“Forgive me, darling,” Rarity, her face ashen from Nightmare’s sudden appearance, turned to Twilight as she sat in the corner. “But did you just say that we had to… stop her?”
Twilight looked her straight in the eyes and nodded.
“And how in the hay is that even possible?” Applejack, who had slowly moved towards the cell bars, asked.
“Twilight, you’ve been through a lot today… you should really rest for now…” Fluttershy offered.
“No, girls, I mean it,” Twilight answered while simultaneously formulating her plan which, even she had to admit, had only a very, very slim chance of working. “We have to stop The Alicorn Queen. We may be the only ones left who can do so,”
“Sugarcube, you jus’ heard Nightmare fer yourself, ya saw what’s waiting fer us out there,” Applejack argued, “We have about a snowball’s chance in hell of defeatin’ that ourselves.”
“Actually, a snowball’s chance in hell would statistically be 0%, barring any extenuating sorts of refrigeration or the total non- existence of eternal damnation, in which case the entire exercise is moot,” Twilight corrected. “I have an idea to stop this, and it definitely- well, ok, probably- has a better chance of working than 0%.”
“And just what did you have in mind, dear?” Rarity asked.
Twilight sighed, finalizing her plan in her head.
“The Elements of Harmony.”
“The Elements?” Rarity asked.
“Yes… they’re supposed to be the power source of what’s left of Equestria, right? The Alicorn Eye, all the buildings in Canterlot, its mainframe… well, that just means that Nightmare and her Shadowbolts, who obviously aren’t alive in the strictest sense, are running off of them too, doesn’t it? Or at the very least, their siege engines are,”
Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy exchanged nervous glances with each other as Twilight continued.
“If we can get to The Elements in Harmonics, outside of the city, and turn them off, you know, pull out Nightmare’s batteries at the source, well then, theoretically at least, the entire army, as well as Nightmare herself, should be deactivated,” she finished.
The three beside her looked at each other again; nobody quite knew what to say.
“Sugarcube,” Applejack began with upmost precaution, “I know you’ve jus’ been through a mighty terrible loss… but couldn’t this all jus’ be a part of yer wantin’ ta get back out there and, ya know… look fer ya mother?”
“No! No, I mean…” Twilight rubbed her temples. “…Of course, if my mother is out there, still alive, I want to find her, but if she isn’t… look, I really don’t see anything else to do, except to sit here and wait to die… horribly.”
With that, everybody else in the dungeon looked down; they knew what Twilight had said was the truth- there was no other viable or less- crazy way to even begin to get out of the sudden mess that they all found themselves in.
“I… I don’t know, Twilight,” Fluttershy stammered, fidgeting with her hands.
“Maybe the best thing fer us ta do is sit and wait, ya know, for reinforcements from Ponyville,” Applejack tried to persuade her.
“Are you forgetting that Nightmare is an Alicorn Queen?” Twilight answered. “Haven’t you wondered why no one has come leaping to our rescue yet? It’s because she has obviously shut The Eye. At any rate, even if they do eventually arrive… come on, Applejack, you’ve seen what those things can do. It would be a very short, very one- sided battle, and Nightmare would then be free to roam the Earth as she wished, unchallenged by any nation’s army. No, if we are going to stop her from killing any more innocent people, this is the only way to do it. But we have to act now, before that Barrier breaks down and they kill the only ones who can stop them!”
“Darling, one does not simply walk into Harmonics and turn off The Elements of Harmony, not now,” Rarity added. “And besides, you’re supposing that we can even shut them off once we get there.”
“I can do it,” Twilight responded with fierce determination, suddenly thinking back, with pain, to her mother’s praise and affirmation of her scientific genius. She held back her tears as she continued. “Believe me, if there’s anybody left that… that can do it, it’s me. And in the event that we can’t turn The Elements off, then, well… we’ll just have to destroy them.”
She looked at them all fiercely. She had never been surer or more afraid of anything in her life.
A sudden realization flashed through her mind, though, and she lowered her head to the ground. “But… I can’t do this alone, girls. I’m only one person. I… I… I need your help if this plan is going to succeed,”
The other three just sat or stood there in silence. Twilight was asking a lot from them; sure, her plan seemed to be the very minimum amount of sound, but she was asking them to risk their lives with her, to possibly even give them up in sacrifice. Such propositions were not so easily accepted, at least not by normal, run- of- the- mill people.
“I’ll do it,” Rarity slowly answered, nodding her head. Twilight looked up at her and, for the first time in a very long while, smiled.
“Really?”
“Ok, darling, we’ll try your plan. Besides, if you even have a chance of turning off The Elements, then you’ll probably need somebody fluent in Equestrian,” Rarity smiled back as Twilight’s heart grew warmer and warmer.
“Well, if you’re going to go out there with those…” Fluttershy shuddered as she spoke gently, “…things, it’ll be very dangerous. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt, Twilight, or if you found your mother and she’s hurt, with nobody around to help, so, um… I guess I’ll come too.”
Twilight gasped in tears, her heart flooding with emotion. She hugged them both tightly in deep, sincere gratitude.
“Thank you, girls, oh… thank you.”
When she broke off from her hug, she noticed that Applejack had become very silent. She saw her military guard standing right outside her cell with her back turned towards her. Twilight got up and walked right up to the bars.
“Applejack,” she called out to her, “you have to let me go.”
“I can’t do that, sugarcube,” Applejack quietly whispered without even facing her.
“Applejack, you know General Armstrong will eventually get us all killed, every single one of us… this is the only way,”
“DAMMIT! ORDERS ARE ORDERS!!!” Applejack bellowed out in frustration. Twilight could hear her ragged breathing afterwards through the bars.
Twilight lowered her head and sighed. “Applejack, do you remember what I said to you, earlier today, before all of this happened?”
Applejack finally turned around, tears in her eyes.
“I said that you were somebody that I could trust. Even when you had to do your job, you still came around to talk to me, to treat me kindly. Do you remember what else I said to you?”
Applejack grit her teeth as she wiped her eyes, but continued to say nothing.
“I said that you were a very honest woman.” Twilight started to chuckle a little before continuing. “You know, Applejack, you’re probably the most honest, down- to- earth person that I’ve ever met; because of that, and because of what we’ve been through, together, I trust you. I trust you with all my heart, and just like I needed your honesty then, well… I need you right now. Because, Applejack, I…” Twilight looked down and sniffed. “…I really need you to trust me right now. Just like I trust you.”
Applejack turned her back on Twilight again; the last remains of her heart were obliterated, and tears streamed freely down her face. Twilight just stood there; Rarity and Fluttershy sat together in the cell, waiting in anticipation for her response. After a few moments, Applejack cursed loudly and then turned around and ran to unlock the cell door. Twilight ran up to her and hugged her tightly.
“Oh, Applejack,” she sniffed again.
“I still think this is all crazier than a rattlesnake at a square dance, but…” Applejack sniffed too, “… if’n y’all remember, I told ya that there is no way in hell I’m a- gonna let you git yourself killed, not if I can help it… I’m comin’ with you, too.”
“Thank you, Applejack, thank you,” Twilight hugged her even tighter.
Rarity and Fluttershy walked out to join them, hugging Applejack gently in gratitude. She sniffed and hugged them back.
“So, uh, now what are we supposed ta do?” Applejack wiped her eyes clean as she asked Twilight.
“We’ll need some additional help,” Twilight replied, and the others nodded in agreement with her.
********************************************************************************************
Pinkie Pie sighed. She had been sitting at her console at IT since this whole mess had started, had watched and listened in horror as the grisly one- sided battle took place outside. After those first few shocking moments, though, the IT Division had come under a complete lull as the entire Castle settled into the siege and the military command center had apparently found no more need for her skills. General Armstrong had simply ordered the entire Division to keep up maintenance of the Canterlot Mainframe. Pinkie Pie was quite bored, true, but such a state didn’t bother her as much now as it usually would. No, Pinkie Pie was mostly scared, scared for all her friends throughout The Initiative, and scared for herself as well. She just didn’t know what the future held in store for all of them.
Pinkie yawned and stretched, moving for the first time in what seemed like hours.
“I think I’m gonna get a soda, you guys want anything?” she turned to the IT technicians working next to her.
“Oooh,” a blond female communications specialist to her right replied, “Do you think you can get me a muffin? I’m starving,”
“I can’t make any promises, but I can sure try!” Pinkie winked at her as she got up and walked out of IT.
She made her way down the hallway where two soda machines still stood. Licking her lips, which were, oddly, covered in traces of frosting, she inserted a dollar into a machine and made her selection. The machine just read “OUT OF ORDER” on its little screen, and Pinkie frowned. She tried every selection on both machines, but they were both completely empty. Pinkie sighed, realizing that people had probably panicked during the start of the siege and had started hoarding all of the available food and drink for themselves. She contemplated how much longer this day would turn out to be now that she was deprived of her much needed sugar fix.
“Pinkie Pie,” she suddenly heard someone whisper her name.
Pinkie gasped and turned around, scanning the halls for the person who had called her. She didn’t see anybody in either direction, so she scratched her head.
“Pinkie!” the voice came again, a distinctly female one, and quite familiar to her at that.
“Is somebody out there?” Pinkie inquired out loud. “It can’t be me talking to myself again, I don’t usually sound so much like Twilight Sparkle! Or do I?” she began to seriously wonder.
“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight stuck her head out of a small corridor that intersected the hall near the soda machines. “It’s me!”
Pinkie jumped with surprise and joy. “Hiiiii Twilight!” she began to wave like a maniac.
Twilight put a finger to her lips and shushed her. “Pinkie! Please be quiet!”
Pinkie only laughed at that. “Oh, Twilight! Only children are meant to be seen but not heard, but we’re adults, silly filly! Of course, I think children should get to be as loud as they want to, but-“
“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight interrupted, still nervous that, any second now, she would be found by somebody else. “Will you please get over here? Please?”
“Ok, ok… now, should I go real fast, like I’m powerwalking, or real slowly and stealthily, like I’m a ninja?”
Pinkie heard some pretty audible groans coming from the corridor, and Applejack’s head suddenly appeared next to Twilight’s. “Girl, would you jus’ git over here?!”
“Okey- dokey- lokey!” Pinkie responded simply and happily and ran over to the corridor, skipping really, where Twilight and Applejack were very unsuccessfully trying to hide. Twilight watched her come over, noticing that, although she seemed as cheerful and energetic as always, her eyes had pronounced bags under them, and she seemed a little more frazzled than usual.
“Oh!” Pinkie gasped when she entered the corridor to also find Fluttershy and Rarity hiding there as well, “Are you all having some sort of party? Like a ‘We’re All Gonna Die, There’s Really No Way Out, It’s Totally and Completely Hopeless, So Let’s Make Tonight The Best Night Ever!’ kind of party?!”
“Shhh!” Twilight shushed her. “No, Pinkie, we’re not throwing a party.”
“Hey Applejack, hey Fluttershy!” Pinkie greeted happily. “Ooh, I recognize your hair, didn’t we work together on The Alicorn’s Tongue a while back?” she asked Rarity.
“Yes, darling, hello, I’m Rarity, Rarity Belle… a pleasure.”
“Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie shook her hand earnestly. “We should exchange shampoo tips sometime!” Her face suddenly fell a little. “If we’re not all dead, that is.”
“Pinkie,” Twilight drew her attention again. “We’re here because we need your help. We think the only way that we can stop Nightmare’s siege is to turn off The Elements of Harmony,”
“Ooooh, good plan,” Pinkie replied in awe. “How can I help?”
“Can you reconfigure The Barrier to let us through without losing its entire structural integrity?” Twilight asked, remembering with a shiver the exploding fighter planes in Dr. Heartstring’s presentation.
Pinkie bit her tongue in thought. “I think so, it shouldn’t be that hard to reconfigure a single region for only one- way traffic. Anything else?”
“Yes, I need you to find a spot in The Barrier for us to escape through, somewhere that won’t be directly fired upon just as we’re leaving,” Twilight explained further.
“No problemo! I’ll just extrapolate a point of escape using some realtime data of the weapons impacting against our shields! That should get you through without a hitch, though I can’t imagine you’re gonna have a very good time once you’re out there…”
“I know, Pinkie Pie, I know…” Twilight sighed. “There is one last thing… I may need some help once we get to Harmonics, configuring the systems and even dealing with The Elements themselves… would you, just maybe… be willing to come with us?”
The small group stared at Pinkie Pie; Twilight was very worried that her advanced computer skills would not be available for this crucial mission. For the first time since she appeared, Pinkie sighed, looking down at the floor with a totally serious face. Twilight’s heart stopped- she believed Pinkie was about to say no.
“I… I’m really scared, Twilight,” she started to reply, “I don’t really know what’s going on outside, and when I saw all those soldiers fighting on my emitter, I… I just…” she looked up at Twilight with her big, blue watery eyes. “…I just can’t stay here. I can’t sit and wait for those things to come in and get me, to get all of my friends… I couldn’t take waiting for that to happen, I just couldn’t take it to watch everybody get… so… yes, I’ll come with you.”
Twilight hugged her, breathing a sigh of relief.
“I’m scared too, Pinkie Pie, we all are. But if we’re going to have any chance of getting out of this alive, all of us, then we need to stop Nightmare before she can hurt anybody else.”
“Okey- dokey- lokey,” Pinkie Pie sniffed a little and wiped her eyes. She started to smile again when Twilight let go. “You know, this could be kinda fun! An adventure with my brand new, very bestest- best BFFs! Oooh! Oooh! This will be just like Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, except The Elements of Harmony are the hamburgers!”
Rarity hugged her gently, smiling and shaking her head before turning to Twilight. “And just how are we supposed to even penetrate The Barrier, darling? By walking?”
“No, by flying,” Twilight answered, grinning. “And I know just the pilot who can get us through.”
********************************************************************************************
The ragtag group of five made their way into the hangar bay; The Barrier had fortunately protected it from the attack due to its close proximity to The Castle. Before them sat, undisturbed, military jets and helicopters of all sorts lining its entire length. As Twilight led the small group forward, she noticed with relief that it seemed to be quite empty of any people.
“Are ya sure she’s even in here, sugarcube?” Applejack asked warily.
“Positive. All the other pilots and flight crews are with the other remaining military personnel at the command center, just as General Armstrong ordered,” Twilight responded as she looked around. “However, Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to have joined up with them, and Pinkie tracked her eggo to this place. She’s gotta be around here somewhere,”
“I don’t know, Twi, if she or anybody else lets the general onto us, we’re sure ta be in a whole heap a trouble. How do ya even know that we can trust this Rainbow Dash, anyway?”
Twilight thought for a minute as they walked quickly. “I don’t. However, if there’s any pilot here who can fly us through that siege in one piece, it’s gotta be her, believe me… ooh, here’s The Rainboom…” they came upon Dash’s precious plane, and she scanned around it for the pilot. “Now, where could she be?”
“’Sup?” a voice suddenly greeted them from above.
They all gasped and turned towards the source; Applejack instinctively drew her pistol in shock. They found Rainbow Dash standing on one of the variable wings, looking down at them. When Dash saw that Applejack had her weapon raised, she pulled her own sidearm and pointed it right back at her.
“Woah!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flipping her safety off.
“Oh my goodness...” Fluttershy blanched as the others all backed away from the little standoff between the pilot and the soldier. Pinkie Pie was waving happily at Rainbow Dash, even as she backed away.
“DROP IT!” Dash ordered as sweat began to pour over her brow.
“YOU DROP IT!” Applejack responded, sweating too as she cocked her hammer back.
“Ladies, please,” Rarity nervously tried to calm them down. “There’s really no need for this- I mean, ha ha ha, we’re all on the same side, aren’t we?”
“I don’t know, it looks to me like you’re all trying to desert The Castle… I mean why else would you be sneaking around here when nobody’s looking?” Rainbow Dash accused, still pointing her gun at Applejack. “And then this grunt here decides she wants to play Rambo, so here we all are.”
“You’re the one lurkin’ in the hangar bay all by yer lonesome, pointin’ a gun at people passin’ by… so what does that make you, exactly?” Applejack spat back.
“You pulled your weapon on me first, hayseed!”
“Well, it takes two ta tangle now, don’t it, Skittles?!”
“GIRLS!” Twilight walked in between the two of them, her hands up. “Could you both just quit it with the Army- Navy Game for a minute?! I think we all have much bigger problems to deal with, don’t you?!”
She gently began to pull the barrel of Applejack’s gun downwards. Applejack looked at her and then sighed, finally holstering her weapon. After she did, Rainbow Dash did the same.
“Thank you,” Twilight and the rest of them breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, man,” Pinkie Pie clapped her hands, laughing, “This is exciting! I’m soooo glad that I decided to tag along!”
Rarity and Fluttershy just stared at her with apprehension.
“Just what are you all doing down here, anyway?” Rainbow Dash crossed her arms. “Shouldn’t you be with the others?”
“Funny, I was jus’ about ta ask you the same thing,” Applejack was still frowning at her.
“Well, I figured if I’m gonna die, then I might as well fly out and take as many of those fuckers with me as soon as The Barrier falls,” Dash explained, and then sighed, shaking her head. “I mean, what else is there to really do now?”
“That’s why we’re here, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight explained, “we think we’ve figured out a way to stop Nightmare and her army.”
Rainbow Dash just laughed bitterly. “Oh, that’s rich… I heard war can make people go crazy, but that is just friggin’ unbelievable…”
“I’m serious,” Twilight pressed on. “The Elements power each and every piece of native Equestrian technology, don’t they? Well, if we can get to Harmonics and shut them off, shouldn’t Nightmare and her Shadowbolts all die?”
Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, frowning. “Assuming that would even work, how in the hell do you plan on getting to Harmonics, anyway? Last time I checked, there was still a medieval- ass siege going on outside the Castle, or did you forget?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Twilight explained again, “We want to fly our way out.”
Dash looked at her again as if she was crazy. “Are you serious? Do you even know what would happen the second a plane leaves that force field? You wouldn’t make it ten meters without being shot down, not to mention the fact that The Castle would be left completely defenseless the moment you lowered The Barrier,”
“Pinkie Pie here thinks that she can get us out without lowering the shields entirely,” Twilight gestured to the programmer, who again waved happily at Rainbow Dash. “She also thinks that she can find a spot where they won’t be firing, giving us a good chance of running the siege.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed, jumping down from the wing of her plane. “Even if you do manage to do all that, what makes you think that you can make it past an entire army of those robotic bastards?”
“Well… we would probably need an extremely capable pilot who could handle that,” Twilight continued, quite anxiously. “Somebody with the skills, somebody with the courage… and maybe, just maybe, somebody with a really, really fantastic and patented hairstyle, too?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Oh, no… oh, no, no, no, there is absolutely no friggin’ way,”
“Rainbow Dash, please, we need you,” Twilight pleaded.
Dash looked at her, and then at all of the others. “You’re really serious about this? Does General Armstrong even know what you’re all doing?”
The girls all looked at each other with shifty eyes, and Dash chuckled darkly.
“Yeah… I didn’t think so.”
“Darling, there is no way any of us is getting out of here alive just sitting around- I mean, let’s face it, nobody’s going to come to our rescue, we have to do it ourselves,” Rarity reasoned.
“Yeah! Rarity here even says that it’s that meanie- weenie general’s fault everybody’s in danger in the first place! Oh, he’s so terrible, I even wrote a song about him on the way over here!” Pinkie added. “It’s an experimental piece called ‘Pralines and Dick #9’.”
“Um, if we’re going to have any chance of, uh- gulp- surviving this, I would think that we could use a brave, talented pilot such as yourself, Rainbow Dash, but… you know, that’s really just my own personal opinion…” Fluttershy added nervously as well.
“Please, Rainbow, help us. Help us save all of the people in this Castle. Help us stop Nightmare,” Twilight begged.
Rainbow Dash just shook her head and turned away from them. It sounded like a reasonable plan- well, sort of- and there really wasn’t any other way out that she could think of. Well, any other way where she would still be alive in the end …
Applejack walked up to her. “Sugarcube, Twilight’s right, they all are… even Pinkie Pie too, I guess… this is the only way. Now, we gotta defeat that psychotic bitch, or else a whole lotta people’s gonna suffer n’ die, fer nothin’.” Dash turned around to face her as she continued. “Ya said it yerself that you were ready ta go out there on yer own, guns blazin’ n’ all… well, why not take a couple more passengers wit ya, hon’?”
Rainbow Dash looked Applejack in the eye, and they stared at each other for a while. Dash turned to look at the others as well, each holding their breath in anticipation for her answer. She groaned loudly.
“Fine, let’s get this sad little kamikaze show over with.”
To her surprise, the other girls shouted in joy and ran over to give her a big group hug.
“Um… this really wasn’t a part of the plan,” she muttered uncomfortably.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash, oh, thank you, thank you so much!” Twilight was smiling; they now stood a fighting chance, together, against The Alicorn Queen.
“So, should we leave right now?” Dash asked as they all parted from the hug.
“Well, I never thought I’d ever have to say these words, but…” Twilight sighed. “We’re going to need a lot more guns. Big ones.”