//------------------------------// // Last One Out // Story: And Hell Followed // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// Applejack and Bon Bon were the slowest of the three groups to properly leave the vicinity of the castle. Applejack knew that they would have the slowest mission of the three, needing to wait until the bells were rung to make any real progress. The train station was on the opposite side of town, right through Town Hall with no real way around it. They were also well prepared compared to the other two, AJ carrying her trusty lasso and Bon Bon having a metal sheet that Spike had helped her conform to one of her hooves as a line of defense. They were the two most experienced ponies that were still up and about, and they had thought about their own defense and prepared for something like what they were up against now. They stalked through the town, not speaking a word and focused on their surroundings. The ghosts of the dead kept them company as they walked. The sun overhead still beat down on them, each day seemingly becoming hotter than the last and taking its toll on the ponies who ventured outside. Careful hooves and watchful eyes kept them quiet and safe, dodging a few roaming ferals that they came across. As Applejack had seen over the past month, the closer they got the heart of the town the more common it was to see those things. Bon Bon tapped on Applejack’s shoulder and motioned towards Sugarcube Corner. The top floor, Pinkie’s old room, would give them a good view of Town Hall and let them plan out further.  They cut across the street as quick as they could, ducking through the shattered door of the bakery and into the dimly lit interior. Booths were clawed and destroyed, glass shattered and the walls marked with the telltale signs of magic discharge. Applejack wasn’t sure if this was from Pinkie and Pumpkin Cake’s brawl, or if it was from some more of those things just trashing the place because it could. Once this place had smelled of warm ovens and sugar, homey and sweet. Now it just reeked of death. Bon Bon cut in front of the farmpony, raising her armored hoof as they crept towards the stairs. It seemed quiet, which Applejack had learned was when she was in the most danger. Getting Bon Bon back to the castle had taught her patience, Thunderlane and Rumble had taught her that these things liked to lay in wait. The stairs made noise, far more than any mare was comfortable with. If anything was in the building, it knew they were in there too now. They both sighed at almost the same time, Applejack taking the rope from around her shoulder and looping one end around her hoof and taking part of it in her mouth. At the top of the stairs was a hallway, four doors on either side and one at the far end. Applejack had been up here only a couple of times, but she knew Pinkie’s room was the door at the far end. Nothing was ever easy out here. Applejack jerked her head to the right, signaling she would take the doors on that side. She raised a hoof and pointed to the mare next to her, then the two doors on the left. She received a nod in agreement and the two got to work. The leader of the castle colony put a hoof on the first door, giving it a slight push. It seemed to be the Cake’s room, a large queen sized bed dominating the space. The two bodies on the floor and the smell they gave didn’t escape her notice, but it was something that she had grown more used to. Her eyes just passed over the corpses of the two pillars of the community, searching for anything more sinister. Thankfully, nothing with a horn seemed to be lurking in the bedroom. The only thing inside was death and shadows. Applejack shut the door slowly, keeping the knob turned until it was closed all the way and letting the knob turn back slowly. Any building she went in, she always shut any door of a room she had made sure was clear. It was a good way to track what was safe if she had to go back through them as the unicorns couldn’t really open them, just break them down. The next door was already shut, but Applejack opened it anyway. It was nothing special, just a storage room of sorts with boxes of clothes and pictures and even a spare dining room set, memories Pinkie might want someday but unimportant for now. She shut the door and left them and the dust that covered them alone for a little while longer. As Applejack turned, her side of the hall cleared, she saw Bon Bon frozen in the open doorway directly across from her. Applejack crept over and peered over the other mare to see exactly what she had found. It was the room of the Cake Twins, a sleeping unicorn mare curled up in the destroyed remnants of the crib. Usually Applejack would’ve acted swiftly, tossing her lasso and tying up the beast before knocking it out, but she was paralyzed. The beast had an off-white coat and a long and wild mane of neon blue and navy. The remains of a pair of shades rested on the sharpened horn, further confirming just who was in the room. But if Vinyl Scratch was here and turned...who was in the castle? The shock wore off and Applejack’s sense of purpose returned. She bolted forward, jumping on the back of the once-DJ and slipping the loop of her lariat around the elongated muzzle of the creature. She yanked it tight, closing the loop and keeping the dangerous maw shut in the only surefire way she knew how. Vinyl tried to stand, but Bon Bon closed the gap in a few seconds and added her weight to the unicorn’s back. That was enough to keep it down as the cream colored earth pony raised her metal-clad hoof and brought it down on the monster’s head with a heavy ‘clunk’, dropping the thing like a sack of potatoes. It wasn’t dead, just out cold from what Applejack could tell. A hit like that would take longer than a few minutes to wear off, probably more like a few hours. It would hopefully be enough for the pair to get to the train and get out. The two dismounted the beast, leaving the room and shutting the door behind them. AJ went back across the hall and into the storage room and grabbed a chair from the dining set and jammed the door shut with it. Just in case. The two mares finally staggered into Pinkie’s room, which was clear of anything nasty, and flopped down next to the window. Applejack was sweating, the overhead sun not making any of this easy, even indoors. “What was that?” Bon Bon spoke first, hissing through clenched teeth as she pointed a hoof towards the twins’ room. “Ah don’t know.” AJ closed her eyes, thinking through the mental fog of panic and effort. She just needed to focus for a few minutes, she just needed to think about what they just saw. “If that’s Vinyl, then who’s in the castle?” “Ah don’t know.” “Well, what do we do?” “Ah. Don’t. Know.” For once, AJ had no answers ready. The thought that whatever had been in the castle with them for the past month wasn’t Vinyl Scratch only made her worry more. Right now whoever their Vinyl actually was only had Rarity between them and a group of helpless fillies and colts. She sighed. “Well...we finish this. Help whoever is in the train, get ‘em back to the castle then we deal with whatever our ‘Vinyl’ is.” It was going to be tough to push this information out of her mind. Being lied to was one of the few things that Applejack just hated, despised. It was the quickest way to get to her bad side, and right now ‘Vinyl Scratch’ was on that bad side. “Okay.” The trust that Bon Bon had in Applejack was reassuring, it strengthened the farmpony’s resolve. “Let’s see what we’re up against, I guess.” The two hopped up on the window sill and got their first view of the Town Hall from up close. The circular building looked mostly untouched, a few windows busted but there were no dead bodies in sight. The place was swarming with unicorns, though. They crawled all over the place, skulking about with their muzzles to the dirt. The biggest group of them however were centered around a massive hole in the ground, probably more than thirty feet in diameter. The unicorns surrounding it shot bolts of magic into it from above. “What in Celestia’s name?” Applejack leaned towards the window, searching for some reason to the actions of the monsters. She saw so many unicorns she knew, and more than a few that she had no clue who they were. “They ain’t from ‘round here.” She stated flatly, pointing her hoof at a cluster of unicorns around the far ridge of the hole. “Which means we’re gettin’ unicorns from outta town…” “What are they digging for?” Bon Bon had the same question she did, one with no clear answer. “There’s nothing under Ponyville, not that I know of.” “Me either.” Applejack chewed on her lip, taking her long blonde ponytail in her hooves and fiddling with it nervously. “Been here mah whole life and never heard of nothin’ underground, not under Town Hall anyhow.” There were crystal caverns out near the Everfree, she knew that much, stuff of real value. “Digging to Tartarus maybe?” Bon Bon offered. “The main entrance isn’t anywhere close to Ponyville, but there are auxiliary ones all over Equestria.” The mare began to mumble, rubbing her chin and looking off. “It was how the bugbear got out, so there has to be one near…” “And how do y’all know that?” Applejack tilted her head, curiosity getting the better of her. She didn’t know much about Bon Bon, other than the fact she was the candy maker and lived with Lyra. So how did someone who worked with sugary sweets all day know where Tartarus spat out its monsters? “Lots of research.” Was the only answer she was given. “Well Ah don’t care if they’re diggin’ to Tartarus or Zebrica, as long as they move when the bells ring.” All of this other stuff, Vinyl and this giant hole, were problems for later. For now they needed to focus on the problem at hoof. “You mind me asking you a question, Applejack?” It was a bold question considering the curt answer that Bon Bon had given her own question, but AJ nodded. She would entertain her compatriot while they waited. “How do you do it? Fight these things, I mean. They’re our friends...and sometimes more.” “Not anymore they ain’t.” Applejack narrowed her eyes as she watched the monsters below digging their hole into the dirt. “Maybe once upon a time they were ponies we knew, now they’re just things. Ah’ll feel sorry for ‘em until they attack me, then ah just do how Ah’ve always done.” She truly felt sorry for the unicorns that turned into these things, and she wanted to help them in some way. There was nothing she could do, though. She was a simple earth pony who understood magic about as much as she understood calculus, which basically meant she knew it existed and that was it. “Ah lived by the Everfree most of my life, Bon Bon. All kinds of things come outta there and you just gotta deal with ‘em. Tie ‘em up, break ‘em apart and just do what needs to be done. This ain’t no different.” That’s why she had always gone out to help ponies when she knew they needed it since this all started. She knew what needed to be done and had the gumption to do it, which their group of survivors had been lacking. She acted when others hadn’t, and took charge when others wouldn’t. Bon Bon nodded, taking in the Apple family matriarch’s words. They both turned back to watch the unicorns work, silently wondering what exactly they were working towards. Their voyeurism was interrupted by a large purple beast rising above the town from the direction of the train station, flying directly overhead and heading off in some unseen direction. Applejack knew it meant trouble for one of the two groups. She had to have faith that they could deal with it, because there wasn’t much else she could do. It was about five minutes later when they heard the first bell. It came from the direction of the schoolhouse, letting Applejack know that Pinkie and Cheerilee had done their job. Her thoughts went out to them, wishing they would make it back to the castle safe and one piece.  Below, the unicorns reacted to the noise and about a two dozen of them rushed off in that direction. It was less than a minute later that the second bell rang, this one drawing away the rest of the crowd from the Town Hall. Once she was sure they wouldn’t encounter any other threats, AJ pushed open the window and stepped out onto the roof. Bon Bon was right on her tail as they both carefully hopped down from the roof and onto terra firma below. A scream rang out, one that filled Applejack’s heart with nothing but dread. She hoped that it wasn’t one of her ponies, but deep down she knew it was. The distraction let the two mares move quicker than they had before, still being careful but walking at a much quicker pace. They still skirted just around Town Hall, not wanting to risk anything being in that hole and coming out to get them. The eerie silence of Ponyville settled in, the distant sounds of magic and howling being far away from them now. Flies buzzed around bodies and a light breeze rustled whatever plants had survived this long, but that was it. Even the low rumble of the train engine seemed to have died out at some point. The decent trot turned into a dead gallop as they got closer and closer to the train station, the smokestack of the engine coming into view. There were growls and the sound of magic discharge coming from up ahead, the pop of spells hitting sturdy metal letting them know that the distraction hadn’t worked completely.  Sure enough, Flam and Doctor Horse were still around and trying to batter their way into the train. The con-pony was on the roof of one of the carriages and blasting away at it, while the doctor was inside of the engine and tearing away at anything that made a noise. The worrying detail was there was no sign of any ponies anywhere around the train. There were no indications that anypony had left the train, no bodies or signs of fighting. There were no eager faces looking to their saviors through the windows either, it looked like an empty train. Applejack could only hope that wasn’t the case. “Y’all take the doc, Ah’ll handle Flam!” Applejack gave the order, Bon Bon nodded. Both narrowed their eyes and hopped up onto the platform, heading off to their respective targets. She leapt up onto the roof of the train, her powerful hooves making it easy to hop up in a single bound. When her hooves made contact with the roof, Flam’s ugly yellow face turned to face her. She turned her head, hearing her neck crack as she narrowed her eyes. She knew that she just told Bon Bon that she separated the pony from the monster, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t going to enjoy this. Instead of firing any magic at her, Flam charged. That was okay with AJ, as the closer they got together the more of a chance she stood. At a distance she was at a clear disadvantage, but up close it was a fair fight. Applejack readied her lasso again, just pulling it taut between a hoof and her mouth as before. If the same trick could work twice, she could get on his back and tie that muzzle shut and deal with him a lot easier. She sidestepped at the last moment, letting the lanky monster run by her. Her hooves sent her skyward again, legs straddling as she prepared to mount the beast like an ornery bull. Instead of landing on her back, she felt two hooves plant firmly into her stomach and send her careening away from Flam and tumbling across the hot steel of the train car. Applejack coughed and wheezed, struggling to properly catch her breath after the kick knocked the wind out of her. She got to her hooves slowly and saw that Flam was already advancing on her again, this time with his horn glowing a sickly green. Instead of trying to meet him head on, she opted to roll to her left as a blast of acidic green magic slammed into the metal roof where she stood a moment ago. That’s when she charged, right when he was charging up another blast. She slammed into the much larger stallion at full force, her hooves wrapping around his barrel as she tackled him to the ground. Flam’s very full mouth opened, looking to grab onto a part of Applejack and not let go. She didn’t let him as she slammed her right hoof into the side of his deformed muzzle as hard as she could, sending the monster’s eyes spinning. She cocked her left hoof back and sent it rocketing into the other side of his face, sending her old rival into the cold embrace of forced sleep. The mare stood up, drenched in sweat and now with sore hooves. Usually her back legs did the talking, but she was okay with a little change in conversation for once. She grunted and slammed another leg into his side. “That one’s for tryin’ to take the farm.” She jumped back down to the train platform, seeing that Doctor Horse was out cold with his head against one of the metal poles. Bon Bon looked no worse for wear, a little scratch trailing down her face but nothing serious. Small miracles, that was all she could ask for. “Are you alright, AJ?” Bon Bon patted her cohort on the back as the farmer wiped some of the sweat from her face. It seemed like this got harder and harder each day, the growing heat not helping at all. “Could always be better nowadays.” She grunted as she turned and opened the door to the train. She didn’t want to focus on that little kerfuffle anymore, they had a job to get done. “Here’s to hopin’ that somepony is on this train…” Being rewarded for their efforts with an empty train might’ve broken Applejack, she was sure of it. The two searched every car from top to bottom, finding nothing but luggage and tickets that were never punched. Each car only served to deepen the pit in both of their stomachs, increasingly worried that they had put their lives and the lives of their friends in danger for nothing. It wasn’t until they made it to the caboose that they finally found what they were looking for. Sitting in a seat, looking longingly out the window was a stallion. He had an unwashed vermillion mane and a scraggly beard to match that hung from his chin, cyan eyes stared out of the window from behind a cracked pair of round spectacles. His coat was amber and had cream colored hooves and a stripe of the same color on his nose. The most striking feature however was the horn on his head, snapped off at the base. Beside him in the seat was a bundle of cloth, and the closer the two got the more they realized just what was inside. It was a sleeping foal, a pink horn poking out of a curly purple and blue mane. There was a glimpse of a metal ring clasped around the foal’s horn as well, which only raised more questions. “We had to leave.” He spoke, his voice full of sadness and grief. “We had no other choice.