How long had she been in Canterlot? A week? Two days? Three weeks?
Maybe Granny Smith had been right. Maybe there was something about the permanent twilight. Something was slowly scraping the insides of her head.
The last few nights had been especially tormenting, the soft glow permeated everything and disturbed her sleep. She hadn't had any dreams either, which for some reason made her more sleepy. Or nightmares. Maybe fears and terrors of the night couldn't fit in a pony's head together with that infernal glow. Applejack shook her head. Now she was having crazy thoughts.
She was lying back against the front stairs of the Canterlot palace, her elbows resting on the steps. Applejack was waiting for her new acquaintances.
She raised her face directly up and looked at the sky. Her hat flopped backward on the stairs. Sometimes you could almost see the stars twinkling through the red haze. She looked back down. No sign of the replacement soldier Shinging had sent to aid her in his stead or Black Creek, the artifact expert from the school of magic. The inner courtyard was as empty as it had been when she got there.
As soon as Applejack had received the key to the palace she rushed directly back to Shining's parent's house. She had found him there preparing to leave, just as he had told her back at the magic school. Even minutes before leaving he was elbow-deep in paperwork. Those city ponies in the committees loved their inventory lists and purchasing orders. Before leaving he did tell Applejack more about the pony he'd asked to be his replacement. His name was Dull Pauldron, and he was from the prestigious Life Company of the Royal Guard. They were the guards responsible for the safety of the Princesses when traveling outside Equestria. Only the most loyal guards were recruited into the Life Company, so he felt comfortable leaving Applejack alone in Equestria.
Hopefully, this one wasn't a stick-up-the-hoohaa kinda pony some of the other guards were, Applejack thought. Stern wasn't half bad, but his obsession with Celestia and formality was not her bale of hay. However, loyalty was something she appreciated. Especially now that Rainbow Dash was gone. She missed her.
Shining had already sent for his replacement before she had arrived. The guard pony coming to her help scrounging for the staff would also fetch Black Creek from the magic school. They would meet at the palace doors. Applejack and Shining had then exchanged goodbye hugs. Shining had been the only friend she had in this city, so his leaving did hurt. Thankfully she had managed to meet some new ponies who could help her.
Speaking of, there they were. Black Creek and one of the biggest pegasi she had ever seen walked through the main gate. The duo headed towards her. The creamy yellow pegasus wasn't as stocky as Ponyville's resident weightlifter, but he was almost a head higher. The giant would have easily given Bulk a run for his money in hoof wrestling. Applejack wouldn't have been surprised if they were related. The Royal Guard armor and the gigantic saddlebag he was carrying didn't help with his already gigantic stature.
Applejack stood back on four legs and trotted to greet them.
"Howdy Black Creek, who's your new friend?"
The huge pegasi gave her a winged salute and greeted her. Applejack's hat almost fell off as the boat sail-sized wing whipped to attention.
"Ma'am Guardian Applejack Ma'am sir Ma'am, Lieutenant Dull Pauldron reporting for duty."
"Nice ta meetcha Dull. No need for pleasantries, just Applejack's fine."
"Yessir Ma'am Applejack. I mean, yessir Applejack."
He lowered his wing and grabbed the bag he was carrying on his back with it.
"Here you go, Black Creek."
"Thanks, Mister Paul- Oof!"
The bag landed on Black Creek with a thud. His legs almost gave out under the weight. The bag clattered with the sound of metal and glass.
"Whatcha got there Black Creek?"
He adjusted the oversized bag on his haunches with effort.
"A few select artifacts I felt could be useful. Considering casting magic is currently impossible, artifacts 'are', 'in', 'fact' -'" Black Creek winked. "- the only way to use magic. And I happen to know everything about them."
Black Creek's smugness was dampened by the weight of the bag slowly crushing him.
"Just the type of pony Ah need. Did ya have trouble getting here?"
"As a matter of fact, we did. The guards have started acting peculiarly. They're stopping and searching everypony. Even us! They would have taken my bag if Mister Pauldron here hadn't been there."
Applejack looked over his shoulder at the massive bag and raised an eyebrow.
"You sure do seem keen on them magical do-hickeys. You sure we're going to need all of them?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised. It took me hours to prepare everything. Anything a wizard can do, an artifact can often do better. Add to that their wonderful history, their ability to bestow amazing powers to anyone without prejudice, or how every piece is in a way a reflection of the soul of its creator. They're fantastic!"
He blushed and crossed his hooves.
"That, and I never was very good at casting magic."
"It's our blessing then that you weren't. Now giddy up colts, We've got a farm and Equestria to save!"
She kicked her front legs in the air and started running up the steps. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek followed, the other a tad slower under the weight of his equipment.
Applejack opened the front doors of the palace with the key she had gotten from Stern. The huge doors swung open. Before them opened up the Royal Palace, which had been empty and abandoned since the Princesses disappeared. Not long enough for cobwebs to start forming, but long enough for dust to start gathering. She led the other two ponies towards the maintenance crew quarters, down a flight of stairs, and into the deep and dank bowels of the Canterlot Castle.
Applejack had prepared a torch for the descent, but Black Creek's bag thankfully contained a very handy bright light orb, which floated above them and lit up the path forward. As they dwelled deeper, the catacombs got bigger and bigger, culminating in a giant vaulted cavern. The clops of the hooves echoed through the empty The bottom was shrouded in darkness, and only a gentle sloshing and dripping of a lot of water could be heard. They continued the path that had been hewn into the side of the cavern. The drop was terrifying, and the lack of railings didn't help.
"I reckon this here's where they keep all the clean water they use upside. Wonder where it comes from."
Black Creek did not reply to her question. He desperately clung to the wall, not daring to go near the edge. The side of his belongings scraped against the stone masonry. Dull Pauldron was unfazed, more interested in the light orb floating above them. The path they took would take them to the center of the catacombs, a place Twilight had described to them once in her castle. The instructions had been clear. She was going to have a vault built right under the palace, next to the underground reservoir. The way in was a simple tunnel hewn to the wall of the rampart they were walking on. The tunnel was about a hundred feet deep. There they'd find a metal door to a room with an entrance to the artifact vault.
"This here's it ya'll." Just as Twilight had said. At the end of the simple rock-hewn tunnel was a metal door. She and Dull Pauldron pushed it open. The heavy metal door opened up to a simple, perfectly rectangular room all sides twenty feet long. The walls themselves were made out of seamless granite blocks. The crystalline specks in the granite made the room glitter in the light of Black Creek's light caster.
"Impressive containment structure." The black-bearded wizard said, looking around the room. "The monolithic structure and mineral mix of granite absorbs and deflects magic better than almost any other material, except maybe silver alloys. It's also very difficult for would-be criminals to dig through."
"Yup. That's why we ain't going to even try." Applejack took a step forward. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek followed. "Twilight was a genius when it came to magical stuff, but she had the common sense of a flock of chickens."
Applejack walked across the monotonous stone room to the other side where a single horseshoe-shaped crevice broke the surface of the otherwise smooth wall. She raised her hoof and put it on the crevice. A second later small holes, unseen before, started glowing with light. Applejack heard the dull sound of a mechanism moving and locking into place behind the stone blocks.
"So we helped her design the place. Never been here before m'self, but I know the gist. We spent an entire night in her castle planning it."
A light shone on the wall to the right of them and another horseshoe-shaped crevice appeared. "It's all real simple like. The first lock opens when Twilight or any of her friends puts their hoof on it. The second locks a magic word lock." Applejack strutted to the wall, happy as a pig in mud, and spoke into the hole. "Flurry Heart." Again small pinholes in the wall lit up, and a third horseshoe appeared on the wall opposite.
Applejack couldn't help but smile. Everything was going according to plan. Black Creek and Dull Pauldron were standing in awe as she unlocked the room piece by piece like it was nothing. It's a good thing Twilight had trusted her and the others so much.
She headed over to the third horseshoe. "The third an' final one's the easiest. All you've got to do is look into the horseshoe. Twilight says every pony has eyes that are unique to them, so the lock knows exactly who you are. Not even changelings can get through this one." She stopped in front of the crevice, took off her hat, and looked into the hole with one eye. Predictably the wall lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree and they could hear a third lock shift into position.
Applejack flipped her hat back on her head and turned towards the first wall, expecting another light show.
Nothing happened.
"Huh?" Applejack looked confused.
Dull Pauldron and Black Creek stood silently, not daring to speak up.
Applejack trotted over to where she expected the wall to open up and reveal Twilight's stash of dangerous magical artifacts.
"What the hay is going on?" She stood up on her hind legs and pushed on the wall. "It's supposed to open after the third magic doodad." She kept stomping at the door, expecting it to swing open at any moment.
Dull Pauldron and Black Creek shifted around awkwardly until Dull Pauldron spoke up. "Um, Ma'am Applejack, are you sure there isn't a fourth lock you need to open?"
"No! Twilight said she put in three so there are only three. That's what we had agreed on." Applejack was getting frustrated. Why wasn't it working? She did everything just as Twilight had explained. Did she go behind everyone's back and add a fourth lock?
"No, she wouldn't. She trusts us."
"Ma'am Applejack..."
Applejack stomped for the final time, her hooves hitting the heavy stone with a solid thud. Nothing changed. She leaned her head against the wall in frustration, gritting her teeth. She looked directly down.
There it was, the fourth horseshoe. Right under the first one on the floor. Twilight, did you add a fourth one without telling us? Why?
Applejack raised her right back leg and put it on the fourth horseshoe. Nothing at first, and then small lights appeared on the floor. This time they were red. The room started to shake violently.
Applejack had to steady herself against the wall to stop herself from falling over. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek stood spread-legged, struggling to stay upright. Then the rumble stopped, and the red lights started flashing slowly. On and off, on and off. Applejack pushed herself away from the wall and ran to the metal door on the other side they had come in from. It was closed. She tried the handle.
"Tarnation, it's locked." She turned back around to look at her questing buddies.
Dull Pauldron was sitting on the floor, holding his tail and rocking back and forth. "I have to admit Ma'am, I don't much like being locked underground, not at all. " He wasn't going to be any help, but Black Creek seemed to be up to something. He had stuffed his head inside the large bag he had dragged along with him and rummaged inside. He pulled out what looked like a wagon wheel with three long spikes jutting out of it. He held it in his teeth with one of the spikes pointed forward and the other two backward to his sides.
"What's that?"
"One of my havori'e a'ifac's." Black Creek spoke with the object in his teeth. "I uf i' almof' e'ery day. It re'ealfs 'he 'haumau'hic lines whih di'ect 'he flou of mahic, mafes i' eafy to fiks 'hingf."
Applejack regretted asking.
Black Creek walked over to the fourth horseshoe. As he brought the object close the frontal spike started glowing cold blue. Lines of purple light appeared inside and around the mechanism and the stone surrounding it, glowing through, as if the blocks had turned partially transparent.
"Mmmmf. In'e'esting." Black Creek pointed at a line that projected away from the wall and towards the middle of the room. Black Creek walked into the middle. The line went all the way to the middle, where it started descending in a spiral formation. A complex and dramatically drawn magic circle lit up. "I go' i'." He dropped the artifact back into his large bag.
"There's no door, it's a currently inactive short-range teleportation glyph."
"Where does it go?"
"I would hazard a guess of about forty or fifty feet underground. Perfectly reasonable, the deeper the vault, the more inaccessible it is. And since we're sitting on top of a mountainside it's all surrounded by solid stone on all sides. No danger of magical leaks."
"And how do we use it?"
"All it needs is a spark of magic to activate, nothing else. The only problem is that the glyph is here, and the interstice is over there." He pointed at the fourth horseshoe. "So the one who activates the glyph does not get to use it. It needs an operator who stays behind."
Applejack had a realization. "Or can jump in after by themselves."
"Well yes, technically of course, but your average unicorn is nowhere powerful or skillful enough to cast a relocation spell into a solid space they cannot see or sense in any way."
"But Twilight's not your average unicorn."
Applejack had mixed feelings. Of course, Twilight had not forgotten her friends, but again her brain had gone before common sense, like wagon before pony. How did she expect her friends to ever get in without her? That had been the entire point of planning this vault together. She let out an exasperated sigh. No time to cry, she decided to just have to give her a kick on the flank when she comes back. Right now she needed to focus on the staff.
"Then let's get to it. Reckon you got a contraption in there that could give us the spark we need?"
"That's an interesting question. Maybe if I take the lens off the lesser elemental condenser I might be able to-"
The room rumbled again. The red lights on the floor stopped blinking. A magical voice reverberated through the room. It spoke with the voice of Twilight Sparkle.
"-How does this, okay, it's on now. Hold it steady Spike. He-hem. Dear intruders. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle speaking. You should not be there, I mean here, that is, where you are currently. The golems will keep you company until the castle guards arrive. Please do not resist, and have a nice day. Was that too rude? Not rude enough? What do you mean Sp-"
As soon as the magical voice stopped, four sliding doors opened up in the roof of the room, and with a heavy thud, four piles of rock fell from each one of them. Dull Pauldron screamed and jumped up. Black Creek just looked confused, unfamiliar with being in any kind of real danger.
"Golems? No one mentioned Golems! Wait, did I bring my discombobulator with me? Please tell me I did!" His head disappeared into his bag.
Applejack took a low stance, her hooves spread out and back legs ready. She narrowed her eyes and stared at the piles of rocks. A zap of electricity flickered between the rocks, then another. Soon they rose, being propped up by the bluish lighting crackling between the individual pieces, forming into a crude mimicry of a pony. The rock ponies had them surrounded on all four sides, but they did not move.
Applejack took a careful step forward. The round, eyeless heads of the rock golems instantly moved toward her direction. She took another step. The rock golems took two rapid steps toward her.
"You find that discombombator yet Blacks?"
"Give me a second! I swear I packed it!"
"Dull?"
"Heee! I can't stand their faceless heads staring at us, oh my Celestia."
"Oh for Pete's sake."
The rock golems' attention shifted to the wizard stomping around and rummaging through his bag. The constructs started walking towards him in unison, but before they could reach him Applejack sprinted forward and managed to get right next to the one closest to her. She went low, spun around, and kicked the artificial rocky pony straight to the side of its figureless head. The stone skull rocketed right off its shoulders and bounced off the ceiling, striking sparks along the way. The rock pony fell apart, reverting to a pile of roundly shaped rocks. The three other golems changed their direction in perfect unison and came straight toward Applejack.
The second one came at her from behind. Big mistake. Another swift kick from McGillicuddy & McGee sent the second rock pony flying backward, where it violently smashed against the wall, falling apart. The third golem moved unnaturally fast behind her, attempting to grab her with its two cylindrical appendages. Dull Pauldron appeared out of nowhere and body-slammed the construct before it could lay a single stony hoof on Applejack. The fourth rock pony charged her, but she pressed her legs against the floor and jumped right over it, landing on its rocky back. Applejack grabbed its rocky tail with her front legs and wrapped her back legs around its waist. The brainless construct didn't know what to do and just started jumping and bucking like a wild bull at the rodeo.
"Yeehaww! Now we're talking!" Applejack hung on and rode the rocky stallion with the talent of a professional rodeo pony.
As she kept the fourth golem occupied and Dull Pauldron wrestled with the third one Black Creek was left unmolested to find his combo-whatchamacallit. Then she heard the concerning sound of stone scarping and rolling against the floor. The first and second golems she thought she had put out to pasture were starting to reform. The smooth round stones climbed over each other and rearranged back into their crude equine form.
"Jumping Junebugs! Blacks! Where's that combubator?"
A muffled shouting from Black Creek's bag did not alleviate her fears.
The two golems had reformed. They started walking towards her and their rodeo-victimized colleague. The fourth golem finally kicked too hard, almost straight up, and Applejack flew off. She landed with a painful smack and a wallop on the hard stone floor.
"Ooof..." All air had been punched right out of her. All she could do was watch as the three pony golems started approaching her, probably with malicious intent.
Then she heard the sound of a hammer breaking a vase. One of the golems stopped and simply fell apart. The stones lay inertly on the floor, no magic sparks between them. Then another sound of a vase breaking and another golem fell apart. Two more screeching sounds and all the golems were down for the count, just four piles of useless rocks. She stood up. Dull Pauldron looked confused under a pile of smooth rocks, which had just been a commendable wrestling opponent.
Applejack turned towards Black Creek. He was standing on his back legs, with a round metal ball in his hooves. The inlaid brass rings on it pointed toward the now defeated artificial guardians. His hooves were shaking, barely holding on to the discombobulator.
"Nice work partner."
"T-t-thanks Applejack." He fell backward on his flank.
"Hoowee! What a show, I even got to ride a bucking bronco! Great work boys."
She trotted over to Black Creek and helped him back on his hooves.
"But seriously though, I'm going to tan Twilight's hide when she gets back."
The next step of their adventure was simple. Dull Pauldron would stay behind and activate the glyph with Black Creek's modified artifact. In 20 minutes he'd do it again, and then every 5 minutes. Applejack wasn't completely on board with the plan since she'd just met the pony whose hooves they were putting their lives into, but there was no other choice. She wasn't going to let Black Creek go alone, but she also needed his artifact expertise. Protect Equestria, she thought, as the glyph sparked under them. She blinked once and the room around them changed.
The room they found themselves in was much larger than the one above them, at least five or six times as big. Standing in the middle of the round room they were greeted with rows and rows of artifacts. The shelves radiated from the middle where they were standing, in the shape of spokes on a wheel. Applejack looked around. This was all sitting right under their flanks, an entire warehouse of extremely dangerous artifacts. No wonder Twilight had put extra effort into guarding it. As they stepped off the glyph platform teal fire appeared in cups around the room, lighting the room sickly light green.
Black Creek was floored. He let go of his bag and started running back and forth between the shelves. He had never seen so many powerful artifacts before, but here they now were, right under his snout. Applejack let him have his fun. He looked like how she felt when she attended the apple exhibit at the Equestrian Farmers convention. She started going through the shelves too.
Light flickered on the metal shelves. Glass panels kept the artifacts insulated away from both the looker and each other. She walked by rows and rows of magical rings, knives, daggers, amulets, hats, and statues. Most of them are evil, or at least dangerous. There was even a familiar-looking broken bell in one of the cabinets. Some other artifacts she recognized from their adventures, but it was clear some had been collected by Celestia long before Twilight's time.
Black Creek was starting to calm down. He had stumbled back to his bag and was now laying on it breathing heavily. He was over the moon. "I can't believe this! So many legendary artifacts! Sultan Shakra's snakeskin sandals! The alicorn feather duster! The Sword Named Death of All Who Stands In My Way and Some Behind Them! Incredible! Everyone thought these were lost forever! But don't worry, I do remember why we are here." He shimmied over to the mouth of the bag and pulled out a small wand. "I do hope you'll let me come back here after this is all done."
He scrambled back up.
"Now, let's see if my intuition was right."
He held the wand in his mouth and tapped it against the floor. The wand lit up, the light growing brighter by the second. Black Creek put his hoof back in the bag and pulled out a much smaller bag. "Got to wrap it in some insulation, the metrics in here are off the charts." He dropped the wand lit tip first into the bag and turned it around. The fabric dimmed the light enough for there to be a visible difference as he spun it around in different directions of the round room. The wand finally hit its peak illumination when he pointed it toward a set of shelves that were surrounded by piles of abandoned boxes and crates.
"Over here." Black Creek hopped over to the piles of containers. Some piles reached high enough to almost touch the ceiling. A pony could just barely fit through the space in between. He squeezed through one gap. Applejack followed close behind him. The tight space was covered in dust, and the deeper they burrowed the dustier it got.
"Woah! It's picking up something big!"
Applejack could see the light from the wand shine from behind all the boxes. She finally shoved through to where Black Creek was. Flank to flank in the tight space, they stood in front of the most mundane-looking dresser. The wand in his hoof was vibrating and glowing hot.
"Really?" Applejack said.
"Umm. That's what the wand says." Black Creek was getting nervous and sweaty. She could smell it. "I guess we better open it?"
She reached for the left door as he reached for the right one. They pulled together, and the dresser opened up. Inside, wrapped unceremoniously in brown paper and tied with a piece of string, was something shaped like a staff. Applejack could not believe it. It couldn't be this. What kind of a pony leaves something as powerful as this just lying around in the back of a dresser?
Black Creek, now completely mesmerized by their discovery, reached out and grabbed the long package. Together they managed to half push, half crawl back through the boxes. Black Creek didn't even bother dusting himself off and rushed to place the package on one of the tables in the center, close to the teleportation glyph. He opened it as Applejack finished slapping the dust off her hide and trotted over to the table.
There it lay. A masterpiece of ancient ponish crafting, every inch of the beautiful redwood transcribed with perfectly inlaid and symmetrical runes. The staff was twice the height of a pony, but light as a feather. On the top end was inlaid a giant red ruby, cut brilliantly round. It was simple, elegant, and brimming with power. Even Applejack, an earth pony, could almost feel the magical force around the artifact.
"Well butter mah biscuits. It's real."
Black Creek was almost salivating over their finding.
"You were right. This is it."
Black Creek traced his hoof carefully across the shaft of the Sunstaff.
"It's perfect. Look at the craftsponyship. The carving quality, the perfect undulation from the focal point to the primaris anchor. The size of that conduit. Oh dear sweet Celestia, it's magnificent."
"So how does it work?"
"That's the beautiful part. It's an intention-directed object, wouldn't expect anything else from an artifact of this caliber. All you do is 'point and hope', and the staff takes care of the rest."
"So it can read mah mind?"
"Technically it predicts your intention based on multiple factors including your body language and current center of attention, but yes, in essence."
"Neat."
"I, I think I need to sit back down."
Black Creek staggered over to a pillow on the floor and flopped on it. Applejack kept staring at her reflection in the large ruby embedded in the staff. A thousand Applejacks stared back at her from the many facets of the round gemstone. She had done it. The first step was done. But it wasn't the last.
She stared back at her reflections. The faces reminded her of Twilight. Of her friends. She ground her teeth. No matter how many more it took, she would do everything to get her friends back. But to do that she had to do what Twilight had asked of her. The middle reflection almost looked like Twilight. Her coat looked almost purple as the light of the blue magical fire reflected off the ruby. She was somewhere out there. Applejack could feel it. She'd use every tool available, every pony if she had to, to make sure of it. Equestria would be protected even if she had to drag it to safety by force.
Applejack shook her head. Wait a second. What was she thinking? Using ponies? Applejack closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Why did she think that? Where were these strange ideas coming from?
She grabbed the staff while trying not to think about anything, hoping it wouldn't explode in her face. She motioned Black Creek to follow her. Dull Pauldron would start up the teleportation glyph at any minute. The weakened academic stood on his wobbling legs and walked over next to Applejack. It didn't take long for the glyph to light up around them. Once again as she blinked her eyes, the artifact vault disappeared, and the puzzle room reappeared. Dull Pauldron was waiting for them, the tiny magical artifact looking comically small in his giant hooves.
"How'd it go Ma'am?"
Applejack took the staff out of her teeth, put it on her shoulder, and smiled at him.
"Bullseye, Dull. We hit the bullseye."
The way back up went without a hitch, and the trio soon found themselves back outside the palace. The feeling of escaping the deep dark was dampened by the lack of sunlight, but the fresh air helped make up for it. The quicker she got back to Stern, the sooner she could finally feel the caress of the sun on her face again, Applejack thought.
"Thanks again for the help boys, I'm heading over to Stern right this minute. Blacks, can you go see if Shining Armor is still at his parents' house? I'm sure he'd like to know that we found the first piece of the puzzle. Dull, go with him. Make sure he gets safe back to the school afterward. I have a feeling we're being watched."
"Yessir Ma'am."
"Sure thing, Applejack."
The odd pair took off running, both still high on their first real adventure. Applejack smiled, and headed towards the Royal Guard barracks, the Sunstaff held carefully on her shoulder.
Once she got in, Applejack was escorted by four members of the guard up the stairs back to the Captain's office. They opened the door for her, and she walked in. She saw Stern standing on the balcony through the open balcony door. The wind had blown through the open door and scattered some of his paperwork across the floor. That's strange, Applejack thought. She placed the Sunstaff on the desk and joined Stern outside on the balcony.
"Guardian Applejack, was your expedition a success?"
He didn't even turn around to look at her. Applejack walked to his side. Only then he turned his head towards her.
"Sure was, you can look at the results once we get back inside. I can't thank you enough for letting me in the palace."
"Of course." Stern seemed distracted. As if he had just woken up and was just waiting for the morning coffee to finish brewing.
"Listen Stern." Applejack began. "Glad to see you're pleased as punch, but now we can get rid of the Gathering. The staff on your desk, it's the key to all our problems."
"That sounds wonderful, Guardian Applejack. I was sure there was no way to disband them without the Princess herself."
"No need for the princesses, all we have to do is take the staff and—"
Stern raised a hoof to silence her. His short sandy mane quivered in the wind.
"I am very glad you decided to join me. This will all be much easier now. As for the gathering, I have already taken care of them."
"What the hay are you talkin ab—"
He pointed towards the magic school. Even from high in the tower, Applejack could see rows of the royal guard marching into the building. They returned dragging members of the Gathering out. Some of them got violent. The wind carried the sounds of screaming and shouting up to them. Applejack was stunned.
"What have you done."
"Only what needs to be done."
As the chaos escalated in front of the magic school, the ponies of Canterlot started coming out of their homes to witness the spectacle and crowds started to form around the struggle. Some Gathering members were not going to go down without a fight. The red unicorn Applejack had seen at the gathering meetings was especially vicious, taking down half a dozen guards before getting piled on and dragged off. A few ponies from the bystander crowds joined in the scuffle, trying to tear the guard off the Gathering members. Some of them threw trash and vegetables at the guard. A full-blown riot was festering.
"No! This is not how it was supposed to be done! The ponies of Equestria are not going to go along with this!"
"This joke of a gathering is powerless to execute the only task that matters; finding the Princess. The future of Equestria cannot be jeopardized by such incompetence."
"Stern. This is bigger than Celestia! This is bigger than my friends!" Applejack jumped in front of him. "It took me a while before I realized it! I was so focused on my friends that I wasn't looking at the big picture. There is no sunlight! No magic! No rain! Equestria will not survive if we spend a single moment longer fighting with each other!"
"There is nothing to worry about Guardian Applejack. Once Princess Celestia returns she will fix everything."
"But what if—"
Applejack hesitated. Stern looked directly at her. All amusement had escaped his face.
"What if they don't return?"
Applejack couldn't believe what she was saying. The dark, nagging thought that had stalked her mind ever since the disappearance had finally been spoken out loud. Tears already started forming in her emerald green eyes.
"What if they are gone?"
"What did you say?!" Stern's face was no longer stoic, far from it.
"IF they are gone, then all you're doing is tearing ponies apart for nothing." She wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"I reckon I want them back just as bad as you, but Equestria won't survive if we continue bickering like a couple of fillies over the last slice of apple pie. But now we have the Sunstaff. We can raise the sun without Celestia. We can—"
"Foolishness. I can't believe you are just as weak-willed as those clowns down there, thinking they can mimic the greatness of the Princess. The truth is we are lost without her guidance, blind and ignorant. She must be searched with everything we have. Everything else can wait. "
"I thought so too, for a while. But now I know better. We can't ignore everything else that threatens Equestria. If we do, then there won't be an Equestria for them to return to. We have to help ourselves before we can help them."
"Be quiet you earth pony maggot! This is what you wanted! Bringing the princess back will save Equestria! There is no other option!"
Applejack took a step forward towards Stern.
"But I do understand. I understand that to you it was never about protecting Equestria. You don't care two bits about Equestria. All you care about is Celestia."
"How dare you!"
Stern was now shouting, the words tangling in his throat as he screamed them out.
"CELESTIA IS EQUESTRIA! There is nothing without her! We're nothing without her!"
He lowered his head. For a second Stern looked nothing like the steadfast royal captain he appeared to be, but instead, he reminded Applejack of a lost child, desperately looking for his mother.
"She has to."
He raised his head and stared directly into her eyes. She could see heavy dark bags around his eyes. He had not slept for days. His eyes reflected the unceasing red glow of the cursed twilight, as he tried his best to hold back tears.
"We need her! The Princess will return! She will fix it all! She is the eternal, perfect ruler of Equestria!"
"No. She ain't perfect. None of us are."
Stern was finally overcome by bitter rage. He let out a cry, turned around, and kicked his armored back legs directly toward Applejack's head. Applejack pulled herself down and dodged him. The steel greaves scraped the top of her hat. With a low spin and twist of her body, she pushed against the floor with her front legs and bucked right at Stern's chest plate. Her hooves connected. Applejack felt a rib break as the armor gave way and caved in.
Stern was launched through the air and back inside through the balcony door and though his office. The furniture fell over with a thunderous crash as he slammed into them before finally being stopped by the heavy desk. Applejack ran after him. Stern lay on the floor, paperwork and appliances scattered around the room, gasping for air. Before Applejack could find a way to escape, the guards outside rushed in. They darted towards Applejack. She got a couple of good kicks in as she tried to reach for the Sunstaff, but the stallions managed to wrestle her down and tie her up. The Sunstaff was left lying on the floor right next to her.
Stern got up, moaning in pain and clutching at his side. He coughed up something into his hooves. It wasn't strawberry jam. He slowly lurched towards the Sunstaff, reached over, and propped himself up against it. Applejack could only stare furiously at him as the guards held her down.
"Take this traitor to the dungeons."
The guards dragged the struggling Applejack through the door and out of the captain's office without a word. They were not gentle as they dragged her down the stairs and into the depths of the castle.