Apple Bloom felt a tinge of sadness as she saw Zecora’s dead body. She wished that Zecora was more willing to see things her way. But Zecora was stubborn and wouldn’t stop at anything to take away what Apple Bloom felt she deserved. She spent far too long living and dealing with morons. Apple Bloom didn’t consider Zecora an undesirable but she hated that Zecora chose to side herself with the undesirables. Was every pony at this point going to become an undesirable? Would it just be her and Gilda left? Apple Bloom knew she couldn’t dwell on these things so much.
“I killed Zecora”, shouted Gilda on the top of her lungs, “together, we will make Equestria great again!!” The crowd Apple Bloom picked up from Our Town cheered. The others looked despondent.
“Y’all can go home now”, said Apple Bloom, “you see what happens to those who choose to disobey me. Obey your Queen and you will live.”
The crowd dispersed. Apple Bloom could see Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo – they were both crying. Those two were irrelevant. Apple Bloom decided long ago to do nothing to them unless they committed future acts of insubordination.
“So what’s next”, asked Gilda flexing her muscles.
“Like what ah said, we look for traitors and we kill them. That’s what our spies from Our Town are gonna accomplish.”
“This is going to be so fucking sweet. Zecora got what was coming to her.”
“Yeah, she did.” Apple Bloom took another look at the dead zebra – you fool, you could have lived if you obeyed me.
Apple Bloom’s moment of reflection was interrupted.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands payment!”
“As does Iron Will! We helped bring Zecora to you.”
“No, you two failed”, snarled Gilda, “it was all me – you fucking losers.”
“Hold on a second”, said Apple Bloom, “we need more allies to our Queendom. How would you two like to have really important roles?”
“Trixie is listening.”
“As you both can imagine”, said Apple Bloom, “there are some ponies out there who ain’t too happy with my rule. Ah killed Celestia because ah am stronger and smarter than she is – so ah rightfully earned my reign. Gilda and ah have been working too hard to keep Equestria strong. We will make Equestria great again! But would you two like to be my enforcers?”
“Iron Will wants to be as ripped as Gilda!”
“You need to earn my trust first”, said Apple Bloom, “but ah suppose you two can have some alicorn magic.”
“Trixie to become an alicorn?”
“Not yet – but you’ll be a much more powerful unicorn. And Iron Will, you will be a minotaur feared by all.”
“We are ready to serve you, Queen Apple Bloom”, said Trixie with a bow.
“Anyone who dares disobey you will be in for a world of pain!”
“Excellent”, responded Apple Bloom, “now ah will give you both a little bit of my alicorn magic.”
Gilda looked concerned but Apple Bloom whispered, “ill-Kay em-thay if-way ey-thay et-gay unruly-way.” That seemed to help.
Apple Bloom transferred some alicorn magic which gave Iron Will more muscles and sharper horns and it gave Trixie more powerful unicorn magic.
“Now you two scram and make sure no pony is disobeying me!”
Trixie and Iron Will ran off.
“As long as I get to kill them as soon as they mess up.”
“Oh, they are clearly not as smart as you or me. Ah think you’ll have them dead by next Wednesday.”
“But why give them power?”
“They’re undesirables. Just need a reason for them to be killed.”
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t hear anything from the outside world. But she assumed at this point that Zecora was dead. Were things hopeless? Twilight needed time to think things through. It didn’t help that her cellmate, Silver Spoon, seemed incapable of shutting up.
Silver Spoon could prattle on about just anything for hours and hours at end. Her family, the fate of fashion under Apple Bloom’s rule, the days when fillies were just fillies and not capable of being murderous psychopaths.
“Apple Bloom has totally never been one for fashion – not like Celestia who always had the most amazing jewelry and the cutest outfits. Twilight, what do you think it’s going to happen to Celestia’s best dresses?”
“I don’t know”, responded Twilight somewhat irritated, “maybe Apple Bloom will burn them for heat. Winter is coming.”
“That’s awful. I can’t believe I missed the signs about Apple Bloom. There’s more that I could have done I suppose – but Sweetie Belle, she’s so depressed over her former friend turned supervillain. I guess in some sort of strange way, Diamond Tiara might have had the right idea by targeting Apple Bloom specifically. Maybe she sensed the evil inside.”
“I don’t know, Silver Spoon. I’m not smart enough.”
“Don’t say that, Twilight. You’re the smartest pony I know and the smartest everyone knows. Apple Bloom caught us all by surprise but if anyone can think of a solution – it’s you, I know it’s you. I just wish we could go back in time and stop all of these tragedies with the murders and everything! Any special spells like that?”
Time travel, hmmm, thought Twilight.
“Time travel is actually closer to being figured out than one might think”, said Twilight.
“Really, that’s so cool! Do tell!”
“There has been some research being done by unicorns regarding time travel”, responded Twilight, “but not much success – I read an article a year ago by an obscure source, but it seemed promising. The unicorn who wrote the article seemed to have incredibly strong knowledge of unicorn magic and how to manipulate it just right. I barely remember the name of the unicorn though – Star Glimmer?”
“Maybe Star Glimmer figured out by now how to travel in time but didn’t share her results with anypony.”
“Possible. I don’t want think about what Apple Bloom would do if she could do that.”
They heard a proud, “do what?”
Apple Bloom arrived with a smug grin on her face.
“Let me guess. You’re here to gloat about killing Zecora”, said Twilight sardonically.
“You know me too well, Twi. Ah think ah heard you talk about somepony named Starlight Glimmer.”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“Gilda killed her. But thanks for the info. Ah can figure out time travel for myself now and make my power even stronger – fix some of the mistakes ah made.”
“You’re full of yourself. You’ve only had unicorn magic for a few days. I am certain that Ms. Glimmer spent years researching time travel.”
“Ah got time but remember ah am smarter than all of you combined. Starlight Glimmer was actually a tough opponent. Ah think she’s even better at magic than you. But of course, ah turned her own village against her and she was easy to beat after that.”
“How did you do against her with magic?”
“Ah was going real easy on her. Ah felt kind of bad. She was a cult leader – not exactly somepony you want as a reputable source.”
“I’m sure she’s better than you.”
“That’s irrelevant. Ah am the ruler of Equestria – not you, not Celestia, and certainly not Starlight Glimmer.”
With that, Apple Bloom exited the dungeon.
Twilight didn’t want to say it since Apple Bloom would surely hear it somehow – but since Apple Bloom Gilda killed Starlight presumably on Apple Bloom’s orders, Twilight could bring Starlight back to life. Maybe Starlight Glimmer was far along in her time travel research that she could stop all of this madness and bring every pony back – including Princess Celestia.
“What are you thinking about?”, asked Silver Spoon.
“I might have an idea on how we can stop Apple Bloom. Can’t say much. Since…somepony may hear.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“It’s risky but maybe we can – errr… bring back.”
“I know what you’re saying. So somepony will have to die. Maybe we can kill Gilda or even Cerebrus.”
“Nothing can kill Gilda. You saw her, right?”
“So wait.. Twilight, no. Don’t do what I’m thinking!?!?”
“It’s the only way, Silver Spoon. I’m so sorry.”
“I’ll die. Equestria needs you. They don’t need me. Let me kill myself.”
Suddenly the prison door swung wide open. Cerberus?
With an insane burst of power, Cerberus charged right into one of the walls of the dungeon causing it to open up to an underground tunnel. The force was so strong that Cerberus fell to the ground with a crash.
Twilight approached Cerberus and didn’t see any signs of life. He already left a large pile of blood. The three-headed guardian was certainly dead.
“I am so sorry, Cerberus“, said Twilight with tears, “but thank you for your heroism and selfless sacrifice. I promise that we will bring you back.”
Twilight Sparkle and Silver Spoon escaped the prison and ran as fast as they could before Apple Bloom could catch them. They were going to speak with Pinkie Pie – the most likely pony to take over Zecora’s position.