The next time Applejack opened her eyes she found herself in a hospital. The clattering sounds of medical equipment and the smell of antiseptic assaulted her senses. Her bed was crowded by nurse ponies. She had no recollection of how she had ended up in the infirmary bed. Wading through the stupor she turned her head and looked outside through the window. All she could see through the haze of confusion and headache was the same red sunset she had seen on top of the mountain.
On the mountaintop... Twilight! Her body jolted forwards, sending medical instruments flying and startling the ponies around her bed. She tried to talk, but words kept getting stuck in her throat. She started violently hacking and coughing. Her mouth tasted like ash.
As soon as the cough subsided, the nurse ponies around her continued their work. Drips and bandages were checked and applied in quick succession. A disturbed-looking doctor pony entered the room and walked over to Applejack. The nurse ponies made room for him, all seemingly on edge for some reason. The unicorn doctor wanted to ask Applejack a couple of questions.
"Do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is? How many hooves am I holding up?"
All Applejack could do was nod and cough. Noticing her discomfort, a nurse brought her a cup of water to drink out of, which soothed her burnt throat and helped her breathe again. She could finally speak, although only in short sentences. The first thing she wanted to know was how she had ended up here, wherever here was. Shining Armor had managed to evacuate her safely from the mountain to the Royal Canterlot hospital. The destruction he had witnessed on the mountaintop had been catastrophic, and he had been worried that Applejack had been seriously hurt. The Royal Canterlot Hospital had the best medical facilities in Equestria, so naturally that's where Applejack had been airlifted to.
"All in all, you're a very lucky pony, Miss Apple, considering the circumstances. You have suffered multiple minor lacerations, multiple first-degree burns, a dislocated shoulder, a mild concussion, and some inhalation burns, but so far we have found nothing that some bed rest and ointments couldn't cure. However, we would prefer to keep you here for a couple of days to monitor your condition."
"Ah... need *Cough* need to speak with somepony."
Her chest rattled as she drew breath."From the castle. *Wheeze* Anyone"
The doctor looked concerned. "I'm sorry Miss Apple, but I do not know if that is currently possible."
"Why not?"
"The entire city is... That is, to be frank, among other things, there is no way to the castle. Or out of Canterlot. The Royal Guard has ordered all the gates closed and a curfew. Captain's orders."
"..."
"Again, I'm sorry Miss Apple. Is there anyone I could contact on your behalf? Any family or friends?"
Friends... Not anymore...
"Ponyville. *Gasp* Sweet Apple Acres. Stallion named Big Mac."
"Right". The doctor wrote down the name and address with a pen between his teeth and turned it over to one of the nurse ponies. "Nurse Penny, please send a letter to Miss Apple's relatives telling her where she's hospitalized." He turned back to Applejack. "Hopefully the gates have been opened by the time they receive the letter."
The Doctor nodded his head with sympathy and left to continue his rounds. That's odd, Applejack thought. He didn't use magic to write the note. The nurse ponies prepped her room for a longer stay and then went to attend to other patients. Applejack was left alone in the room. She stared at the roof, and then at the red glow out of the window, then back at the roof. It felt like the entire world was standing still.
When the clock struck seven, the familiar nurse ponies returned. They helped her up and fed her supper, lukewarm carrot soup. Afterward, they started preparing her for bed. Applejack hated being babied like that, but moving around was still difficult. Her entire body felt like it had been squeezed through a mangle.
A quick sponge bath helped scrub off the last of the stench of burnt fur. The ointment they rubbed in her wounds stung bitterly. A small tea kettle filled with boiling water and herbs was brought for her to inhale from. The aromatic steam helped calm the irritation in her lungs. Applejack started to feel much better as the nurse ponies finished their work and tucked her in. They shut off the lamps in her room as they left. The door clicked shut, and once again Applejack was left to lie alone. Her eyes strayed from the ceiling to the window. The nurse ponies had forgotten to draw the drapes shut. The unceasing crimson glow flowed through and spread around the entirety of the room, turning the white-yellow walls putrid orange.
'I wish Big Mac was here. I wish Applebloom and Granny were here.' Applejack turned around on her side, trying to ignore the pain, and making sure no one was there to see her, started weeping into her pillow. In the middle of all of it, as the foundations of Equestria shook, all she wanted was to see her family again. Slowly but surely she drifted to sleep.
Applejack opened her eyes. The room still glowed red. She was sure she had fallen asleep, but the never-ending twilight made it impossible to say how much time had passed. Was she even awake? Everything felt like a dream. The cuckoo clock on the wall pointed to three, presumably in the morning. Her blanket had fallen off. She reached out to retrieve it, winced from the pain, and almost jumped out of bed from fright.
Slumped next to her on the chair was a seven-foot-tall monster, a monster she knew all too well. The one and only spirit of chaos, Discord. Tall enough to hit his head on the ceiling, the creature made up of odd scraps of different animals looked even worse than Applejack felt. The parts of him which were covered in fur were shedding tufts of hair, bald spots defacing his hide. Fella looked like a mangy scrapyard dog, Applejack thought. Scales on his foot and tail were drying up and peeling off. His already ugly face was gaunt. For a fleeting moment, Applejack thought he was already dead.
Discord opened his yellow eyes sluggishly. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to focus his sight on Applejack. The spirit was barely staying conscious.
"Applejack." His tone betrayed his contempt.
"Discord," Applejack replied, her voice still hoarse.
"I do not have much time or patience to speak with you, so listen carefully. All magic is gone. I cannot come back after this. Reality without magic is poison to me. Even talking to you is torture, more so than usual." He let out a small laugh, before wincing from pain.
"What? No magic? What are you blathering about?"
"Be quiet and listen". Discord stood up. His presence filled the room as he loomed over Applejack.
"The pretty pony princesses are gone. Little Twily is gone. The old queen mare herself is gone. Magic is gone. My powers... are fading. The princesses, your little buddies, and my Fluttershy are gone, but not dead. No, they are alive, somewhere where even I cannot reach them."
Discord's legs almost gave out. His massive lion paw grabbed the frame of Applejack's bed for support. He raised his head, eyes filled with disdain.
"Out of every single possible pony it had to be you. You who managed to stay here. The boring apple horse. The background character in everyone else's story. As interesting as a shallow bowl of piddling applesauce."
A shiver interrupted Discord's litany of insults. He steadied himself against the bed. The frame creaked under his weight. He took a deep breath.
"Sorry, just wanted to clarify that. But now, you are the last hope for this place. MY last hope."
Discord raised his clawed hand. A pile of photographs appeared on it.
"I took these just for you, miss honesty. I know how much you love looking at my vacation photos. Centaurlands, lovely this time of year." Discord dropped the photographs in Applejack's lap. "Centaurs, my chimeric brethren. They're the ones responsible, and they're not stopping there. Oh no, they are coming with an army." A devilish grin crossed his patchy face. "Not soon though, I made sure of it. Caused a bit of patented chaos before they managed to drive me off and turned their mighty war fleet into..." He snorted. "Tar sleet."
The final joke was too much. Discord now had to grip the bed with both hands to stay standing. For the first time in Applejack's life, Discord looked at her without a hint of snideness or hostility. All she saw was desperation and grief.
"Promise me you'll save her. Save my Fluttershy."
Applejack, still shaken by everything Discord had revealed to her, looked straight into his eyes. The varmint meant it. After all, he said he still had the gall to beg her. Applejack hesitated for a second, then placed her hoof on his arm.
"I'll try."
Discord closed his eyes and nodded. With a snap of his fingers, a sizzling portal opened underneath him. He tumbled through it like a discarded marionette puppet. The portal closed with a zap. Applejack was left alone and befuddled. Her heart beat like a drum. She pulled her fallen sheets closer against her and put her hooves around her knees. Any pain she had felt before was now replaced by shock.
What in dozen barreling barrels of barley was going on here? A war with the centaurs? The sun stopped in its tracks? All magic gone? It was all nuttier than squirrel soup. Panic started slowly creeping in, inch by inch. First, her friends were lost, and now Discord comes out of nowhere with his blazing "vacation" pictures. What was a pony supposed to do? Why was she the one who survived? Why did she promise him she'd try bringing Fluttershy back? Why did Twilight ask her to protect Equestria? What did she know about magical portholes or leading a blooming war. Everything was, quite frankly, getting completely out of hoof.
The photographs lay in her lap. She spread them around and went through them one by one. Black and white, but clear as day. The pictures showed thousands of centaurs, all armed to the teeth. Some photographs were of the centaurs marching through a desert, some were of them lying around campfires surrounded by large yurts. The marching armies and war camps seemed to stretch far into the horizon.
Discord was in all the pictures, of course, either in the background blowing a raspberry, lying on a sun chair, or posing in the forefront with sunglasses and a fruity drink in paw. The pictures not of the centaur hordes were of what Applejack suspected were the aftermath of their arrival. The pictures were of cages full of enslaved creatures, destroyed villages, and burning fields. Other pictures had been taken from high up in the air, overlooking a barren wasteland, everything trampled and despoiled by the centaurs. Nothing but dust and dead trees remained.
Applejack was losing hope with every single picture she flipped through, until the very last two. The first picture had been taken from a lighthouse overlooking a large natural harbor surrounded by high rocky cliffs. A fleet of hundreds of great, oared ships were moored off the coast, seemingly ready to sail off. In the next picture, every last ship had collapsed into giant piles of black sludge. Hundreds of tiny figures were stuck in the goop floating in the bay. Some of the black mass in the background had already caught on fire.
Applejack let out a strained chuckle. "That goat-faced, snake-tailed old creep knows how to stir things up"
The last two pictures contained all the hope she needed. Equestria still had time. She still had time. Any more sleep was out of the question. Thoughts kept racing through her mind as she lay wide awake until morning.
An early morning, according to the clock at least, knock on the door stirred Applejack from her thoughts. It was Shining Armor.
"Applejack, It's me. How are you holding up?"
"Feels like I got pushed through Granny's sauce maker, but I'll make it." She was still a bit rough, but the care at the hospital had done wonders.
Shining Armor closed the door behind him and wandered over to her bed. Dark circles around his eyes told Applejack he hadn't gotten much sleep last night either. He sat down on the same chair Discord had lain in half-dead just a moment ago. Twilight's older brother, slumped over on the stool, looked like death warmed over.
Neither of them said a word. Applejack was afraid to ask what the situation was. The awkwardness was amplified by the fact that they had only ever spoken a few times, mostly about Twilight and apple fritters.
Applejack spoke up first, her voice still frail and harsh. "Shining, your sister, Cadence, everyone. They're alive. I know they are, somewhere out there."
"You kept repeating that when we airlifted you off the mountain, even though you could barely speak. 'They're alive.' Just over and over. The captain sent out more search parties immediately after we arrived. I happened to be on the evening patrol boat when we saw the explosion. They could probably also see it from Canterlot."
"Good." Applejack let out a cough. "Did they find anything? Any sign of my friends?"
Shining Armor covered his face with his hooves. "Nothing. In the past twelve hours all the guard has done is search the mountain and the valleys around it. No sign of them."
He put his hooves in his lap and gave Applejack a mournful look. "Everything is falling apart. My sister, my wife, the princesses, your friends, it's as if they disappeared into thin air. Not even a single strand of mane to be found."
He stood up and walked over to the window. He stared out of it, towards the mountains, behind which the sunset glowed.
"And that's not all. The sun has stopped moving. Without Princess Celestia guiding it all of Equestria is now covered in a never-ending... Twilight." He let out a sad little laugh.
He turned back to Applejack. "Also, just to rub salt in our wounds, all of the magic in Equestria is gone! Poof! Gone away, just like that! I can't even lift a single bit with my horn now!"
He sat back down. Fear and desperation were written all over his drooping, unshaven face. Applejack felt she needed to say something to calm him down.
"Listen. I reckon I owe you for saving me off of that blasted mountain, Shining Armor."
Shining Armor gave her a tiny smile. "It was the least I could do. After what I saw I had to get you to help as soon as possible. It was terrible."
"I know."
Shining Armor pulled himself together and stared directly into Applejack's eyes.
"Applejack, what exactly happened to Cadence and Twilight? I need to know." He had the same look as Discord, Applejack thought.
"Honestly, I ain't sure what happened to Cadence. Those hooded creeps conjured up some kinda magical storm, too powerful for even Twilight to fight against. Ya couldn't even hear yourself think over the noise. All I know is Twilight told me she had to go into the twister if she wanted to bring them all back, so that's where she and the rest probably are."
Tears were starting to well up again. Applejack wiped them off. "She didn't hesitate for a second. Dove straight in after them."
Shining Armor looked down, holding back tears. "...Twily."
He failed, and the tears flowed freely down his cheeks. Shining Armor hid his face behind his hooves. "Oh, Twily..."
"She had to, Shining. I couldn't stop her."
Applejack pushed a box of tissues on her dresser toward Shining Armor
"If it makes ya feel any better she did say she can do it, to save them and come back. If Twilight said so then that's what'll happen."
Applejack genuinely believed it. But Twilight's last words did still bother her.
"But before she jumped she asked me to protect Equestria. Said she trusts me, an I ain't going to break that trust. I'm promising you that right here. And while I'm at it might as well see if we can help her on this side somehow. I dunno much about all them fancy magic holes and portals, but like Granny always says, a door's got a handle on both sides."
The eternal twilight and disappearance of magic wasn't the end of it though, she thought. Might as well pull the rotten tooth off right now and show him what's coming next.
"Granny also said it don't hurt being prepared for unwanted visitors, and these boys sure seem unwanted."
Applejack turned over to her dresser and took out the photographs Discord had given her. She laid them out on her bed in front of Shining Armor. It took a moment for him to comprehend what he was looking at, but when then realization hit him like an anvil out of the sky.
"Where did you get these?"
"Discord gave 'em to me"
"Discord?! But when? How? Why?"
"Just a couple of hours ago. Magic. Cause there's only one pony he gives a flying feather about and it ain't you or me."
"I don't, wait... The pictures are real?" He kept shuffling frantically through them. "There's an entire army of centaurs amassing on the other side of the ocean?"
"Yup, and I reckon they're planning on invading now that all the princesses are out of action."
"This is not good."
"Nope."
Shining Armor stood up again and started pacing in front of the window, his silhouette breaking the red glow with each pass. Applejack laid back on her bed and put her head on the pillow. Sharing the truth about the nightmarish things she had learned had helped calm her down a bit. Other ponies, much smarter than her she thought, would soon know about this. Then they could fix the broken sky, save Twilight and the rest, and then kick the centaurs back where they came from. Easy as apple pie.
Shining Armor stopped his pacing. "We have to take this to the emergency gathering, ponies need to know what is coming."
"The what gathering?"
"Emergency advisory gathering. The messages were sent all across Equestria by hoof late last night, as soon as we learned about the disappearance of the princesses. 50 ponies from our largest cities and towns will arrive at Canterlot to make decisions on the Princess' behalf."
"So a town hall meeting, but for all of Equestria."
"Exactly, if the Ponyville town hall was established by an ancient royal degree dictated by the Princess herself a thousand years ago and to be called only when there were no able Princesses to rule us."
Shining kept pacing, talking half to himself, half to Applejack.
"I thought I'd never see it happen. The Royal Guard has never before had to enforce that decree. During my time as the Captain I didn't even remember that it was an enforceable degree. The situation just has never been bad enough."
He stopped and looked at Applejack. "We have to get you in front of the gathering as soon as you're feeling better. Any idea when you'll be let out?"
"Still feels like I got caught between an ornery bull and a brick wall. The doc said they still want to keep me here for a couple of days. Even then I might need a bit of help getting around."
"I don't want you overexerting yourself. It will take the gathering a few days to assemble anyway, so rest while you can. I'll be at the castle helping the current captain of the guard with the search. I'll come to visit again tomorrow."
"Aww shucks, but what about Flurry Heart?"
"Flurry Heart is back in the Crystal Empire with her favorite nursemaids, but I'll have to go back to take care of her soon."
"Is all magic gone?"
Shining Armor's face was grim. "Yes. Magic is gone, at least here in Canterlot. By noon we will know what the situation is outside the city. If magic is truly gone from all across Equestria, then we are in big trouble. Might even be bigger than the never-ending twilight or the invasion."
Applejack's head was starting to hurt again. When it rains it does pour until the proverbial river bank crumbles and your entire farm is swept away. "The problems just keep piling up."
Shining Armor nodded. Noticing her pain, he clumsily poured water out of the pitcher and pushed the glass over to Applejack, almost spilling it on her. The comedy of watching a unicorn try and do mundane tasks without magic made Applejack feel a little better. She took a sip, placed the glass on her lap, and stared at it.
"Ya know Shining. I spent the entire night pondering. It shouldn't have been me who got away, who survived the storm." A tear rolled down her snout, and then another. They dropped into the glass, forming rings spreading out on the surface.
"Twilight asked me to protect Equestria. Me, when it should have been anypony else, even Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy. They'd know what to do or how to help. All I do is be friends with Twilight and kick bad guys on the backside when I get the chance. What the hay am I s'posed to do now? Heck, half the time I don't even know what's going on when we're just outside Ponyville."
"What are you talking about Applejack? You're one of the guardians of harmony. You, Twilight, and your friends have saved Equestria more times than most ponies can count. We need you."
"Yeah, me and the girls together. I ain't cut out to do anything on my own. I'm useless."
Shining armor reached out and placed his hoof on her shoulder. "But you're not. You're much more than just Twilight's friend, and you don't just kick bad guy backside. You're Applejack, the element of honesty."
He gently lifted her chin. "Applejack, Twilight always tells me all about the adventures you girls go on. In every one of her stories, you're always the anchor that keeps her grounded. You're immovable in the face of danger and unstoppable once you get going. She could have never saved the world as many times as she did without your help."
He pulled out a napkin and offered it to Applejack. She took it.
"Believe me, you will be a huge help, especially at the gathering. Ponies know who you are. They respect and admire you. When you talk they listen. Once they're here it will undoubtedly take some convincing for them to take this new threat seriously, especially with all the other problems we already have. I can't do it alone. That's where we will need you. They don't know me as they know you. I'm just another pompous and useless Canterlot unicorn to them. But you, you're a hero. You can help them by warning them."
Shining Armor smiled and reached over to give Applejack a gentle hug. Applejack embraced him back. He reminded her of Big Mac. How she wished her family could come sooner.
"Thanks for getting my hat."
"Of course."
Shining Armor let go of her and headed for the door. He turned back to give Applejack a final tired, but hopeful smile. "I hope you recover soon. Flurry Heart is going to need me back soon. I can't stay and help save the world like you can."
"Hey! You've only got one baby, I've got a full orchard of them!"
Shining Armor and Applejack shared the first genuine laugh either of them had had since the disappearance. Hope was starting to flourish once again.