Trixie was the one to notice the river, after we’d already followed it halfway back to Ponyville. “Hey, wait up a minute. You’re still filthy, now’s the perfect time to get cleaned up.”
I paused to look over the embankment. The water looked about knee-deep, and flowed fairly quickly. It also looked clean, free of mud, and that was a welcome change after having spent so long trudging through the stagnant bayou of the Hayseed swamps. Distantly, I wondered if the bookstore where I had first awoken might be upstream from here, or if it might have been a different river entirely. “Okay. C-can you w-watch for d-demons?”
“Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.” Trixie sat down by the side of the road, while I undid the belt holding my sheathed sword, and started to work on my padded barding. As I tugged a few straps loose with my teeth, I looked up and noticed Trixie was watching me intently. When I tilted my head at her, she raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Y-you’re st-staring…?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you’re modest now! You were naked as a foal when they tossed you in the cell.” She wrinkled her muzzle in disgust. “Besides, you are most certainly not Trixie’s type. She does not do pegasi, and if she did, she would prefer ones that didn’t look quite so much like a walking corpse.”
“Th-then why w-were you st-staring?” At this point, the reminder of how I looked barely even stung, though I couldn’t blame her. Those inclinations had apparently died when I had, but I certainly had little interest in Hollows myself.
Trixie coughed, and pointedly looked away. “I was just watching to make sure you didn’t drop our macguffin, as it were.”
“Our w-what?”
“The stupid horseshoe. You shoved it into your barding, remember? I certainly don't feel like fishing it out of the river, should you drop it. But I would have caught it, if you had.”
I hadn’t forgotten, but I also hadn’t exactly planned out how to retrieve the heirloom from against my breast. I had, in fact, planned for it to fall out at some point while stripping my armor. But Trixie had a point, I probably shouldn’t have done that while looking downhill. I moved back over the embankment to the road somewhat sheepishly, and continued to undo the armor.
“I can hold it for you while you bathe, if you’d like. So we were sure it was safe.” Trixie said, as she stood up.
I looked back up at Trixie, as I felt the weight of the horseshoe against my breast. “S-safer than in m-my armor?”
“Sure! Hundred times safer, with me.”
I gave Trixie a very long look, and eventually shook my head. “D-don’t tr-trust you. Wh-what’s to st-stop you fr-from running b-back to P-Ponyville, and c-cutting me out?”
“Whaaaaat? Trixie would never!” She laughed and put on a smile that was wider than I had ever seen from her, far too wide to be genuine. “You’re my assistant! I need you...uh...you...Hollow…” Trixie waved her hoof in the air as she awkwardly fumbled with her memory for my name.
“H-Holly,” I filled in for her, furrowing my brow crossly. “And n-now I’m c-carrying this w-with me w-while I b-bathe.”
“Oh come on!” Trixie groaned, but eventually she did sit back down at the top of the embankment, as I continued to strip my armor. The horseshoe fell out onto the road a moment later, and I was quick to grab it in my teeth, before I looked directly at Trixie. She let out an indignant huff, and turned to watch the fog around us.
The rest of my barding fell loose a moment later, and I sighed in annoyance through my clenched teeth, as I realized I should probably take it into the river with me. I needed to scrub the blood out; it wouldn’t matter how clean I was, if I pulled my filthy armor back on right afterwards. It was good that I already had the horseshoe clenched between my teeth, as that would have given Trixie the perfect opportunity to grab it and run. I pulled the loose barding over my back, and turned back around.
It was only a couple leg-lengths down the embankment to reach the water, and I slid down the soft dirt and dead grass to land with a slosh. The impact kicked up a cloud of mud, but the river was moving fast enough to sweep it all away, so that didn’t worry me. More clouds of brown were kicked up as I waded in deeper, but I found a good enough spot to start scrubbing soon enough.
I pulled my barding back off, and sat back in the water, though I gasped through my teeth as I did. Cold! Very cold water, colder mud! I continued to hiss in discomfort as I held the bloody barding to my breast, and I focused on my fire to try and warm me from within while I worked. It wasn’t terribly effective, as the heat was quickly wicked away by the stream.
It worked well enough to wash, though. I held my barding between my hooves and rubbed them together to loosen up the blood, and streams of dark red soon joined the disturbed mud as it flowed downstream. The barding soaked up water all too well, and the ichor had soaked it deeply, so I couldn’t squeeze all of it out with my bare hooves. The best I was eventually able to manage was nothing more than dilution of the stain, as I spread it thin across the rest of the barding. Eventually, the wool turned a sickly pink, and I decided that was fine, so long as it was comfortably flexible once more. I tossed the barding onto a smooth river rock to dry, and focused on myself for a little bit.
It was surprisingly hard to force myself to splash cold water over my bare flesh. I hissed and groaned as I shivered in the river, but it helped when I began to lower myself down so the water came up to my neck. After I’d grown a little accustomed to the frigid river, I rolled onto my side and began to scrub gently at one foreleg with the other.
After a few moments of this, I sighed. The flesh of my forelegs, across my whole body, certainly felt loose and uncomfortable. I had to know if it was fragile as it felt, or if my body just felt terrible from the pain of death. It wasn’t fun, but I was careful, and focused on my off-hoof, near the end of my leg. There, I began to vigorously scrub at the flesh, to find my limits through trial and error.
Ichor immediately began to filter downstream in black streamers, and it clouded around my hoof as I continued to scrub. The raw flesh underneath burned when exposed, and as the cold water pierced deep into the wound, I decided that was enough to know for sure. I pulled my hoof from under the darkened water, and as fresh ichor ran down my leg, I examined the damage.
I had not reached bone, nor muscle, as I had feared. Instead, it seemed as though only the topmost layer of flesh had begun to slough off, like shed snakeskin. Most of it was held in place with clumps of colorless fur, and a little bit more experimental rubbing loosened that. The flesh underneath was still raw, and looked gaunt, or perhaps dehydrated. But it had the appearance of tough leather, and as I rubbed the sensitive flesh, it did not shift like the topmost layer had. Like rust on a metal surface, I merely had to scrape it away.
Trixie glanced down after a short while to see what had taken me so long already, but judging by her repulsed expression, it didn’t look great. Especially not whenever I looked downstream, at the dark red trail I had left as the water flowed around me. Hopefully, nopony was drinking from this river down there.
I had finished my forelegs, and was working on my hinds, when the first bottle splashed into the water beside me. It hit the stony bottom and shattered, and its contents instantly turned the river purple and cloudy around me. I was still working out what exactly had impacted nearby when the poisoned water washed over my raw flesh, and my legs instantly began to burn with pain while I gagged from sudden nausea.
That gag caught Trixie's attention,and she glanced down at me with obvious disinterest. "Have you only just understood how disgusting- what the hay?!" Her eyes turned wide as she saw the whole river dyed purple, and how I was dry heaving in the middle of it.
The second potion was whipped directly at her, and she snarled as she dodged to the side. It exploded into glass and curling vines that burned with chaosfire behind her, and she dropped into a low stance as her horn came aglow. "Hollow, we're being attacked! Get up here!"
I started to struggle towards the shore, my body still wracked by nausea, but I had only sloshed a short distance before something heavy landed squarely on my back. I was slammed downwards, and my whole body was dunked under the ice-cold water. Poison totally enveloped my form, as the weight atop my back used my spine as a springboard, and they leaped onto the hill to face Trixie directly.
My world was frigid water, a stinging pain that attacked from every direction, and the sense of nausea from within that made me want to cough my guts out into the stream. Brackish bile clouded the water around my face, and I had to force my hooves down against the slippery-smooth stones of the riverbed for any hope of escape. I breached the surface, and the cold air stung against my soaked body.
At least my eyes were unobscured, and what a sight they could see. At the top of the embankment, a dozen Trixies stood in a circle around our attacker, who I could finally look at clearly. There was no mistaking that red mane, or her faded yellow fur, or the repaired billhook she swung through one of the illusionary Trixies; Apple Bloom had tracked us down already, and now there was nowhere to run.
At least Trixie kept her attention as I struggled to climb out of the river, with my body wracked from the poison. Apple Bloom did notice as I climbed up the hill, but a glowing bolt of magic whipped past her head, and she decided I wasn’t as big of a problem.
I had lost the horseshoe in the river at some point. Maybe when I had first been afflicted with the poison, or maybe when Applebloom had used my back as a stepping stone, but it definitely wasn’t between my teeth any more. Part of me wanted to laugh, as I gagged and scraped at my twitching flesh. You would think she, of all ponies, would want to see such an heirloom returned. Perhaps she cared more about slaying us than any history her family might have.
As the poison bled from my body and ran down the riverbank, I watched Trixie and Apple Bloom as they dueled viciously. I hadn’t taken Trixie for a fighter before, and I was right in doing so; even now, she never actually struck Apple Bloom herself, or was struck by her. Instead, the multitude of Trixies around us ducked and wove evasively, and they swept in as one to strike—but that strike never came, and as Apple Bloom dodged the spot where Trixie’s bare hooves converged, she was caught off guard by a sparkling bolt of magic that came from a location unseen. Trixie wasn’t in the melee at all, but had hidden herself somewhere nearby while Apple Bloom tried to batter her illusions.
Unsurprisingly, the filly grew sick of the situation after the bolt struck her, and she tossed a fresh potion onto her billhook before she swung it over her head. The potion whipped toward the source of the magical bolt, and Trixie appeared from thin air, to whip her hat off her head and catch the potion with it. It disappeared inside, and Trixie smirked as her horn flashed, and three more Trixies peeled away from her and galloped at Apple Bloom.
This time, Apple Bloom didn’t bother with them, and remained focused on where Trixie had disappeared. So when the right most Trixie spun around to buck her in the chin, Apple Bloom was very surprised to suddenly be struck in the jaw. Even though Trixie was a unicorn, it clearly hurt, and the filly staggered, before she shook her head, and turned her eyes on me.
My rest was suddenly over. I scrambled to my hooves as Apple Bloom galloped at me, and I leapt atop my sheathed sword as she whipped her billhook upwards into my naked belly. Pain erupted across my underside, but I grabbed the sheathed sword and dragged it with me as I was thrown back onto the embankment.
Multiple Trixies galloped towards us from the road, with one riding confidently atop another’s back, but the real Trixie stopped to balance on her hinds while she whipped her hat back off. From it, she withdrew the potion Apple Bloom had thrown at her earlier, and Trixie used her magic to launch it at the filly’s back while she was focused on savaging me.
Apple Bloom was completely caught off guard when her own potion shattered against her body, and she screamed as her flesh began to bleed from every pore touched by the liquid. I jammed my scabbard between my teeth and rolled away as I clutched my belly with one hoof. I had to keep myself in one piece at least long enough to fight off Apple Bloom; I could only allow myself to collapse and begin regenerating once she was defeated or forced to retreat.
Apple Bloom was clearly not about to do either. Instead, she scraped at her back, wiping off as much of the serum as she could, then snarled at us both. Trixie hesitated as Apple Bloom drew another flask from a bag at her side; suddenly I realized she was no longer wearing her bandoleer. Instead, she had completely replaced it with Zecora’s bottomless bag, no doubt looted from my Hollow mentor.
It wasn’t the only thing she had taken. The flask she withdrew was none other than Zecora’s flask of sunlight, and Trixie looked confused as the filly chose not to attack her with it. Instead, Apple Bloom popped out the silver cork with her teeth, and then poured the glowing liquid over herself, and down her throat. A brightly incandescent glow suffused Apple Bloom from within, and her wounds began to heal themselves right before our eyes. The bleeding came to an immediate halt, while the shallow wounds Trixie had blasted into her with her fireworks filled themselves back in. Apple Bloom suddenly looked healthier than she ever had before, as the liquid slowed to a dribble, and she re-corked it before sliding it back into the bottomless bag.
“Ohhhh, now that’s just rude!” Trixie accused Apple Bloom, as two more of her clones circled around the filly. “Healing in the middle of a fight—the nerve! The gall! The confidence!”
Apple Bloom swept her billhook through both of the clones, as Trixie narrowed her eyes. Meanwhile, I looked at my hoof, and the wound it covered. While my ichor was as dark as ever, it didn’t feel like a deep wound, just a painful one. I managed to struggle to my hooves as Apple Bloom strode towards Trixie, and ducked under the occasional firework spell.
Trixie didn’t even move as Apple Bloom swung her billhook viciously down, and then through, the illusionary Trixie’s head. As she howled again in frustration, I began to stagger towards her, and finally drew my sword. I hadn’t the time to properly fasten my scabbard to my side, so I dropped it onto the road, and clenched the grip between my teeth. I had to be ready to swing as soon as I got close, and couldn’t take the time to transfer the sword to a hoof before I struck.
Apple Bloom noticed my approach, and when I swung the blade at her head, she easily blocked it with the shaft of her billhook. Then she tried to use where the blade had dug into the wood for leverage, as she grabbed the head and swung the other end of the tool at my underside, but I saw it coming, and released the grip from between my teeth. Apple Bloom was suddenly off balance, with my sword throwing off the weight of her staff, and I grabbed the end that had been intended to stun me.
She swore as we both yanked on our respective ends of the weapon, and she suddenly pushed it instead, which caused the end to jab me viciously. It stung, but didn’t break the skin, and now I had more leverage to yank the billhook into my own hooves. Apple Bloom barely even fought, and instead her pyromancy flame appeared in her hoof. A great flame began to coalesce as she prepared a spell, but a firework from Trixie slammed into her side again with a concussive ‘bang’ that left us both dazed for a moment. The ball of fire in her hoof dissolved into a mere shimmer of heat, and I swung the sharp end of the off-balance billhook at Apple Bloom like a halberd.
The filly simply smacked the shaft of the billhook away with one hoof, while the other slammed into my muzzle, and I sprawled backwards onto the wet road. The billhook tumbled from my hooves, and Apple Bloom spun around to face Trixie once more. As soon as I had recovered from a few brief moments of dizziness, I rolled over to grab the billhook once again, and tried to tug my sword free, with the intent of separating the two weapons.
While I worked at that, Trixie and Apple Bloom were preoccupied with each other, and the magician was really putting on a show. Trixie stood up straight, as her horn burst into a hundred motes of glowing sorcery, and they all immediately curved towards Apple Bloom. For her part, the filly did an amazing job of dodging a great deal of them; not that it mattered, because only a single one of the magic arrows was real to begin with. Apple Bloom had tired herself out dodging around the swarm of spells, and so when the absolute last one to impact her turned out to be real, it slammed into her back and drove her down into the grass.
I saw a chance to strike, and I scrambled to my hooves, with my sword gripped in my teeth once more. As I stood, I found a copy split away from me, and together, we ran towards Apple Bloom. This time, she guessed correctly, but her hesitation allowed me to tackle her. I remembered the hogs I had fought not so long ago, and dropped my sword into my hooves as I reared up to strike.
Apple Bloom had no escape, but she was not defenseless. When I brought my sword down towards her barrel, she pushed her hooves up to block it, and the blade hacked brutally into her leg instead. The teenager howled in pain under me, and I froze at the sound.
Her hinds found my belly, and she kicked me away as hard as she could, which sent me flying a few body lengths away. Trixie leapt in to continue her own assault, and I stood to see Apple Bloom batting wildly at several illusionary Trixies all around her with my sword and her hinds while her foreleg spurted blood. Finally, one of the Trixie was revealed to be the real one when Apple Bloom bucked wildly, and the rest disappeared into sparkling magic as Trixie sprawled across the road.
By then, I’d galloped back into the fight, and I charged into Apple Bloom’s side to knock her back down. She dropped my sword beside us as she fell, and I steeled myself as I grabbed it with my hoof. There was no time to negotiate, no time to allow for hesitation, no time to let her escape. We needed to put a stop to this, right now, before Apple Bloom injured one of us badly enough that the other was easily slain as well. Before she could hurt any pony (or zebra) ever again.
Apple Bloom’s breast and barrel were exposed as she flailed, and I grunted as I brutally plunged the tip of my sword into her underside. It pierced all too easily, and the blade slid in between her ribs as I speared her all the way up to the hilt. She gasped as the embers of her eyes went wide, and Apple Bloom pushed me away suddenly, before she started trying to pull out the sword. But the grip had already turned slick with her blood, and all she managed was to wiggle it inside her own breast as she gasped painfully for air.
I was transfixed with growing horror as I watched the teenager fight for her life on the broken road. I slumped to a sitting position, and the filly writhed in pain before me. I had done it. I had defeated Apple Bloom, with Trixie’s help. This was vengeance for Zecora, for the fallen residents of Baton Verte. I should have been overjoyed to have finally overcome her.
Why did it pain my soul so dearly?
Trixie joined me a few moments later, though her steps were pained and clumsy, and she stumbled as she passed by me. “Ah! Uh, hah. Very- very nice work, assistant! Looks like a fatal blow, so she’ll bleed out in a few minutes without that stupid flask to save her.” Trixie’s gaze turned to me. “Now! Perhaps you should explain why this Hollow attacked us, hm?”
I swallowed, to try and clear a lump in my throat. It didn’t go away. “Th-this is Ap-Apple Bloom. The f-filly that at-attacked us on th-the way t-to and f-from Baton V-Verte.”
“Ahhh, I remember now,” Trixie said with a smirk. “She drained your old mentor, didn’t she?”
Before I could respond, Apple Bloom interrupted me, though her voice was pained and low. “You c-can’t. Can’t cure this. Can’t be allowed to cure this. Won’t l-let you.”
“W-why?” I asked, as I stamped hoof against the road between us. “J-just tell m-me why! Why d-do all th-this? K-kill Z-Zecora? H-hunt me down?”
Apple Bloom’s body was wracked with a bloody cough, and fresh blood seeped from her wound around my blade. “C-can’t know. Can’t be allowed to know. Nopony else would understand her sacrifice, ev-everything she’s done for us all. You’d hunt her down, slay her for your own gain.”
I took a few steps closer, until I was close enough that I easily could have pulled the sword free. Trixie came with me, and watched us intently as I begged. “P-please. I’ll t-try my b-best to un-understand. P-please just t-tell me.”
“Can’t,” Apple Bloom snarled. “Can’t tell you. Will-will never tell you. You’re t-too dangerous. Too c-close to ruining it all. Need to k-kill you, kill all the ponies that Z-Zecora told.”
I groaned in frustration, as Apple Bloom tried to pull the sword from her chest once again with limp hooves. Trixie huffed, and shook her head in annoyance. “Tell me, did this Zecora educate you on how to drain a pony’s fire for yourself?”
I jerked back as if stung. “W-wha? N-no, never! C-couldn’t do t-that-”
Trixie interrupted me with a snort. “Really? After this fight? After she’s killed your mentor? After she’s told you that she’s going to keep trying to kill you, over and over?” Trixie pointed at the teenager again. “She’s not playing around, you heard her. When she’s standing over you like this, do you think she’s going to let you walk away as well? No. She’s going to drain you dry, and leave your soulless body wandering.”
“T-there has to b-be another w-way...She’s Ap-Applejack’s s-sister, she’d kn-know what t-to do-”
“You’d trust that hick?” Trixie laughed. “She’s just as bad! She wouldn’t recognize her, and if she did, she’d be more preoccupied with punishing you than locking her up. Those Apple idiots are all the same, they put family above anything else. Trying to ingratiate yourself to her, trying to appeal to her good side, that’s a fool’s errand.”
Trixie stomped her hoof, and I flinched. “Don’t you see? You have to, with as close as you are. There’s no redeeming mad Hollows like this. Docile ones, you can work around, but the last bit of sanity in this pony’s skull is convinced that you are her enemy. After she drains you, she’ll just find another, until it’s just her alone in the world. How many others has she already drained?”
I trembled, and looked back at Apple Bloom’s face for any trace of the filly she must have been at some point. All I saw was a feral, snarling maw as blood dribbled down her cheek.
Trixie shook her head. “We end this now. I refuse to be hunted like an animal, even by association. So if you don’t drain her, I’m going to.”
Another lump in my throat. Would I want that? Would that absolve me of killing this filly? And Zecora…they’d both be dead, with nothing to show at all because of it. What was the point of all this? Just Hollows killing Hollows?
The thought of Zecora having died, and going unavenged, that was too much to bear. I shook my head. “I’ll…I’ll d-do it. T-teach m-me how.”
With a satisfied huff, Trixie nodded. “Finally. Alright, assistant, so how much do you really know?”
I shrugged limply. “I kn-know how to f-feel my f-fire, and simple c-combustion…”
“That’s all?” Trixie raised an eyebrow in disbelief, but I nodded. After a moment, Trixie huffed again. “Maybe that’s why she took you as an apprentice...if you’re telling the truth, then you’re a bright little spark. Alright. Close your eyes, and focus on your fire.”
I did so, and my fire began to flicker and flare as I breathed deeply. The river smelled clean, and the air was cold, but it was tinged by the distant burnt scent of the Everchaos. I could hear Trixie’s calm breathing, and the panicked gasps and whimpers of Apple Bloom as she trembled against the road. I couldn’t see what Trixie meant about my fire; it seemed just as meager and fragile as it ever had.
“Expand your awareness. Feel my fire, and feel the fire of this idiot. Sense us both around you, and find your body in relation to the three flames. Your hoof is a conduit, to and from your soul. When you invoke combustion, you’re focusing your fire within. This time, focus on her fire, and raise your hoof.”
I swallowed, and my shaking hoof rose to point at the fire before me. Was I really about to do this? Could I really bring myself to end this filly, even one so maddened?
Trixie gave me no time to hesitate. “Draw her fire in along your hoof, so it flows through you and joins with your own. It’s going to take a little bit of time, just keep pulling until you feel it. Like a straw. You’ll know it when it happens.”
I clenched my teeth, and grasped Applebloom’s fire. It felt alien, to manipulate the soul of another pony. It felt like the worst crime I could ever commit, to steal such a thing. But Apple Bloom would have no such reservations. As I pulled, my eyes opened, and they met Apple Bloom’s own. As both tears and pink fire seeped from her empty sockets, Apple Bloom repeated, “C-can’t be allowed. Can’t let you f-find her. Won’t let you st-steal it from me.”
“Wha-what do y-you mean-”
That was all I managed to utter in confusion, before heat, warmth, life—all of the sensations of a living, breathing pony—overwhelmed my senses. I was ripped from my own body as the world dissolved around me, and I wanted to gasp in pain, or in bliss, as I was alive again.
I was staring at a pure white teenaged filly, and the colors around me were beautiful. We stood on a steel catwalk over a black lake that tinged blue around the edges, and the trees around us bloomed in brilliant autumn colors. Even the sky seemed so much clearer, so much more blue and orange in the light of the sunset. The filly’s mane was purple and pink, and her eyes were green, as was the coronal glow from her horn. She wore a stunned expression on her face, of shock and confusion and terror, and as I watched, she shook her head.
“We can’t let anypony know about this. They wouldn’t understand. They’d rip this entire place apart if they thought it would cure them of this curse.”
“Not a curse.” I felt my own mouth move, without any control over it. I felt my tongue roll and fold as I spoke, a prisoner in my own—no, somepony else’s body. “A gift. Her gift. This is an incredible thing, if’n Ah understand how you explained it to me.”
The filly didn’t look so convinced. “You...you really think so?”
“Ah know so. And Ah know you’re right. We oughta protect this place, keep it safe.”
The filly shook her head, and pointed back down the catwalk. My eyes followed her hoof, and I glanced across the building we stood beside, which seemed to be a massive warehouse with walls made of cloud, and high windows set into the walls, miraculously unbroken.
“What about them? They’re using...it, for their rituals, draining this place.”
“That’s fine,” I shrugged. “You teach them how to do it right, Sweetie Belle. Teach them the limits, so they don’t damage it. They already see the effects, even if they don’t understand what exactly they mean. And the spellwork they’re usin’, ain’t seen nothing like it. We could end this stupid war in half a day with those kinda spells.”
Sweetie Belle looked back at me nervously. “I don’t...maybe.” She shivered like a leaf, as a cold wind blew in over the lake, and the building wobbled slightly atop the water. “I’m not a fighter, Apple Bloom, but if you think this could lead to peace…”
I could feel myself smirk. “Lucky for you, Ah am a fighter. I’ll run interference, keep mah sis off your back. Keep anypony from trying to ‘fix’ us in the meantime. Can’t abide such dangerous foolishness.”
Sweetie Belle looked away, and nodded. “Yeah. We can’t afford to lose this chance, no matter how long it takes.”
“Well, that’s the grand thing, ain’t it?” I chuckled, and patted her shoulder with my hoof. “Got all the time in the world now.”
My senses drifted and contorted as the memory fell apart. My hoof dragged through the flesh of her shoulder as my leg extended infinitely long, and I spun listlessly in the void. It was as though I were underwater, without light or sound, and yet I drifted upwards as my natural buoyancy dragged me somewhere unknown. Something rushed towards me, and I braced for an impact, as my limbs were jerked into new positions-
“What the hay do ya mean you won’t let me in? It’s me, dammit! Don’t ya’ll recognize your little sis?” I panted tiredly from a hectic gallop, but it was so hard to breathe. Why was it so hard to breathe?
As I stared up at the ramshackle wall high above, a face poked over the side to look down at me. After a moment, I recognized Applejack, mostly thanks to her stetson hat; I almost didn’t recognize her face. She was Hollowed, but only just; she’d barely lost her eyes, and her face still seemed pleasantly smooth, undamaged by time and wear. Her hoof held her hat onto her head as she stared down at me, and she wore a hard scowl. “Ah do recognize my little sis, and y'all ain’t her! She ain’t a teenager, and Apples don’t go Hollow! Now quit kiddin’ around, my little sis is missing, and this ain’t no kiddin’ matter!”
“Ah’m your sis!” I screamed up at the wall, but Applejack just shook her head in disgust, and disappeared back over the edge. I let out a frustrated scream, and then turned to look around. The world had only a thin film of fog blanketing it, and I could still see the abandoned farms all around Ponyville, dark and empty. I was alone, outside the wall, and something was wrong with Applejack.
“Ah’m your sis…” I repeated, but it was punctuated with an anguished sob as tears overtook me. Where could I go now? Why couldn’t Applejack see? Was it something I did?
I melted into the ground as the memory closed all around me. I fell once more through the abyss, and tried to flail, tried to fight it, but I felt my hooves being broken and twisted into a new position as I-
I was sitting by a fire, and a living, albeit Hollowed, Zecora sat across from me. She tended a warm kettle that had been suspended above the fire, and her pack lay open on the ground behind her. Bottles of ingredients, green and fresh and plentiful, had spilled out slightly in her haste to find her tea herbs. We seemed to be hiding within an old, abandoned building, one where the roof had long since fallen in and left only the walls standing. I could see fog, and the spindly silhouettes of the forest beyond.
Our mentor sat down a moment later, and smiled. “Of all the ponies I did not expect to find out here, it is a pleasant surprise to come across a friend so dear! How have you been, Apple Bloom? I hope you are doing well, amongst this sad foggy gloom.”
“Not great,” I mumbled, as I stared into the fire. “Had an...argument with Applejack, a little while back. We’re, um, we’re not talking any more.”
Zecora’s face fell, and her embers dipped in sympathy. “I am sorry to hear that, little one. I wish Twilight were easier to find, but she seems busy with the sun. Were she not, I am sure she would be happy to speak to Applejack, and reconcile your differences, to put your sisterhood back on track.”
“Ah know,” I said with a sigh. “How about you? Ah, uh, heard y'all were doing some research.” This was a lie; I’d been watching her as she gathered herbs, hunted demons, scraped moss and metal dust from stones. Far, far too much for any mundane potions. She was up to something.
Zecora’s embers flared in excitement. “Indeed I have, though progress has been very elusive. I have actually been hoping to stumble across you, though it hasn’t helped that you’ve been so reclusive. Where have you and your other two friends been, all this time? To be without their company in Ponyville for so long, it has been a crime!”
“They’ve been, uh, busy.” I looked away as Zecora’s hooves lit, and she poured the hot water into two cups she had already filled with herbs. “Scoots kinda went her own way—y’all know her—and Sweetie Belle’s, been, ah…” What could I tell her? Necromancy was still heavily taboo, but now that we were all dead…would she understand?
No. I couldn’t tell her. She’d make us stop. We needed to win the war against the Everfree, even if Celestia herself didn’t like how we did it.
“...She’s been traveling too. Even further away. Sends letters sometimes.”
Zecora nodded sadly, as she passed me the warm cup of tea. It smelled so fragrant, so delicious. This must have just been picked. “A shame, to see such fine friends split by distance, but it is good to hear you keep in touch. But since you have chosen to stay, would you like to help? My research could use a fellow skilled alchemist with so deft a touch.”
“Depends.” I looked back at her, over my steaming cup of tea. “What exactly are you tryin’ to do?”
Zecora smiled at me, and for a moment, she was our mentor once more. “I seek to end this Hollow Curse, and return the world to the way it once was. I have been brewing many new potions to…”
Zecora’s voice faded into noise in my mind, as I placed the steaming cup of tea on the stone floor. I wanted to scream at her. She couldn’t be allowed to continue. She would ruin everything if ponies could die once again. The trees and herbs were all dying, and the animals were already nearly hunted to extinction, or twisted by the chaotic fires of the forest. Ponies couldn’t survive in this world, not without changing.
I didn’t hear Zecora as she talked, but I nodded occasionally and pretended to listen. I wouldn’t accept, but I could keep an eye on her. Maybe she could do some good still, but if she ever made progress towards ending our immortality…I would have to slay her.
The smell of delicious tea stuck with me as the world distorted, and the light of the cooking-fire sped far off into the distance, until it was a star amongst all-consuming darkness. I fell backwards, and tried to pull away, tried to find my fire, tried to do anything to get my bearings and escape whatever nightmare I was stuck in-
I was crouched in a tree, and I had pressed myself against the bark. I felt like a lizard, as I blended into my environment, and watched the foggy forest below. My quarry, the two Hollows I had been watching before, were so close. Zecora was easy to identify, with her cloak and agile gait, but the Hollow that walked beside her was new.
She didn’t look like much. She limped and stumbled as she walked, and while she was clad in the armor of the Ponyville Irregulars, I knew my sister would have trained her ponies better than this. And she wouldn’t have allowed a Hollow to serve; it was strange that they’d even let them out of the gate wearing that. A Hollow bearing the sigil disrespected Ponyville.
“W-where are w-we...we g-going?”
My ears flicked, as I listened to the Hollow speak. Her voice was timid, fragile. She would be easy enough to take care of, should Zecora prove to be still working on her damned cure.
“To enter the Everchaos on our own would invite an untimely end, so instead? We are going to visit an old friend. She was not quite as dedicated to herbology as I, but I hope that her garden is a place which we can try.”
Zecora spoke quietly, but I could still pick out her voice amongst the fog. To Fluttershy’s, then. They would find no herbs there; I had already picked it clean for my own purposes. Still, it meant that Zecora was beginning to look further afield for her resources. If she gave up here, then I could leave her be; but if she continued to go further and further out, she would eventually find something. If that time came, then I could stop her.
In the meantime, I would simply watch, and learn. Zecora and her Hollowed apprentice began to work themselves down the side of the empty riverbed, and as they disappeared into the gully, I slid out of the tree. They would never see me, as I followed them.
I took a step towards the riverbed, but my hoof never connected. Instead, I fell forwards, spiraling back into the empty nightmare. I had seen myself—Apple Bloom had been following us, even then. I couldn’t take much more of this, especially not if I had to watch my own hooves slay Zecora-
Reality slammed back into me, and I staggered backwards with a gasp, before I stumbled and fell back. My hooves flailed like I was drowning, while Trixie laughed. “Pffft! Yeah, that looks about right for your first time. You get used to it eventually, though.”
Back. I was back in my own hooves, my own body, my own soul. I had never been so relieved to feel so poorly, but that faded fast. Now that I had the memories of what a living, breathing body felt like, I was horrified at how still and cold I lay on the ground. My flesh felt like rubber, as if I were a dead imitation of a pony. Lacking a heartbeat, lacking a pulse or the pressure of my lungs, it all felt wrong. Suddenly, I understood all too well why I had unsettled Dinky so.
Trixie reappeared above me, and my voice trembled as I spoke. “Wha-what was th-that?”
She shrugged. “Flashes of memories, mostly. Things they felt were particularly significant to who they were, or things they had on their mind. Usually it’s not much, since not many Hollows remember anything besides what just happened moments before. Consume enough, and you start to learn how to block them out until you barely even notice pulling them in.”
“H-how m-many have y-you…?”
“Oh, don’t look so aghast!” Trixie said with a chuckle, as she held out a hoof to help me up. “Most Hollows barely have anything left to take, meager scraps of a soul at best. You got a real live one for your first, since she could still speak. Something was motivating her, but I expect you’d know that better than me, now.”
I nodded, as I hesitantly took Trixie’s proffered hoof. “Sh-she was pr-protecting something? Her and an-another f-filly, long ag-ago. B-before she H-Hollowed.” The world had been so bright and colorful, in that memory. Had it changed, or had we? If my eyes were restored, would I see the world around us now in such brilliant hues?
“Protecting something? Should we be on the lookout for another attacker, then?” Trixie glanced at the fog around us.
“N-no, I th-think it was...a l-long time ago. And sh-she was there, w-while Apple B-Bloom went out.” I started to recount everything about the first memory that I could remember, but it was already beginning to fade. I also told her about the other memories, or at least tried to. As we did, I found my eyes drawn to Apple Bloom’s corpse. Her eyes had gone dark, but she would regenerate again, as a mindless Hollow. I pulled my sword from her breast, and sheathed it as I finished the retelling.
“So lots of arguing with adults, then. Sounds like your average teenage filly, you can spare me the details.” Trixie rubbed her chin, as she stared off into the fog. “Cloud buildings on a lake...You don’t usually see many pegasi structures that low.”
I nodded, as I explained: “T-they’re too at-atmospherically b-buoyant. Th-they want to rise into the s-sky.” Pegasi and our structures were very similar in that way. I suddenly found myself jealous of the clouds, high above the fog.
“Well, the only place that fits that description is Cloudsdale. I’ve passed by it a few times, or at least the reservoir, although I’ve never gotten too close. Been chased away a few times by some...” Trixie shivered in disgust, at whatever she was remembering. “...annoyingly persistent piles of bones.”
“C-Cloudsdale? With the N-Necromancers?” Had those been the ponies Sweetie Belle had been talking about? “D-do you think Applejack w-will send us af-after them, next?”
As we talked, I started to shuffle down the embankment towards the river once more. To my relief, the poison had all been swept downstream, and the old horseshoe was found after only a minute or two of searching. It stood out, amongst the round stones of the riverbed. As I gathered it and my armor all together, I decided I was clean enough. We didn’t want to stick around and wait for Apple Bloom to regenerate.
Trixie continued to watch me as I climbed back up the hill. “It’s not unlikely. I can’t imagine there’s many other little gangs and factions around here that she expects us to clear, when they could set up shop somewhere away from the ongoing war. There’s a lot of country, and most of them aren’t so stubborn that they won’t scatter like the roaches they are.”
As I reached the top, I glanced over at Apple Bloom, and realized I’d nearly forgotten something. I set my armor, sword, and the horseshoe down as I trotted over to the dead filly, and leaned over the pool of blood to tug the bag at her side free. Specifically, Zecora’s bag. After I moved a few steps away, I opened the top, while Trixie leaned in to look. “What’s that?”
I pushed my hoof into the inky abyss within, and cringed at the feeling. But I thought of the green glass flask, which Apple Bloom had slid back inside after she’d drained it. Weight settled onto my hoof, and from the bag, I pulled out the flask of sunlight. A few drops of golden liquid rolled around the bottom, as it had already begun to refill, albeit slowly.
“Th-this,” I said to Trixie, as I felt a small smile grow across my muzzle, “is Zecora’s last p-potion.”