//------------------------------// // The monster inside // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// Two days since the battle As Applejack and Rarity snuck away from Ponyville through the Everfree forest, they couldn’t help but be a bit on edge. Ever since the battle at Canterlot, Midnight and her lackeys had been after them and her army had been growing quite a bit. All sorts of creatures were a part of it now, creatures from here, from other dimensions, creatures made by dark magic, etc. Not to mention she now had four former princesses on her side: Astelle, Daybreaker, Nightmare Moon, and.. Twilight.. and still no one knew what had happened to Celestia. “I’m just sayin' it don’t make a lick of sense. Nightmare Moon shows up and Luna's still.. herself. That fire princess comes out of nowhere and Celestia's nowhere to be found. Luna won’t even talk about what she saw or didn’t see.. just that she would make Midnight pay for everything she’s done.” Applejack says and Rarity, after a bit of thinking, sighs and catches up with her, making sure to stay close. “We can figure it all out once we’re back home darling.. and hopefully this nightmare will be over soon.. I’m tired of traipsing through this.. dreadful forest back and forth.” Rarity says, her annoyance clear when she sees dirt on her outfit and fur. Applejack chuckles and wipes a bit of it off her face playfully. “That better?” She asks and Rarity giggles in response before answering. “Better, thank you.” Rarity says, as she and Applejack continue walking. She didn’t know why but.. she was starting to see the Earth pony.. differently. She has been for a while. She didn’t know if it was mutual or if it was just her either. The only thing she knew was that every time she looked at Applejack, she would start seeing her as possibly more than a friend.. She’s cut out of these thoughts when Applejack holds a hand in front of her, forcing her to stop in her tracks. “What is it-“ Rarity tries to asks but Applejack shushes her as her ears twitch and soon Rarity hears something as well and they both hide behind a nearby tree. They wait for whatever’s making the noise to reveal itself but it seems like it just doesn’t want to, like it’s playing with them before it attacks. They get ready to fight.. until it stops. This confuses them until Applejack hears something else right behind them and she quickly pushes Rarity out of the way before being tackled through the tree by whatever was apparently stalking them. She’s sent tumbling with it before elbowing it and throwing it off. She quickly gets up and ducks under a right hook from her assailant but is met with a knee to her face. She’s sent reeling back, stunned and is back kicked into a tree. She gets up, ready to fight again but just as she opens her eyes, she’s grabbed from behind and yanked through the tree and past the second threat, being thrown in the process. She tumbled to a stop and looks up to see none other than two ponies she had hoped to never see again.. Flim and Flam.. and they both had some sort of bulky mechanical armor suits. “Nice to see you again Applejack.” Says Flim, being followed closely by Flam. “So glad to see you missed us.” He says, noticing Applejack’s furious look. She slowly stands up and gets into a fighting stance after wiping the blood from her nose. They both smirk and start walking up to her. “Like our new looks? We made these suits ourselves ya know?” He continues before Flim continues for him. “We call them the Applesmasher 3,000's!” He says and Applejack rolls her neck and shoulders and cracks her knuckles. “I don’t care what ya call 'em. Long as ya know they're about to get smashed!” Applejack says as she runs at them both and swings at Flim who blocks the hit before Flam kicks Applejack’s knee, causing her to fall on it as Flim punches her. As soon as she lands, Flam kicks her back up and punches her into another tree. Applejack tries to get up but she has to lean against the tree to support herself. Just as they’re about to rush her, an ice wall forms in front of them, keeping them away from Applejack. “Ah, Miss Rarity.” Flam says before catching a jagged icicle that comes flying towards his face from the same direction as the ice wall. “So nice to see you as well.” He says before crushing the icicle and looking in her direction. “We’ve been wanting to catch up with you for what you and Twilight Sparkle did to shut down our newest business all those years ago.” “That school was a scam and you damn-well know it! You were actually trying to put Twilight’s school out of business by making yours look sooo much better!” Rarity says, cringing whenever she mentions Twilight. Flim and Flam notice this and smirk at each other then at her. “You know, we actually saw the Princess the other day and well.. she wasn’t looking too good when we left this morning. Wonder what the problem is there but she’s definitely seen better days.” Flim says and this seems to affect Rarity.. but not in the way they wanted. “Talk about her again and I’ll bury you in so much snow, no one will ever find your body..” Rarity says as her eyes glow white and the temperature around them drops. An ice dagger forms in her hand and Flim and Flam get ready to fight. Neither side makes a move until Flim and Flam charge at her from both sides. Rarity smirks, drops the dagger, holds her hand to either side and causes mini blizzards in both directions, keeping Flim and Flam back. She increases the power in the blizzards and ends up making ice glyphs form which sends two boulders of ice at them, knocking them both through trees. Rarity scoffs before she hears clapping and stops the blizzards. She turns in the direction of it and gets ready to fight again. “Impressive.. but a little too much ice for my liking..” a voice says as the figure walks out of the shadows, still clapping, revealing a terribly scarred, striped red and black pony with a cracked horn and burns around his mouth. His teeth were sharp and his eyes were serpent-like. The armor he wore looked terrifying, just as much as he did. “You need to heat it up a little!” He yells as he blasts fire at Rarity, causing her to blast ice to keep the fire back but this was becoming a losing battle very quickly. The fire got closer and closer, even when Rarity used both her hands, until it finally reached her and knocked her back, right through a tree and tumbling along the ground. Rarity groans in pain as she tries to get up, only to fall back down due to the burns that now paraded her chest and right shoulder. “Hm.. I changed my mind.. no longer impressed.” The pony says as he walks closer to Rarity, turns her over with his foot and gets ready to finish her off. Flim and Flam smile at this as they get up. “Stay. Away from her!!!” They all hear Applejack say, her voice getting slightly deeper with every word before they also hear a roar and an orange flash blinds them all. Once they all recover, it’s too late as a giant transparent paw knocks them all away from Rarity. The fire pony gets up and stares down the giant, orange Ursa Major. It charges and he blasts it with as much power as he can muster, practically bathing the giant beast in fire. This seems to work.. until it’s face bursts through the flames and he finds his arm caught in it’s jaw, a sickening snap being heard as he screams in pain. His pain worsens when the giant beast yanks him into the air and starts swinging him around.. until his arm comes off and he’s sent flying miles away. The beast roars loudly and looks down at Flim and Flam who were staring up at it, terrified. It seems to smile at them as it flashes it’s sharp teeth.. before slowly starting to shrink, revealing.. Applejack, who’s eyes are glowing orange as she glares at Flim and Flam who get ready to fight, despite being so scared already. Two transparent Ursa claws form around her firsts as she gets in her fighting stance. Rarity sits up against a tree, watching with interest and a bit of fear. Applejack suddenly charges at them and Flim swings at her but she catches his punch, allowing Flam to punch her but she doesn’t even flinch this time, she does growl though, starting to crush Flim's fist which makes him scream in pain, trying to get it free. After splintering the bones in his hand, Applejack picks him up and slams him onto Flam, damaging both their suits. They both get up and still fight but their skills and tech are no match for Applejack’s sheer power and strength. Flim throws a punch but she ducks, grabs his arm, kneels him down, breaks his leg, and finally swings him through a tree. Rarity couldn’t believe how brutal Applejack was being.. this was so unlike her.. at all. Just as Applejack turns around, she’s stabbed in the stomach by the blade coming from Flam's armor, causing her to only growl in pain before glaring at him, making him start to regret that decision. He definitely regrets it when Applejack knocks his hand to the side, breaking the blade before an Ursa paw forms around her hand and she stabs the claws into his stomach. “Flam!!!” Flim yells and Applejack smirks more before pulling the claws out, letting them be replaced by an orange aura instead and punching Flam into Flim right as he gets up to run at her. They both get knocked through a tree and Applejack yells/roars in anger, causing the two to retreat, yelling to her that this wasn’t over. Rarity hesitantly walks up to Applejack as soon as they’re gone. “AppleJack..?” Rarity says, startled when Applejack suddenly turns to face her, growling. “C-Calm down darling.. it’s me, remember..? Rarity..” She says as she slowly gets closer and Applejack slowly starts to calm down. Her eyes stop glowing as she starts to come back to her senses. “Rarity..?” Applejack asks and Rarity smiles at her, relieved to have her friend back. “There she is..” Rarity says before hugging Applejack, prompting her to hug back and Rarity can feel her shaking as if she was.. scared.. Applejack pulls away before she can question it and looks around at all the destruction caused by the battle. She then sees blood on the ground and also.. tastes some. She slowly turns to Rarity with a confused, dark look on her face, which was very pale now. “What.. what did I do?” She asks before falling and holding her side. Rarity catches her before she hits the ground and sees the wound that Flam left bleeding a lot. “I’ll tell you later darling.. promise.” She says as she and Applejack make their way to the camp. “So Applejack turned into an Ursa Major.. and just because of that.. you let them escape..?” Midnight asks, barely restraining her anger. “And one of my best trackers is dead because of it..” She continues before Flam nervously answers. “With.. all due respect your highness.. no one told us that she could do something like that now and we tried to make it to him but by the time we got there.. we don’t know what killed him first, the fall or the blood loss..” He says and Flim agrees. Midnight squeezes the arm of her new throne, slightly denting it as she was quickly growing tired of their excuses. “Did you at least find out where they were going? Where everyone else is holed up?” Midnight asks but when the brothers look down in shame, she wasn’t able to contain her anger any longer. She slams her fists down, completely flattening the armrests for her throne. “So you have failed me.. for the first.. and last time it seems.” Midnight says as she stands up slowly and walks towards them, prompting them to back up in fear. They both try to beg for their lives but Midnight wasn’t hearing it, not. One. Bit. They end up backing into Astelle who smirks down at them when they look up at her. They both feel Midnight grab their necks and the next thing they know.. they’re both screaming and being fried by magic until finally their screams cease and they stop moving. Midnight drops their lifeless bodies and walks back to her throne. She can’t help but notice that Twivine, who was standing right by her throne the whole time, looked a bit.. uncomfortable after that. She sits in her throne and gestures to her. “Get someone to clean that up..” She says and Twivine nods and bows slightly before walking out as Astelle walks up to Midnight. “I need your help 'stelle.. I need you to keep an eye on Twivine.. I have a feeling that her loyalty might be wavering a bit based on how she’s acting now, especially when she was so.. happy to go along with all this in the beginning.. I’m worried Twilight might be making a return.” Midnight says but little did they know, Twilight was on the other side of the door, listening to the whole conversation. This was bad.. she had to make an escape, and soon.. but Twivine wasn’t just gonna let her go, they were eventually going to be evenly matched. If that happened, it would just be a never ending battle for control of Twilight’s body. Right now she’s pulling the same trick Twivine did, taking control and removing her memory of it but she didn’t know how long she could keep it up.. even more reason to go sooner rather than later.. but maybe while she was here, she could keep Midnight’s trust and learn more to help herself and the others figure out a way to beat her.. and maybe figure out what really happened to Celestia.