time for this, she can just wait in the background as we REAL earth ponies go and get Granny back.” Lowering her head again, Applejack bowed towards the purple mare. “That was downright petty and wrong of me. I’m so sorry for putting you down and brushing you off at the beginning of this trip. You’ve more than pulled your weight and did more to fight Starlight than an entire group of ponies could.”
“Twilight.”
“Huh?”
Wiping her eyes with her forehoof, Twilight Sparkle lifted her remorseful gaze up from the floor to timidly meet Applejack’s gaze. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you Applejack Apple.”
Her eyes dampening as she took Twilight’s hoof, Applejack gave it a firm shake. “You can call me AJ if you like. To be honest, I never really cared that much for all that Stable silliness.”
Across the room, the shattered fragments of an orb softly began to glow.
“Oh shut up!” Starlight yelled, her face twisted into a furious scowl as she felt like vomiting at the sight before her. Her power flaring to life, several large stones lifted off the ground as she bound them together. One by one, more stones joined together, forming a massive slab to crush the remaining rescuers.
Letting go of Twilight’s hoof, Applejack reached deep within herself as she strained against Starlight’s spell holding them in place. Pouring all of her earth pony magic into her greaves, she sucked in a deep breath as she pushed harder than she ever had before to draw in more strength.
“Applejack, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, shocked as she watched the other mare strain against the magical bonds.
Taking a heavy step towards Twilight and Spike, Applejack grunted as she struggled to place herself above the prone pair. “I’ll try to keep that rock off of you two for as long as I can. Spike, you do your dragon magic voodoo to get Twilight and yourself out of here.”
Not taking his eyes off the growing mass of rocks above them, Spike took Twilight’s hoof. “Problem with that; I have no idea how I did that the first time.”
“Just means that you’ll have no idea how you do it the second time either,” Applejack remarked as she poured everything she had to keep herself between her new friends and Starlight’s spell.
Wracking her mind, Twilight tried to think of some way for all of them to get free. But even as one idea after another came to mind, her lack of tools forced her to discard them all. Cursing her own physical weakness, Twilight tried to move from her position only to barely drag herself a few inches before collapsing again. “Spike, AJ, I’m so sorry.”
Above them more stones floated up to join the growing mass, Starlight no longer daring to underestimate her opponents as she sought to create a veritable landslide to prevent any form of escape for the trio.
Holding her position, Applejack locked gazes with Starlight as the other pony placed the finishing touches to her spell. “Don’t worry you two,” Applejack’s calm voice reassured her companions, “you’re going to be alright,” she promised as her greaves pulsed with power once more. “You can trust me on that.”
As the last few stones were swept up in Starlight’s magic, a small assemblage of pebbles swept past Starlight and impacted with Applejack’s chest, an orange glow beginning to form.
Caught by surprise one too many times that night, Starlight flung the small mountain of stone at the trio before her. The massive aggregate blocking out the sky as it smashed not only into the floor, but overflowing and tearing though the surrounding walls as well. Everything in front of Starlight was obliterated as earth and stone scoured the landscape before her, wiping away anything that had stood in its path.
Panting, Starlight observed the aftermath of her attack. In front of her, the back portion of the castle ruins had been wiped out, a sea of shattered rocks strewn about. But even as she saw only destruction, her horn tingled with the feel of powerful magic. Gritting her teeth, she threw up a shield as the stone field exploded with brilliant orange light.
Eyes aglow with a bright white light, Applejack rose from the blast crater, a gleaming golden gorget set upon her neck with a luminous orange gem in the shape of an apple resting within its center. Behind her, Twilight and Spike were lifted in the air, free of Starlight’s power as they were set gently down, eyes wide in awe and surprise at the sight of their friend.
Floating down to the ground, Applejack’s rear legs touched the ground first as the rest of her gently touched down shortly thereafter. The very air around her was awash with a sense of ancient power, potent and deep. She threw her head back, and the very center of her being seemed to explode out into all directions, knocking Starlight back but seeming to pass harmlessly over Twilight and Spike. Washing over the prone form of Tree Hugger and sparking off the unconcious Carrot Top, the air beyond the castle began to howl and shriek in a cacophonous roar. Beyond the borders of the forest, the very tempests suddenly flashed brighter than day as thousands of lightning bolts tore across the horizon, as if trying to fight back against the tidal wave of force only to be snuffed out in the next instant, the ever present dark clouds of the tempests themselves being blow back.
“NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” an enraged Starlight screamed, the veins in her neck bulging as she frothed at the mouth. “That power was supposed to be mine! I was the one looking for it! I was the one who followed the clues! I was the one who searched this room first! So how is it YOU are the one with the element?!”
Her eyes slowly closing, Applejack let out a deep breath as she sagged in on herself. Stumbling for a moment like a new born foal, the large earth pony looked around in wonder before her eyes settled on the gorget she was now wearing. “I… I have no idea what just happened,” she answered in all honesty.
Her reserves of power depleted, Starlight struggled to get back up, to launch one last spell, to turn the tides one last time to her favor; only to collapse as her legs gave out beneath her.
Twilight tried to make her way to the unicorn mare's side but stopped as an echoing laughter filled the air.
“Oh what FUN that was,” mocked a smooth serpentine voice. “I must say, I’m rather surprised that you little ponies actually pulled it off.”
“Wha? Who’s there?” Applejack demanded as she, Twilight, and Spike circled the room with their eyes trying to find the source of the mysterious voice.
“You!” Starlight spat as she pulled back her lips in a hiss. “You said that I could find the power I need here, so why did it go to that pony?!” she accused as she pointed towards the confused Applejack.
“Oh, ho, ho, ho! I said that the power you seek would be here; I don’t remember actually saying that you would be able to obtain it though,” the voice chuckled, it’s merriment bouncing around the air and disorienting the rest of the group as they turned to and fro, trying to track the location of the voice.
Behind Starlight, a sound like tearing cloth filled the air as the claw of an eagle talon appeared and seemingly tore through existence, as a twisting miasma of solid black vapor with purple lightning arcing across it appeared.
“That’s a magical tempest cloud!” Spike yelped in shock.
From within the depths of the localized tempest, two yellow eyes with red pupils gazed outwards before a lion’s paw darted out and dragged an upset Starlight through. “Now, now, don’t worry my dear. There’s still plenty of other chances left. Just keep seeking your goal and providing me with entertainment and I promise you that you’ll get the power that you crave,” the hidden figure promised with a throaty chuckle. “Oh how good it is to see something NEW after so long! Quick, quick, my little ponies; give chase and fight the good fight, we’ll see you in Cloudsdale~,” the mysterious voice sing-songed.
With a flick of its wrist and a snap of its fingers, the storm clouds popped out of existence, leaving behind the confused group of the three newly-formed friends.