Chapter 12
The first thing she felt was the heat. Twilight opened her eyes and she was inside the world Sombra had trapped Applejack in.
She was in Sweet Apple Acres. And it was on fire.
Twilight was on top of a sizable hill, and from it she could see that the entirety of Sweet Apple Orchard was ablaze. She heard a stifled sob behind her and spun around. What she saw horrified her even more. Applejack was sitting in front of her burning barn, surrounded by the torn and bloody apparel of her family.
Big Macintosh’s broken yoke.
Granny Smith’s bloody scarf.
Applebloom’s ripped bow.
Breaburn’s frayed hat.
Dozens of them surrounded Applejack, who just sat in the middle, weeping.
“Applejack…”
“It’s all gone, Twi…” Applejack just whispered over the crackling of the fires, “Everypony in my family… And everythin’ we ever built… It’s all gone…”
“Applejack, this isn’t real!” Twilight yelled, putting a hoof on her shoulder “You need to snap out of it! We need you to come back!”
She violently slapped her friend’s hoof aside.
“How dare you talk like that to me!?” She yelled back, tears in her eyes “Look around Twilight! I’ve lost everypony I loved! I’ve lost everything my family stood for! What do ah have to come back to!? NOTHIN’!”
She thinks this is real, Twilight thought, Because you never question dreams when you’re in them, not even nightmares. Twilight’s mind raced with how she could help her friend out of this. How did she help her friend’s deepest fears?
It was obvious.
Help her friends overcome their darkest fears.
Well, ‘obvious’ isn’t always a synonym for ‘easy’ Twilight thought bitterly.
How was she going to do this?
“Applejack,” Twilight said, lying down next to her, “I can’t understand what you’re going through. But there’s something you need to understand. You will never be alone.”
Applejack looked up at her.
“You have to remember that you’ll always have a family; in me, or Spike, or Rarity, or Rainbow Dash or any of the others. You have so many ponies in your life who think of you like family. And as long as even one of them is around, you still have something to hold onto. Something to fight for.”
“It’s not the same…”
“Maybe, but Celestia knows I think of you like a sister. You’re strong, loyal, and true. You’re everything I or anypony else could want in somepony they call family. And after everything we’ve been through together, that’s what we are Applejack: we’re family.”
Applejack closed her eyes. Breathed deeply. And opened her eyes, her old energy blazing in them.
“You’re right, Twi. It’s hard, maybe the hardest thing ah’ve ever done, but ah need to keep on keepin’ on. It’s the Apple Family way.”
Suddenly, the ground began to crack underneath the two of them and white light emitted from the cracks.
“What in tarnation-!?” Applejack started to yell, but was cut off as she and Twilight were engulfed in the light.
***
Spike knew this was a long shot, but he had to try something, Lt. Broadsword’s guards weren’t making any progress on getting the shield down, no matter what kind of pony magic they used.
So maybe a little dragon magic would work.
Spike finished off the letter of distress for the Princess, rolled it up and used his magic dragon breath on it. It evaporated into sparkling smoke, flew through the air…
And bounced off the shield, rebounded back to Spike and reformed into a scroll.
“Yeah, I kinda saw that coming…” Spike admitted, “We really are on our own…”
***
Twilight opened her eyes again a forest clearing.
“Applejack?”
Looking around to try to get her bearings, she could see that Applejack was nowhere to be seen. The logical conclusion was that she had automatically jumped into the mind of her next friends. The big question was whose mind was she in. Twilight honestly had no idea where she was until she looked straight up. Above her was the Cloudsdale Summer Flight Camp.
“Well, that narrows it down to two...” Twilight remarked to herself.
A scream drew her attention, because it was a scream she had heard many times before.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight called as she galloped.
Following the screams only a short distance she found Fluttershy being attacked by a flock of birds, mercilessly pecking and scratching at the poor mare as she ran away, trying to use her wings to protect her eyes. Her body was covered in bleeding scratches and it seemed as if the birds had been after her for hours. Twilight acted in reflex and fired a magical blast at the flock, but it only passed through them like they were phantasms.
Right Twilight remembered, I don’t have any power over the nightmare, since none of this is real. I can’t affect the birds since this isn’t my mind. But Fluttershy is real…
With a magenta burst she poofed herself into Fluttershy’s path and when the two collided, she poofed them both away to the safety of some undergrowth.
“Oh, Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered, tears streaming down her face and mixing with the blood shed by the birds “Thank you… I just don’t know what to do… All the animals…”
“Tell me what’s going on, Fluttershy.”
“I can’t understand them anymore… They don’t make any sense, and they all hate me. They don’t want my kindness, they just want to hurt me… And it scares me, Twilight… More than anything…”
“Why ? I’m here to help you, but I need you to tell me why it scared you so much.”
“Because…” Fluttershy was hesitant “Because I… Oh…”
“Fluttershy, I’m your friend. You can tell me.”
“That’s just the thing Twilight. I always knew that if I ever lost my pony friends, I could count on my animal friends. But if my animal friends can’t even like me, how can any of my pony friends? What good is all my kindness if no one will show it back?”
Twilight thought on this, thinking how she could help Fluttershy, and then she got an idea.
“You’re the kindest pony I know, Fluttershy,” Twilight told her “And even if you can’t speak to them, all creatures understand kindness. You can be kind Fluttershy, but you have to be brave as well. If you take a stance, show them your true intentions, they’ll understand.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I know so."
“Alright,” Fluttershy said, resolvedly, “Here goes.”
Fluttershy stepped out of the shrubbery, and into the open. The flock of birds from earlier, as well as a pack of various rodents saw her and made an instant beeline for her, snarling and whistling angrily.
“I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND!!” Fluttershy cried out, her legs shaking but not moving.
The animals descended upon her, biting, pecking, and clawing.
“Please,” Fluttershy called, her eyes shut tight “I just want to be friend.”
That became her mantra, reciting it again and again. Twilight was half-afraid after a full minute that it wasn’t going to work, but after a minute of Fluttershy not moving, the animals stopped, confused. But Fluttershy continued her chant.
“I just want to be friend… I just want to be friend… I just want to be friend...”
The animals were puzzled, but as Twilight hoped, they came to understand. The birds rested upon Fluttershy’s back gently, singing sweetly, and the small animals nuzzled at her legs.
Fluttershy fell unto her stomach, sighing with relief. And, as if by magic, her wounds began to heal themselves.
Suddenly, the ground again began to crack, filling the nightmare world with light.
“Oh…My!” Fluttershy exclaimed as the light engulfed her.
***
This time, it was a lot easier to tell whose head she was inside this time; she was in the audience of a raceway in Canterlot and there was a large banner that said “WONDERBOLTS RACE” in large blue letters.
“Gee… I wonder whose nightmare this is.”
Twilight looked around at the audience, expecting to find Rainbow Dash as an old mare, sulking over never joining the Wonderbolts. Instead, she saw herself and all the others a few rows down, cheering wildly. They were all there, except…
“AND RAINBOW DASH COMES WHIZZING AROUND THE LAST TURN!” The announcer boomed. Twilight looked over to see her multi-color maned friend was indeed a participant in the race. And going faster than Twilight had ever seen her, she must have already performed her Sonic Rainboom, because she was streaking a rainbow behind her as she flew.
But Rainbow Dash loves to race Twilight thought, How-?
Her question was quickly answered. Along the last leg of the race were some pillars the racers needed to weave through. Rainbow Dash did fine until partway through when she clipped her wing on one of the pillars. She instantly spun out of control, bounced off one of the other racers, smashed through one of the pillars, and slammed into the ground, bouncing and skipping like a stone thrown across a pond. There was a collective gasp, even from the real Twilight. She had seen Rainbow crash before, but never while going that fast and never that badly.
Suddenly, there was a feeling like vertigo as the whole scene shifted. It was as if somepony opened a trap door beneath Twilight and she fell a few feet to a completely different location. The feeling made her a little sick.
Looking around, she seemed to be in a hospital room.
“I’m afraid the damage is extensive,” said a voice behind Twilight. She swiveled around to see a Unicorn doctor levitating a clipboard talking to Rainbow Dash, who was a horrific sight after her crash. She lay on her back with her legs held up by arms on the bed and her wings to either side of her. Her wings were heavily bandaged, and seemed to be bent all wrong, like she’d dislocated them both nine times over. All her legs were in casts and her face looked like a mask, hollow and lifeless.
“Your wings are completely shattered,” The doctor continued, using his magic to flip the pages of the clipboard “We managed to save them just short of amputation. They’ll ache for as long as you continue to have them, but you can get you on pain medication to help with that. The prognosis for your legs is much better however. With suitable physical therapy, you can walk again within the year. However, their bone structure was warped by the accident and it won’t stand up to prolonged stress. They’ll re-break if you push them too hard. I’m very sorry Ms. Dash. We’ve done everything we can.”
“It’s not your fault...” Rainbow Dash said, lifelessly “Thank you doctor.”
When the doctor left through the door, Twilight could hear voices on the other side. Familiar voices.
“Is she really that bad?” Other Fluttershy asked.
“According to the doctor, she’ll never fly again. She’ll barely walk!” Other Twilight said.
“Great!” Other Pinkie Pie cried angrily, “Now is our fastest friend is our slowest friend!”
“We’ll never be able ta hobnob with all them fancy racer types now that Dash has turned cripple!” Other Applejack reminded.
“You don’t think we know that!?” Other Rarity hissed back “Now what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know” Other Fluttershy said sadly, “I’ve been buttering her up ever since she did that Sonic Rainboom at Summer Flight Camp. But I guess it was all for nothing…”
“Whatever!” Other Pinkie Pie said “That other pony, Quicksilver, came in first in the race! We should go try to be his friends!”
“But it’ll take forever to get as close with his as we were with Rainbow!” Other Rarity complained.
“Well, we have to start somewhere” Other Twilight sighed, resignedly “Celestia knows, the E. S. ‘Rainbow Dash’ has already sunk, and so it’s time to jump ship.”
With that done, the sound of the Other friend’s hooves retreating echoed through the hallway outside.
Horrified by the shallowness of what she’s heard, real Twilight looked over at Rainbow Dash who was looking towards the door, her blank face swimming with tears.
Of course she had heard her callous friends through the door. She was supposed to. That was the whole point.
“Rainbow Dash…” Twilight muttered, stepping forward.
The Pegasus jumped in surprise, and then grimaced in agony as her legs pained her.
“Twilight! How did-? Weren’t you just-?”
But then RD calmed down and her face changed from surprised and pained to resentful.
“What do you want?”
“Just to talk to my friend."
“Sure, you can change my bedpan in a few hours,” Rainbow Dash spat, “I’ll need the help for the next few forevers…”
“You think that just because you’re crippled like this, I wouldn’t be your friend anymore?” Twilight questioned.
“Why would you!? All I’ll do is slow you and everyone else down. I can’t even walk by myself, let alone go back to my job, enter races, or become a Wonderbolt! I can’t even go back to my house because it’s on a cloud!”
“Rainbow Dash…” Twilight whispered “You’re an idiot.”
“WHAT!? Say that to my face you traitorous-!”
“You’re an idiot if you think I care about how fast you can fly!” Twilight screamed at her “You think how fast you can fly stopped you from joining the Shadow Bolts when they offered to have you on their team? Or how many push-ups you can do was what helped you see that Gilda was a bully? Or how many laps you can do was what made you try to help the Buffalo get their traditional stampeding grounds back!?”
The crippled Pegasus was completely speechless, unable to say anything in the face of this screaming outburst.
“We love you because of who you are, Rainbow Dash, not what you can do! It wouldn’t matter if you were made into the weakest pony in Equestria because, at least to me, you have the strongest spirit in the whole world.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes swam with tears again, but not ones of sorrow, but of gratitude as Twilight spilled her heart out to her.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have wings or legs Rainbow Dash, because you are undeniably, unquestionably…”
“Unstoppable,” Rainbow finished for her, barely a whisper “Twilight…I…”
But before Rainbow could finish, white light flew from underneath her bed and overtook the two of them.
Three down, Twilight thought, Two to go
***
King Sombra idly watched Twilight through Zecora’s eyes as she foalishly tried to help her friends. But he also had his eyes on the ponies of Ponyville. And he made a decision about the little town:
It had fulfilled its purpose.
***
“Lieutenant!” Mayor Mare cried, horrified, “What’s happening? Why are they doing that!?”
The crystals within the shield that had been keeping everypony in Ponyville had begun to vibrate and glow even brighter.
“Sergeant!” Broadsword called, “Give me an update!”
One of the Unicorn Guards under the Lt. scanned the crystal with his horn.
“Sir! There’s an immense amount of power building up inside! I don’t think the crystal can withstand it! It’s going to explode! And with this many crystals building up this kind of charge…”
He didn’t finish what he was going to say, he didn’t need to.
“How long?” Broadsword asked, keeping his face calm.
“I can’t be sure. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes”
“What do we do, Lieutenant?” Mayor Mare asked distressed.
“Pray that when Miss Sparkle broke out of here it was to do something that’ll save us,” The Lt. said grimly, “And not just her own precious, purple plot.”