Pathway to Oblivion

by supersaiyanmikito

F2

Twilight slowly trotted up the stairs. The 2nd floor came into view with a very familiar look. The floor appeared very similar to first. 2 small box like statues on the sides and a large closed door. She held up the 5 cards Xalun had given to her. They were all places she had visited in the past.

“My friends…” Twilight said to herself. “What are these people after? Why would they kidnap my friends and just give me the key to saving them? It doesn’t make sense…”
She spread out the cards in front of her so she could clearly see them all. “So if these are meant to be places from my past, it’s likely that they are connected to previous events. It would probably be a good idea to choose the easiest one first.” She held up a card with picture of a castle. “This one is clearly Canterlot. I know Canterlot pretty well but it could be any event, the Gala, the Wedding, even Discord being released. Probably not the safest…” Then a card caught her eye. “Hang on a second…” She inspected the card. It had a small train station with a bunch of cherry trees behind it. “That… That looks like Dodge Junction. We’ve only been there once in our life and Applejack has clear history with it. That looks like my best first choice.”

Twilight stepped up the door and took a deep breath. “Alright…” The cards she was once holding floated into the air and spread out into a circle. They began to slowly rotate and descend, circling around Twilight. She eyed the cards one by one as they passed her. Finally, Dodge Junction came into view. She swiped out the air and held it high into the air. The door opened and closed her eyes and stepped inside.

When Twilight reopened her eyes, she found that she was riding inside the Friendship Express. She turned to the right and found 4 of her friends riding along side. Applejack appeared to be missing though.

“I just hope this lead doesn’t turn out to be a dead end.” Rainbow Dash claimed. “I don’t want to go home empty hooved after promising we find her…”

“I don’t know how we’ll break it to the Apple family…” Fluttershy added.

‘So, it’s just like with Ponyville.’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘These ponies truly believe this is the first time we have been to Dodge Junction. Probably be a good idea just to play along this time and see what happens...’ “I don’t know how we’ll break it to Ponyville!” Twilight added.

“I don’t know how I’ll make it to the next STOP!” Pinkie screamed behind her teeth. She had her legs crossed like she needed to use the bathroom.

Twilight turned back to look out the window. “I just hope Applejack may shed some light on this…” The train came to a stop and doors open. They all stepped out along with the other passengers. “Let’s fan out and try to find her.”

Just then, Pinkie flew right by them like a blur. “Oh, Pickles!” She bolted up to an outhouse and began to knock extremely fast. “Hurry, hurry, HURRY!” Pinkie knocked a few more times. “Hurry it up in there!” The door opened and slammed Pinkie in the face.

“Huh, what?” Applejack trotted out of the outhouse looking left and right and Pinkie ran into the small shack for a second before opening the door again.

“Applejack!” Pinkie bounced back over to the others hopping around them in a circle. “I found her! I found her! I found her! I found her! I found her!” She lured the others around the building and pointed to Applejack just trotting down the path.

“Oh Applejack, thank heavens.” Rarity said.

“We are so glad you’re safe…” Fluttershy added.

“I found her! I found her! I found her! I found her!” Pinkie continued as she bounced in the air. Then she stopped… “Be right back…” She zoomed off to the restroom again.

“Hey everypony, how did you find me?”

“We got a tip that you were here.” Rarity replied.

“Why didn’t you come back to Ponyville!?”

“Yes, why are you here?”

“Are you ok?”

“Do you have any snacks?” Pinkie interrupted.

“Tell us what happened Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t you remember?” Applejack replied.

“Applejack? Are these some of your Ponyville friends?” The ponies looked up to see a red maned Mare. Cherry Jubilee, she took in Applejack after she lost the rodeo.

“Yes Ma’am.” Twilight replied.

“And you are?” Rarity asked.

“Why I’m Cherry Jubilee, boss of Cherry Hill Ranch. Applejack probably hasn’t told you. I saw her at the Equestria Rodeo, never saw anypony win so many ribbons in all my life.”

“But Miss Jubilee, I thought I told you-“

“Oh shes so modest she can’t even admit she even entered the rodeo. She came up with some ridiculous story about camping and some ponies in black coats…” Twilight gasped silently. “She is probably just dreaming or something because she was so willing yesterday. When I first heard she was looking for a change of scenery and I snapped her up as quick as I could and brought her to Dodge Junction.” Everypony looked at Applejack with confusion. All except for Twilight. “Well, I’ll let you catch up with your friends. See you back at the ranch.”

The ponies the stared at each other, unmoving… “CHANGE OF SENERY!?” Rainbow asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I have no idea what she is talking about. Last thing I remember was that camping trip.”

“A camping trip!?” Pinkie asked. “You went on a camping trip without me!?”

“What are you talking about Pinkie, you were there too remember. All of you were there.”

“What in Equestria are you talking about?” Rarity asked. “We’ve never been a camping trip.”

“Don’t any of you remember?” The ponies all looked at each other in confusion. Twilight continued to just look at Applejack, thoughts going through her head. Could this be the real Applejack? “Fine, be that way. I’m going to get to the bottom of this eventually with or without your help.” The 5 ponies watched as Applejack stormed off.

Twilight finally spoke up. “Do you think we should have listened to her?”

“Perhaps…” Rarity replied. “But she is clearly hiding something from us. I mean, camping trip? And if she is looking for some ponies in black coats, why didn’t she bring us with her or at least tell us?”

“I agree with Rarity.” Rainbow added. “Let’s find out what she is hiding…”

“You ready to put your back into it Applejack?”

“Sure am Miss Jubilee.” Applejack jumped into a wooden wheel connected to a large pulley system.

“Terrific, come on in girls.” Applejacks eyes shot open when she saw her 5 friends walking into the building.

“What are all you doing here?”

“We are your cherry sorters.” Twilight replied. “Shall we get started?” The 5 ponies all lined up along a conveyor belt coming from an unknown room.

“Fine…”

“Red cherries go in one bin and yellow cherries go in the other.” Jubilee pointed at 2 separate bins appropriately labeled. “Simple as cherry pie. Just one teensy thing to remember, have fun!”

Applejack glared at her friends “So, what do you five want?”

“Well uh…” Rarity nerviously looked around trying to come up with a reply. “You made working on a cherry orchard sound so delightful.”

“Uh huh… Well, unless you’re going to start listening to me, you better keep your mouths shut.” Applejack turned her head away the ponies.

“Fine, so you why don’t you quit talking and get walking?” Rainbow Dash banged her hooves on the conveyor belt. Applejack began to walk forward on the wheel. The mechanism connected the conveyor belt and it began to turn out a smooth line of cherries from the other room. For a short while, nopony talked. Applejack just continued to move the wheel and the others would push the appropriate cherries in the bins.

Finally, Twilight broke the silence. “So AJ, tell us a little about this camping trip you say we went on?”

“We were in a large green field. It had a long dirt path.” Applejack was clearly still frustrated from before.

“Did you have fun?”

“Of course, we were cooking marshmallows. Well most of us were. You were doing some research or something.”

“Did it feel like I was ignoring you?”

“Not really, I know like to pay attention to your studies.”

“What about the ponies in black coats?” Rainbow interrupted. “What’s the story about them?”

“I don’t remember much. Twilight went off to check out something then some pony showed up out of nowhere wearing this freaky black coat. She said something about the learning the truth and then she opened up a dark portal and kicked me in. Next thing I remember, I was here going through some major Deja-Vu.”

“You really expect us to believe that!?”

“You asked me about the camping trip and that’s what happened.” Applejack began to pick up speed. Fluttershy and Pinkie were the only ones still on the belt and they were starting to become a bit overwhelmed.

“Um, excuse me?”

“What about Ponyville? Why did you just leave?”

“Ponyville has nothing to do with this. I was attacked by a pony in a coat and ended up here where Jubilee is acting like I never met her before!”

“Well duh, she said she found you at the rodeo.”

“The rodeo was months ago Rainbow!” Applejack was now running full speed. Fluttershy and Pinkie were heavily struggling to keep up.

“Can you please slow down?”

“Unless you are a time traveler or something, no it didn’t. You went to the rodeo just recently to win the grand prize for to help Ponyville!”

“I thought we talked about this a long time ago. I already learned my lesson about running away from my problems now why won’t you listen to me!?”

“Stooooop!” Fluttershy yelled. Applejack came to a screeching halt on a wheel flinging a massive pile of cherries right into Applejack. It left a large splatter on the wall with a pony shaped chunk missing. Applejack glared at the other ponies and stormed out of the room.

Twilight levitated up a mop and started cleaning the huge mess of cherry mush all over the room. “She seems quite curtain about these events with the camping and the ponies…”

“Bah, we are just playing too nice. She will crack soon enough.” Rainbow replied.

“Yes, desperate times call for desperate measures…” Rarity added.

“Actually…” Twilight interrupted. “Let me talk to her alone. I think I have an idea of what’s going on…”

Applejack was swiftly bucking trees dropping piles of cherries. Suddenly, there was a flash as Twilight appeared directly in front of Applejack. “Woh! Don’t scare me like that Twi!”

“Sorry Applejack. I was hoping we could talk in piece…”

“You know, I was half expecting-“

“For Pinkie Pie to show up and annoy you to death?”

“Huh…” Applejack was a little spooked. “Yeah… How did you?”

“We were going to use her to annoy you until you told us what made you leave Ponyville. You would Pinkie promise to answer us in the morning but you were going to leave and we would just chase you down until we caught you and you confessed to us about losing the Rodeo.”

“Twi, your kinda scaring me…”

“Don’t be scared, everything here is not real.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Everything here is an illusion created by Castle Oblivion.”

“Castle what?”

“Castle Oblivion. After I left you all at the campsite, you went missing and a creature in a black coat led me to this castle. It takes your memories and creates the illusion that you’re living that event again. Dodge Junction, Cherry Jubilee, our friends, they are all illusions created by our memories.” Twilight pulled her stack of cards. “These cards contain some kind of data that allows for these memories to exist. I used to have five but I used one to create the world you see now.” Applejack took ahold of the cards and looked at them.

“Man… This is a lot to take in…” Applejack thoroughly examined the cards for a bit. “Wait, then what about the others?”

“Those four cards are the key. If they are anything like this world, each of our friends are trapped in one of those cards and each one contains a memory with them. I used your card first since we only have one major memory of this place. I didn’t want to get into something I couldn’t handle by myself.”

“So you say if we use these cards we can find our friends, our real friends?”

“Yes, we are currently on the 2nd floor of the castle. I had to pass through the 1st floor to get here. It made me relive the first time we met.” Twilight pulled out the black card. “We pulled together and defeated Nightmare Moon just like we did all that time ago.”

“Something still bugs me though…”

“What is that?”

“Why are we here in the first place?”

“The answer to that, I don’t know. There was the large figure that lured me here. He mostly spoke gibberish and riddles and another pony named Xalun I met just before entering this floor.”

“Well, whatever is going on, we need to get out of here now.”

“And just WHERE do you think you’re going!?” Applejack and Twilight looked up to see Rainbow hovering above them.

“This is none of your business, you’re not even real!”

“What I… Ah! I don’t know what you two are up to but I intend to get to the bottom of this.”

“Aw crud… Twi, we need to bolt!”

“Couldn’t agree more…” The two ponies quickly ran off into town as fast as they could.

“GIRLS!” Rainbow yelled. Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie came by to see the commotion. “Twilight is conspiring with Applejack! We need to catch them before they get away!”

“What?” Rarity replied. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I overheard them saying how they needed to get out of here. Now let’s get them!”

Twilight and Applejack ran along the edge of town when they spotted a carriage pulled by a number of stallions. The two ponies jumped in. “Giddy up fellas, we need to get out of Dodge!” Applejack whipped the reins and the carriage quickly ran off.

“They’re going to get away!” Pinkie yelled.

“Oh no they won’t.” Rainbow pointed at an idol cart. Rainbow and Fluttershy attached themselves to the front while Pinkie and Rarity rode in the back.

Twilight and Applejack were still a short bit ahead of them “Why are they acting this way?” Twilight asked. “On the last floor they were so understanding but here they are so stubborn and refuse to listen to reason.”

“I just remember you and the others would never quit with all the questions. Maybe they are acting like this because this is how my memory of them was.”

“Very likely.” There was a bang as the other pony’s cart had caught up.

“Pull over!” Rainbow yelled ramming the carriage again.

“I’ll pay you boys double to outrun them!” The stallions sped up leaving the others slightly behind.

“Get them… GET THEM!” Pinkie screamed.

“Just keep going!” Twilight yelled. “I’ll hold them back.” Twilight charged a bit of magic into her horn and fired it at the ground in front of her friends. They swerved out of the way.

“What are you doing Twilight!?” Rarity yelled. “Have you gone insane!?”

“Sorry girls but this is something we need to handle ourselves.” Twilight fired another shot causing them to swerve again. It didn’t take long for them to them to catch up again. Pinkie jumped from their cart to the Twilight’s.

“You apologize for attacking us like that!”

“Sorry Pinkie.” Twilight replied. “But this is something you four are not a part of. I don’t expect you to understand but at least understand this. We are doing this for you.”

“Wait what?”

“Trust me Pinkie. This goes deeper then you four realize. I promise that I will save you and when I do, I’ll make it up to you ok?”

“Well… I don’t quite understand…”

“You don’t need to. Just remember that we will always be your friends, no matter what… And that’s a Pinkie Promise…”

“A Pinkie Promise… Twilight… Applejack…”

“Pinkie?” Rarity called from the cart.

“Ok…” Pinkie replied. “Just promise to explain when all this is over…”

“I’ll make sure to add that…” Twilight leaned forward and hugged Pinkie. Pinkie stood in shock. Tears were dripping from Twilight’s eyes. “I’m sorry I let you down. You all mean more to me than anything…”

“Aw Twilight…” Twilight let go and waved to Pinkie. Pinkie waved back before jumping back into the cart with the others.

Twilight and Applejack continued forward barely missing a train. The others were about to jump the train when there was a bright light from the other side. They had stopped to let the train pass, but when it fully passed, they were gone. Twi and AJ had vanished into thin air.

“Aw man, they got away!” Rainbow yelled.

“Don’t worry Rainbow.” Pinkie replied. “They know what they are doing. Twilight wouldn't make a Pinkie Promise on her own unless there was a reason for it.”

“What did she mean when she said she would save us?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know but it must be something serious.” Rarity answered. “Camping trip, ponies in black coats and now some kind of conspiracy and saving us? My hurts my head just thinking about it…”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we all will come out just safe…”

The door opened as Twilight and Applejack stepped out from the room into the main hallway. Applejack looked around taking in everything. “Wow, so this is Castle Oblivion?”

“Yes, this is the real Castle Oblivion without any of that memory illusion magic.”

“It’s hard to believe I’ve been here this whole time. The others must be scared half to death, especially Fluttershy.”

“They won’t be for long. I don’t plan to leave them alone anymore…” Twilight started to move forward but she stopped when noticed Applejack wasn’t following. “AJ, is something wrong?”

“It’s you I’m worried about sugarcube.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ever since I found you, you’ve been acting… Off…” Twilight recoiled back a bit. “You don’t seem as peppy as usual, even when we are in a dangerous situation.”

“Applejack… It’s nothing…”

“It’s not nothing. Dealing with Apple Bloom has taught me to see the signs. Something is on your mind.”

Twilight looked down at her hooves for a minute letting out a large sigh. “I just… I just feel like I failed you…”

“Why would you ever feel like that? You saved me didn’t ya?”

“But I let you and the others get captured in the first place. I left you alone with those ponies in the black coats.”

“Just because you’re a powerful unicorn does not mean you have to protect us from danger. We can handle ourselves.”

“It’s not just that, I realize now I haven’t really been much of a friend. Our friendship is stronger than anything but I feel as though I haven’t quite been showing it. We set up this amazing trip and I don’t even spend my time with you. I feel like I’ve let you down…”

Applejack stepped up to Twilight and gave her a pat on the back. “You’re not a bad friend sugarcube. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for a better friend and there is nothing you can do that will make me think otherwise.”

Twilight let out a small tear. “Thanks AJ…”