Chapter 2
“I’m sorry you had to see that, Twilight.”
“I – It’s alright,” was all Twilight could manage.
She turned to walk out the door, when Grannie spoke one last time.
“I know, I think, what you're goin’ through, Twilight. You need to find Apple Jack. She needs you. But trust me on this: look for Him, and He will find you. He’s already lookin’.”
* * *
Twilight left soon after, and began looking for Apple Jack. But no matter where or how hard she looked, she was nowhere to be found. Sweet Apple Acres was huge, so it was likely that she was there. In fact she probably was there. But there were hundreds of acres, and it was doubtful that Twilight would ever find her.
“I’ll never find her if I don’t look,” Twilight thought.
So look she did; but she never did find her. At least, not that day.
Twilight made her way to the library and slept. The next day, she woke up tired. That night’s before sleep hadn’t been very restful. In reality, she had hardly slept at all. Yesterday’s events still flickered through her mind, and she was still trying to sort out Apple Jack’s outburst and her confusion. Try as she might, though, she never was able to understand those events. Grannie Smith’s words began echoing through her mind, eminently clearly. Maybe… yes… she did understand. Or, at least, she thought she knew what to do so that she could understand.
“But trust me on this, Twilight: look for Him, and He will find you. He’s already lookin’.”
This made her feel a little bit better, but she still didn’t know who “He” was.
Twilight spent the day looking for Apple Jack. She could have given up, but honestly, without Apple Jack, every one of the entire cavalcade of ponies, all six of them, along with their respective Elements of Harmony were rendered useless. They ran into that unwelcome surprise when they tried to defeat Discord without Rainbow Dash more than six months before.
Twilight didn’t eat all day.
“Finding Apple Jack is much more important than eating,” Twilight said to herself.
The sky started to turn dark, but Twilight ignored it. That one mere fact was drowned out by her excitement; it seemed that her effort had indeed paid off. She spotted Apple Jack sitting under a tree, about a hundred yards from where Twilight stood.
She ran to the tree as fast as she could, stumbling a few times, but she didn’t care. She has just spent the entire day, and half of the last, looking for AJ, and a few stray roots and stumps weren’t going to stop her in any way. But as she neared the tree where she saw Apple Jack first, she began hearing a voice. It was unmistakably Apple Jack’s. But she wasn’t just talking. She was crying, too.
Twilight gazed at the tree that her friend was behind, and stood there, not knowing what to do. A million different thoughts began plaguing her mind. “Why is she crying? She’s Apple Jack! She doesn’t cry, she sucks it up and moves on!” Suddenly it occurred to her that AJ hadn’t quite been herself yesterday either. Something else was up. Something deeper. Something much more profound.
* * *
Deep in her sleep, Apple Jack was thrown into a prison. Not any ordinary prison, though. This was a prison meant for one single purpose: to hold the universe’s most evil and vile being to ever be created, and all who served it. This was… something that Grannie Smith had talked about. A spark of memory ignited inside AJ’s mind. This was… eternal death.
Throughout the entire prison, she saw good ponies that she was familiar with. These ponies were… good; honorable. She thought, and thought some more, but she couldn’t remember any of their names. Was she even asleep?
“Of course! “This isn’t true! This is just a dream,” Apple Jack thought.
She ran for the wall. She pulled back her head and struck it against the wall.
Pain.
She reeled, and her head swam. This was not a dream; at least not an ordinary one. This was something entirely different: something sinister.
“Painful, isn’t it?” Apple Jack heard the echoing voice from no distinct location. It came from… everywhere; from the walls, from the stalactites that so frighteningly hung from the ceiling, even from inside her own head.
“Who – Who are you?” she frantically called out.
“I… am your punisher,” the voice hissed back.
Slowly, a large being slipped from the ceiling and dropped down next to Apple Jack. It smiled wickedly, its jagged excuses for teeth protruding from its mouth.
“I am your punisher,” the being repeated.
This being was unlike anything that Apple Jack had seen before; even after having fought Discord, the lord of all chaos; Chrysalis, the Changeling queen; and even the evil King Sombra. He had the wings of a changeling, flaming eyes that leaked darkness much like Sombra’s had, and talons the size of a griffon’s. Beyond that, there was no way to describe him. He was gruesome.
“I am Apollyon; Destroyer,” he grinned wickedly. “Prepare to meet your doom.”
As Apollyon raised his taloned hand to strike Apple Jack down, another voice called out.
“Stop!”
Apollyon paused and turned toward the voice. His eyes rested upon a large stallion with a dramatically gleaming coat. His appearance had gone unnoticed, it seemed.
“Who dares enter my domain?” Apollyon glared.
The voice didn’t respond. Apple Jack couldn’t help but glance at the newcomer as well. As she did, she looked into his eyes. They were a brilliant blue, but something about those eyes let her escape the reality that she was dreaming of. She dreamed – within her dream. She saw a tall, wooden post with a crosspiece on it. It was bloody. But there was something – someone – nailed onto it. She heard words coming from the dying man’s mouth.
“It… is… finished,” he deliberately stated, so matter-of-factly.
Apple Jack stood there, tears welling, but the scene before her eyes backed up, as if her dream was being rewound. She began hearing scraps of words, of conversation. She heard the Man’s voice again. Hundreds of times, each saying soft, kind words, seemingly meant for Apple Jack.
“I came that they might have life”, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, and more. Despite the fact that she had been watching the scene rush past her for only a few seconds, it seemed longer – months, years maybe. Of course she knew it wasn’t. It was illogical.
The scene snapped back to the scene of the bloody cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” and later, again, “It is finished.” The last three words had the same impact as they had had before.
Apple Jack slipped back into reality, still looking at the blue-eyed Stallion. He held an astounding resemblance to the man in Apple Jack’s other dream, however possible that was. “Maybe… was he –”
“I defeated you!” AJ’s concentration broke when Destroyer interrupted.
“I defeated you and your slaves long ago, Apollyon,” the stallion answered. “You have no right to touch what is paid for.”
“So he is… Him?” Apple Jack quietly whispered to herself.
Apollyon raged, and lunged for him. He was enormous, but the stallion quickly struck down his enemy, and stood the victor.
“Your time will come, Apollyon,” He said. “Come, child,” he directed at Apple Jack.
Apollyon, despite his downfall, seethed, and dove again, but the stallion disappeared this time, along with Apple Jack, leaving something behind. A heart; it was Apple Jack’s heart. It was made of stone, but it was cracked, revealing a soft inside. It too, then, vanished.
* * *
Apple Jack appeared in the middle of a field with the stallion. They stood there for a long while before Apple Jack looked up and spoke.
“Who are you?”
“I am known in your world as Silver Light, son of The Master, father of the Dynasty of the Chosen.”
Apple Jack marveled. “Are you –?”
“I am He.”
AJ stood, and began feeling empty, as if a part of her was missing. Silver Light held something in His hand. It was her heart. Though cracked, it was made of stone.
“This is what you are missing, Apple Jack,” Silver Light started. “Your heart is hard and heavy. I’ve knocked before, and I’ve tried to come in before, but I have been unwelcome every time.”
At this Apple Jack started to cry quietly. Silver Light had hit a very soft spot.
“You need me, and you know this. Your heart, hard as it may be, is redeemable, and I want to redeem it. Are you willing to let me now?”
Apple Jack began to sob; more loudly now, but she nodded apologetically.
Having said this, he set her heart on the ground and crushed it with his right hoof. Apple Jack stared in horror and pain, but instead of being destroyed, the stone ground away and washed in a nearby stream, like sandstone. A smaller flesh heart was left behind. Silver Light breathed on it, and it began to glow.
Silver Light was an earth pony, like Apple Jack, but despite His apparent lack of magic, he somehow began lifting her into the air. He breathed upon her heart again, and both watched it turn to dust. But instead of falling to the ground, it made its way to Apple Jack’s body, which began to glow brightly, much like Twilight’s when she received her wings. Wings… did she just… nope. No wings. But something had definitely changed.
Silver Light spoke again. “Go forth, now. I will be with you, and so will The Master. You have been redeemed. You are now part of the Dynasty of the Chosen. I know you still have many unanswered questions, but trust me. You will, in time, begin to understand.”
Silver Light’s voice began to drift away, but the last of his words that Apple Jack could hear were probably his clearest.
“…Remember, Apple Jack. I will be with you. Share what you now of me. I am needed in every life.”
Apple Jack woke up suddenly, frightened at what she had just experienced. She sat there, under the tree, weeping. She had never felt this way before, and she was completely unaware that Twilight was standing just a few yards away from her. She hadn’t even slept in her own house last night, but instead in the orchard; the part furthest away from the house. Before last night, she knew that her grandmother loved her with all her heart. What she had gone through made so much sense! And yet… something was… off. “You have been given a gift,” a voice said to her. No one else could hear it, but it was not her own. "Your gift was meant to be shared.”
* * *
Twilight stood behind the tree her friend was behind and watched it, not knowing what to do. A plethora of thoughts began eating at her mind. “Why is she crying? She’s Apple Jack! She doesn’t cry, she moves on!” Suddenly it occurred to her that AJ hadn’t quite been herself yesterday either. Something much different was happening.
Her first thought was that she shouldn’t interrupt whatever was happening. Then she recalled Grannie Smith’s words to her.
“...You need to find Apple Jack. She needs you...”
“Here goes…” Twilight thought. She stepped forward, her emotions holding her back. She disregarded them though. This was too monumental. She started forward, taking each step slowly. She was almost to the tree when she heard Apple Jack talking again. As Twilight stepped from behind the tree, Apple Jack let out a little yelp.
Twilight frantically eyed her friend. “What happened, AJ?”
Apple Jack took a very long time to respond. “I… I had a dream. Twilight… I found Him!” she half-cried, half-said.
“Him?”
“Oh my goodness, Twi, it was horrifyin’, and… wonderful,” Apple Jack went on.
She proceeded to tell her the entire story of her dream, from the encounter with Apollyon and her dream savior, Silver Light, to the story of how her heart was cracked and made of stone, and was made new again. For such a crazy-sounding dream, it sounded incredibly rational, considering how changed Apple Jack seemed to be, but Twilight was skeptical. To be perfectly honest, she wasn’t sure she could believe that.
“If He is really who Apple Jack says is, the supposed son of The Master, wouldn’t He have done something to change me, too?” Twilight thought. “After all, He claims to love everypony, but… never mind…”
Twilight kept all her thoughts to herself, instead only vocalizing the ones that told AJ that she was happy for her. But she sensed the pretense.
“You… don’t believe me. Do you Twi?”
“It… just seems unlikely. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true,” she quickly said.
It was almost disturbing that Grannie’s words kept repeating through Twilights mind, but once again they did.
“Look for Him, and He will find you…”
These, now, were words for Twilight, not Apple Jack. Now it was time to find her Him. Or The Him. She wasn't sure which. Twilight was a student of magic, though, and as such, was used to concrete evidence, and logical thinking. This story of Silver Light had never been told to her before, and as true as it seemed, it seemed too good to be true. Apple Jack was her friend, and nothing she could do could ever change that. But what she said… something about it didn’t add up.
* * *
There was one person she knew whose judgment she could trust, though. Pinkie Pie was still in the back of her mind, and she still intended to talk to her, but currently, she needed to talk to the mare who knew everything Twilight knew. She wasn’t supposed to even be her teacher anymore, but she now knew something Twilight didn’t, and she needed to – had to find that out.