//------------------------------//
// Ch. 54 Rise 
// Story: The Gaps in F r i e n d s h i p 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

Aside from the soft crunching of the glowing flowers under her boots, the halls were silent as Applejack made her way through. If anyone saw her at that moment they would've thought that she was the picture of calm, that she was facing her current mission with unshakable convictions. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Underneath her calm mask was a hurricane of fear as she remembered her close encounter with the mistress of this maze. It was only for a second, but in that second she could feel the ferocity the Wraith had at her disposal. For that small moment, she felt like a monster had its fangs at her throat. 
She stopped, her calm breaths turning into panicked shaky pants as she stared forward into the dim halls. She looked down at her sweat-soaked trembling hands, a single thought running through her head.
C-Can Ah really do this?
"No!" she snapped, eyes closed tight as she took a deep breath. "None of that! Remember what Bonbon taught ya'."
She took another deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then slowly let it out. Little by little, her fear started to level out as she repeated her cousin's breathing exercise. After a few minutes, she was back in control of herself and resumed her walk. 
A small smirk spread across her lips as she thought of how much of a help her cousin had been the past few days. Even though she had Sunset's forgiveness, it was still difficult accepting it after everything she did. With a little help from Bonbon, that was gradually becoming less of an issue for her as the days went by. She chuckled as she thought back to how there little sessions started. 
Ah was a right heel throughout most of those, wasn't Ah? she thought with a rueful smile. Easy ta' see which of us got the family patience.


***


Sweet Apple Acres was a picture of peace, the last traces of winter snow making way for the first leaves of spring. At the heart of the northern orchard stood one tree that held sacred importance to the whole family. Standing before this sacred tree were two teens, one the direct descendant of the people the tree stood in remembrance of while the other was her distant cousin. Applejack looked around sheepishly, not exactly comfortable being near such an important landmark. 
"Do we need ta' do this here?" Applejack asked, eyes shifting nervously back and forth between the Memorial Tree and her cousin.
Bonbon gave a resolute nod and said, "You need to get in touch with your magic and this is the most magically charged place in the city."
"How do ya' know that?" she asked, crossing her arms and raising a brow.
"It's part of how my magic works," she shrugged. "If it's connected to the earth, I can find it."
"Bit of a stretch if ya' ask me," Applejack frowned.
Bonbon rolled her eyes before she sat herself cross-legged on the ground.
"Just humor me for a few seconds, okay?"
Rolling her eyes, Applejack did the same.
Don't really see the point in all of this. Responsibility's already givin' me lessons anyways.
"Hear her out," Responsibility chided. "Honesty's host may surprise you."
Grumbling, she mentally nodded as she reluctantly let herself see where this would go. Seeing that she had her stubborn cousin's attention, Bonbon smiled and took a deep breath.
"First, close your eyes."
Sighing, Applejack nodded and obeyed.
"Now," Bonbon continued, closing her own eyes. "Take a deep breath, count to ten, and slowly let it out through your nose."
Again, Applejack did as she was told.
"Good," Bonbon said, tone calm as steady as she guided Applejack. "Keep it up. You're doing great."
For several long minutes they kept at it, the farm girl's irritation slowly dwindling with each breath. It was strange. All she was doing was sitting and breathing, but she didn't think she had ever felt so relaxed in her life. It was as if all of the world's pressures had finally came off of her shoulders little by little with each breath. It was then that she felt a strange sort of pulse running through her body. It was similar to her heartbeat, or rather, it pulsed in synch with her heart as it flowed through her. The shock ruined her breathing and made her eyes fly open as she returned to reality, her hand flying to her chest as she she stared wide-eyed at the ground.
Bonbon chuckled a little and said, "You felt it, right?"
Applejack shifted her attention away from the ground towards her cousin and hesitantly nodded as she said. "Ah, felt somethin', that's for sure."
Bonbon nodded then said, "Let's see if you can feel that again."
Gulping, Applejack nodded as she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.
Soon, she found herself back in her previous state of calm. Again, she felt a series of pulses run through her along with her heartbeat. Now that she was expecting it, she let them wash over her as she concentrated on her breathing. Slowly, her awareness bled into the ground beneath her with each pulse. A small smile formed on her lips as she let what she slowly recognized as her magic run its course. 
A soft hand on her shoulder made her flinch, but its warmth eased her back into her previous mental state. On the shoulder opposite, a larger hand set itself into place as a new warmth filled her heart. The images of two people she thought she would never see again came to the front of her mind. One was a woman in her late thirties, her build full yet toned with a light green plaid short-sleeved button-up shirt and light blue jeans emphasizing her youthful figure. Her light peach skin and wild tangerine curls that reached the middle of her back added an extra sparkle to her light blue eyes as they stared down at Applejack. Eyes that shined with love that only a mother can have. At her side stood a tall mountain of a man, easily two heads taller than the farm girl next to him with a body built as strong as the trees he once tended. Like his wife, the man wore a plaid shirt, but his was a rusty shade of brown and countless discolored patches covered his aged jeans in random places. His skin was the same shade of golden yellow Applejack saw on her younger sister with the same red hair cut short and messy under his aged stetson. He gave her a warm smile as he looked down on Applejack with eyes as green as her own, the one reminder she had of him every time she looked in the mirror. Her eyes drifted open and widened. Bonbon was gone and in her place the very same figures appeared before her, each of them kneeling before her with a hand on her shoulders.
"M-Ma? P-Pa?" she stammered, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.
"Hey there Jacky," her father, Bright Mac, said, his smile just as she remembered it.
"Hi honey," Pear Butter beamed, her smile just as bright as her husband's as she met Applejack's eyes.
Her lips trembled as she brought shaky hands up to reach towards her parents. A new sea of emotions filled her as she stared at the two people she thought she would never see again. A part of her wanted to reject what she was seeing, that it was too good to be true. Her parents were long dead, buried in the family plot ten miles away in Canterlot Memorial. She was there the day their caskets were lowered into the ground and the third person to put dirt on the pile. Yet here they were, kneeled down to her level and just as she remembered them.
"H-How are y'all here?" she stammered. "Y-Yer dead. Ah-Ah was there! Y-Y-Yer gone..."
Pear Butter's smile turned sad as she reached her free hand forward and brushed some of her daughter's hair out of her face.
"Yer right," she sighed. "We're dead, but we're not gone."
"H-Huh?" Applejack stammered, a hand drifting to the same place on her face that her mother touched.
Bright Mac nodded, and added, "We're always with y'all Jacky. Remember what Ah always used to tell ya'?"
The young farmer nodded, then said a set of words that held more weight now than they had before.
"We're Apples. And Apples never leave their own behind."
They nodded and suddenly, a pair of hands appeared over their shoulders as two new figures formed behind them. Applejack didn't know who they were, but she smiled up to them as well as a feeling entered her bones. It grew as more people appeared behind them and more behind them as well. A seemingly endless pattern slowly grew before the girl as more and more people joined her and her parents in the orchard. When it finally stopped, the feeling Applejack had as she locked eyes with the hundreds of unknown faces became impossible to confuse. It was family. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew that everyone here was part of her family. 
"Someone's stolen an Apple from our orchard," Bright Mac said, a small frown marring his features as he and his daughter relocked eyes. "I say its time to get her back, don't you?"
Applejack paused, then smiled as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and gave a determined nod.
"Ah swear as an Apple that Ah'll bring Applebloom back."
Bright Mac's smile came back, both parents burning with pride as they nodded their approval before wrapping their daughter in a tight embrace.
"Ah know you will, Jacky," her father smiled. 
"Remember honey," Pear Butter cooed. "You've got the whole family behind you."
"Y-Yeah," Applejack smiled, her arms wrapped tightly around her parents. "A-Ah will mom. Ah love y'all."
"We love ya too," they said in unison.
Slowly, their forms became less solid as Applejack came back to the land of the living. With one last blink, all of the Apples from the past vanished with only one Apple of the present and one from a distant tree as the only people in the immediate area. Applejack's eyes were wide as she sat panting, the emotional whiplash of what she experienced taking a toll on her. When she finally managed to regain control of herself she looked up at a very pleased Bonbon.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"M-My family," she stammered. "Not just my folks, but their folks and beyond."
"I see," Bonbon hummed. "Makes sense."
"What does?" she asked.
"In meditation," Bonbon continued. "You need something to help you stay grounded. This can be anything really, but it has to be something that matters to you. For you, that thing is our family."
"My family," Applejack whispered, her eyes drifting down to her lightly sweaty palms.
"Want to keep going?" Bonbon asked.
Applejack nodded, a determined smile growing on her face.
"Yeah. Let's see what these lessons can teach me. Ah've got a sister to save and somethin' tells me Ah'm gonna need all the help Ah can get."


***


Applejack chuckled ruefully as she thought back on how taxing those sessions were on her. That combined with her dream training put a heavy toll on her in more ways than one, but she couldn't deny that it was all worth it in the end. It was as if a doorway to a whole new part of herself had been opened for her. She felt more focused, yet also aware of other routs she could take to get to her destination. It was all just a matter of picking the rout that best suited her at the moment. It didn't hurt that her magic took to her new shift in perspective like a fish to water. For a while, it felt like she was trying to wrestle the power into doing what she wanted it to do, but now, as she navigated Lily's labyrinth, she could feel her magic flowing in a way that felt a lot more natural. It felt like it had finally deemed her worthy of being its master.
A bright light at the end of the hall brought an end to her quiet musings on her life, a poisonous energy emanating from it to such a degree that even her flimsy detecting abilities could register it. The farm girl leveled a hard frown at the light as she doubled her pace. It was time to get to work and she was more than willing to do what she needed to do to get the job done.
In time, she stepped out of the hall into a massive room illuminated by much brighter versions of the same flowers that filled the labyrinth. At its heart stood a lone figure and the source of the rancid energy she felt earlier. The figure was a four-armed woman, her figure light and graceful with skin an ashy gray like a statue. She was balled with the sole exception being a long black braid that came down to her rear from the back of her head. Aside from a loose pair of gray belly-dancer pants and a matching strip of fabric covering her modest bosom, she was bare to the world as she stood there. Her eyes were closed as she held herself in a kind of meditative stance, two of her hands held together in front of her in a prayer-like fashion while her two upper ones were bent at her head's level with the hands open towards the sky as if they were holding some invisible object over her head, all while she balanced herself on a single leg while the other bent itself in a way that allowed her to place its foot on her inner thigh.
Applejack stayed on guard as she stepped further into the arena, her eyes locked fully onto the figure as she focused her magic into a spell. The figure opened her eyes the second the farm girl took her fifth step to reveal glowing pupilless golden eyes. 
The figure looked down her nose at her and said, "How the Mistress must detest me. Forcing me to deal with a traitor? How infuriating."
"You ain't Lily," Applejack growled, lips pulled into an unimpressed frown as she stared the woman down.
"No," she said flatly. "I am a seed made by the Mistress to eliminate all who walk this path towards her. Mar is what I go by."
"Nice ta' know," Applejack frowned. "Now, think ya' can get out of my. Ah don't have time ta' waste on ya'll."
Mar scoffed at that and shifted into a fighting stance.
"The nerve. A foolish traitor thinks she is worthy of the Mistress' presence? I will enjoy covering the walls with your blood."
Applejack stood unmoved as she glared hatefully at the seed.
"Ah ain't gonna' say it again. Get out of my way."
"Such stubborn pride," Mar scoffed. "The same trait that cost you a friend.
Applejack's eyes widened in shock at that. How had her opponent known about that? It wasn't a question she had long to ponder as Mar suddenly appeared in front of her. In a literal blink, a fist firmly planted itself in Applejack's gut followed shortly by an explosion that sent her flying across the room. An agonized gasp made it past her lips as she writhed on the ground, a part of her grateful for the Earth Pony durability Bonbon mentioned as she waited for the pain to pass. Mar didn't give her that chance as she appeared above her. Fists landed on her body in a furious rain, each impact ending with an explosion that slowly cratered the ground beneath them.
"Worthless scum," Mar sneered as she struck. "Those who live by an oath must be willing to die by it! Worthless maggots like you aren't worthy of the air you breath! Have you no shame or is a pitiful beast like you even capable of such a thing? It doesn't matter! Just do the world a favor and die. Die! DIE!!!"
At the end of her rant, Mar delivered one last punch, the explosion tripling the already massive crater and leaving a thick cloud of dust in the air. The seed let out deep gasping pants as she glared hatefully into the ground below her, the dust hiding the farm girl from her sight. Mar let out a frustrated growl as she pulled her fist back, blood coating the knuckles as she stood up straight.
"Scum," she spat then made her way back towards the center of the room. "Such a fragile soul could never be worthy of the Mistress' time."
"Ya got me there."
The seed stopped, a look of shock coloring her face as she slowly turned to face the voice in the crater. Out of the dust rose a battered and bruised Applejack, a stream of blood trailing from her nose as she glared at her attacker.
"Ah'm as big a piece of crap as you can get," she sighed. "Ah stabbed Sunset in the back the second things looked bad and Ah gotta' live with that for the rest of my life. All because Ah refused to listen to her side of the story. Ah'll never be able to really fix that, but that's not what Ah need to worry about right now."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pYHjyGdLAo
She leveled a hard glare at the seed and pointed a palm at her as she said, "Right now, Ah have a sister ta' save and you're in my way."
Mar let out furious screech and charged towards the lone teen, only to freeze as her center of balance took a sudden shift. A light green glow surrounded Applejack's hand as the feeling rapidly increased, the seed suddenly feeling herself being pulled backwards. A shocked scream made its way past her lips as she suddenly flew backwards into the wall behind her on the other end of the arena. The seed cursed under her breath as she tried to pull herself away from the wall only to find her center of gravity drawn to it. Slowly, she came to a find that she could actually walk on it as if it was the ground.
"What in the world?" she muttered.
"Neat trick, right?" Applejack said casually. "My magic let's me control gravity. As long as Ah can see it, Ah can affect an objects gravitational pull. Took a lot of work for me ta' figure out how ta' use it properly, but Ah think Ah've done a pretty good job, all things considered."
Mar's glare turned into a cold grin as she stared "up" at the farm girl.
"Yes. Quite the trick. Too bad it can be so easily countered."
As she said that, the "ground" beneath the seed's feet exploded as she jumped towards her. Applejack quickly stepped out the way as Mar flew towards her, the seed throwing a punch as she passed that barely missed her face. Applejack spun to face her just as Mar rolled onto her feet and charged in for another attack. The farm girl sported a cocky smile as she let her magic flow freely through her whole body, a light green glow covering her as her spell took effect. Mar threw a punch with both of her left hands at the girl's head only to be met with empty air as she disappeared. Shocked, she looked around just in time to see Applejack's haymaker come at her from her right at blinding speeds. The seed let out a pained yelp as the fist slammed into her face with the force of a freight train as she flew across the room.
What just happened? she thought, spitting out a glob of black blood as she dragged herself to her feet. For a moment, my body felt wrong.
"Had enough?" Applejack called, her body still glowing as she assumed a fighting stance.
"Silence," Mar hissed as she assumed a stance of her own. "A traitor like you will never best a loyal warrior such as I. Your petty tricks will only make my victory all the sweeter as I grind your head into the dirt."
"Just try it," she said, eyes narrowing as she glared down at the seed.
Mar grew a smile as she met Applejack's glare, then charged towards her. The farmer jumped back just in time to avoid a forward jab, but let out a startled yelp when a massive explosion exited the same fist pointed at her. A dense cloud of dust surrounded her from the explosion. Cursing under her breath, she carefully scanned her surroundings, her pony ears twitching as she searched for even the faintest trace of her opponent in the cloud. She didn't have to wait long before a pair of fists slammed into face followed by a pair of explosions that sent her flying. Cursing, she canceled her spell to return to her normal weight before she could become a big smear on the wall she slammed into. Trying to capitalize on her advantage, Mar charged towards her prey with a wide smile and four clenched fists. Applejack waisted no time casting her next spell as she pointed a glowing hand at the seed. Mar let out a surprised gasp as a similar faint glow surrounded her before her body slammed itself into the ground like a lead weight. Applejack pried herself out of the wall and laid her free hand onto her chest a she cast a spell onto herself and jumped. Mar watched with wide eyes as the girl seemed to fly into the air, easily reaching a hundred feet into the air right above the seed. A look of pure rage formed on Applejack's face as she changed the spell she casted on herself from one that made her lighter to something much more useful in her current position. With a furious cry, she came down on the seed like a meteor, the increased weight of both her spells leaving a deep crater on impact that spanned the entirety of the arena's floor. Mar's mouth hung open as wide as her eyes, deep globs of black blood pouring out of her mouth in as she gasped in pain. 
"Ah told ya' ta' get out of my way," Applejack growled, her glare remaining as she slowly removed her boot from the seed's crushed chest. "Hopefully, Ah didn't waste too much time getting past ya'."
As she said that, she turned to make her way towards the exit only to pause as her opponent staggered back to her feet. She sighed, then turned to face Mar with a flat expression. A part of her could admire the seed's determination, but a bigger part of her was growing more annoyed by her desire to keep her held up here. She had more important things to do than deal with an enemy that didn't know how to stay down.
"You think this is enough, traitor?" she coughed. "While I will admit that you have power, it still pales in comparison to what my Mistress has given me."
"Stop," Applejack said flatly. "Take a look at ya'. Y'all're barely standin' and Ah'm still rarin' ta' go. Ya' can't win this."
"We shall see," Mar grinned, reaching into her pocket for something. "You are not the only one with a stubborn streak traitor."
With that, she pulled a jagged shard of violet crystal out of her pocket and rammed it into her thigh. Manic cackles filled the air as the seed's body started to crack, deep and jagged breaks in her skin forming in rapid succession as black smoke poured out of her. With a massive explosion, the remains of the seed was consumed by a dark cloud of black smoke. When it cleared, a new monstrosity stood before Applejack. While the creature had the same general shape of Mar, the monster was made entirely of pitch black flames with a single strip of silver flame taking the place of her braid. Her eyes were still golden, but now glowed with a bloodlust beyond anything the teen had ever felt.
"Now," she said, her voice echoing with the sound of crackling flames. "Show me what you are truly capable of, traitor."
The fire demon instantly closed the gap between her and her opponent and slammed a fist into her. Applejack's eyes widened as new pain shot through her in the form of an earth-shattering explosion that sent her flying. All of the air flew out of her as she slammed into a wall. She couldn't even spare a breath to scream as Mar closed in on her and rained blows upon her. The room ran with thundering booms as the seed's literally explosive blows tore into Applejack's body, blood leaking from her nose and mouth as she tried to endure the assault. Her vision blurred as her consciousness started to fade away. Was this it? Was this how she was going to die?
Images of her life came to her in brief flashes as her senses faded. She saw the day she helped her parents in the orchard for the first time. The day she met her friends  in the first grade. The day Big Mac and her burned their first pie together. The day Applebloom was brought home after she was born. Like a switch had been flipped, countless memories of the young Apple came to the front of her mind in a near overwhelming wave. Her first tooth. Her first day in kindergarden. Her first steps. The day she met Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle for the first time. After their parent's died, she, Big Mac, and Granny Smith had all raised the girl like their own daughter with all the love they could muster. Now, it was time to bring her back home!
Applejack's eyes refocused as she came back to the world and all the pain that came with it as she glared into Mar's eyes.
Ah ain't dead yet and I don't intend ta' die anytime soon neither! Ya' want my best? Fine! Let's see if ya' can take it!
A bright light surrounded her as the farm girl poured all of her magic into one last spell, the air around her shaking in the face of the power she was about to unleash. With a bellowing cry, she let the power out in one massive burst. Mar let out a startled yelp as she flew back, her body slamming wholly into the wall on the opposite end of the room as the teen's magic flooded the room in a massive malstrom of power. A cough made its way past her lips as Applejack pried herself out of the wall, her eyes glowing green as she staggered to the center of the room. Mar tried to pull herself off of the wall, but no matter how hard she tried her body refused to move. It was as if a great press held her in place as she watched her enemy get into position. 
"Ya' know," Applejack growled, glowing eyes glaring a hole into the seed. "Everythin' in the world has its own gravity field. Ah never knew that before all of this bull honky. Even the air we breath has it. Thin' is, ya' gotta' be really big for it to make any real difference. It's kind'a like everythin's tied to other thin's by chains; the bigger the thin' the more chains they have. Pretty fittin' all thin's considered."
As she said that, she raised a hand above her head. Slowly, a small green shackle formed on her wrist. Aside from its glow and color, it was rather unremarkable at first glance. That quickly changed when hundreds of small chains formed on its perimeter, the emerald links spanning out across the entire battlefield like an intricate spiderweb. Mar took in the sight with wide eyes full of wonder only for it to turn to dread when she saw that five of the links were connected to her as well.
Applejack's glare turned colder as she clenched her raised hand into a tight fist and said, "This kind of power takes a lot of work to figure out, but one thin' Ah learned real quick about it is this."
She took a deep breath, then yelled, "It can break the world in seconds!"
As she said that, she swung her hand down, snapping all but the handful of chains connected to Mar. All hell broke loose immediately as every loose stone, flower, and grain of dust flew towards the seed in a merciless tsunami wave of destruction. An agonized wail was barely snuffed out along with its source as several thousand pounds of force slammed into the greatest source of gravitational pull in the middle of Applejack's spell. The effect continued to intensify as every shattered stone and grain of dust was added to the pile even as said stones continued to break on impact. Applejack increased the power, adding to Mar's gravitational pull as she fed more magic into her spell. Eventually, the pull got so strong that all of the debris and the seed herself were compressed into nothing but a single pebble. Only then did Applejack finally let the spell cancel itself and the glow from her eyes and wrist along with it.
She fell to her knees and gasped, the strain of using her Gravity Well Spell immense as she waited for her battered form to catch up. While not that difficult to cast, control for it became more difficult to maintain depending on the area she was casting it on. In addition to that, she couldn't move while the spell was in effect as she had to use herself as the central anchoring point for the area of effect. It was for those reasons that she preferred to use her Gravity Hammer or Light Foot Spells for offense and Wall Waker Spell to disorientate her opponent. On top of being much more flexible, those spells required a lot less magic from her to maintain.
As she waited for her body and magic to recover, her eyes wandered towards the pebble that was once Mar. Her lips curved into a determined frown as she crawled towards it. When she finally made it to the stone, she picked it up and glared at it before she put it in her pocket. An exhausted groan made its way past her lips as she rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky, a small handful of glowing flowers giving the arena a gloomy form of broken light.
Ah am a traitor. The lowest of the low. Ah took someone Ah claimed was family and pushed them into doin' somethin' that can't be taken back. Ah know that their's no way Ah can change any of that.
A resolute nod came out of her as one last thought echoed through her head.
But Ah will do what Ah can ta' make up for it. Thats a promise.