Chapter 18: Anger
Angel Bunny had never been so scared in his life. His back to the wall, the rodent was shaking uncontrollably and frantically looking for some way to get out of this situation. But there was none.
Then again, how could he hope to get out of this new situation? Even inside the formerly safe interior of Fluttershy’s cottage, he’d failed to escape the beast who now stared at him with emerald eyes that appeared to glow. He could smell its breath, which smelled like fresh apple pie for whatever reason, but of more concern was the creature’s maw, full of sharp teeth that would tear the flesh from his bones with ease. He could hear its raspy breath, the chest moving up and down in stark contrast to its legs, which were poised to snap into action at a moment’s notice.
Worst of all, however, was the apparent truth Fluttershy, his owner, was in league with this foul offspring of unnatural origin.
“Now, Angel, as you know I highly disapprove of you trying to go out and pretend you’re this…bloodthirsty hero…or something out in the Everfree, but you don’t seem to understand just how dangerous it is for a bunny like you as I keep catching you trying to leave in that silly costume of yours,” said Fluttershy, laying it on thick to Angel with healthy application of The Stare, “So far you’re lucky that you didn’t get killed out there, but even my patience with you is getting pushed to the breaking point.
“That’s why I have my friend Applejack here. She’s a werewolf, if that wasn’t obvious, and if you keep going into the Everfree you’re going to end up getting attacked by some creature like Applejack, only they will actually want to kill you. And, if I even catch you trying to go out into the Everfree, I will have Applejack get it into your little head to never do it again by her own methods. Are we clear?”
Angel nodded, to which Fluttershy motioned for Applejack to leave Angel alone. Grunting, the almost feral form of the orange pony skulked off to the kitchen. Now out of the firing line, Angel just fainted. Satisfied with what had been accomplished, Fluttershy turned and went into the kitchen herself.
Inside the kitchen, she found Applejack laughing hysterically at the ruse she had just pulled. “Did ya see the little guy’s face when Ah was all up in it and pretendin’ to have rabies or somethin’? Ah think he seriously thought Ah was gonna eat him on the spot!”
Fluttershy smiled, even though it had just lasted a few minutes it had concerned the pegasus that Applejack had so easily slipped into a false state of mind. It was relieving to see it really had been an act and not an implication of what AJ might still become. “Yeah, you almost had me worried I’d need to use The Stare on you! Although I am a little concerned, since you were that good about putting on a false image of yourself.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it, sugarcube” said Applejack, shifting back to her full pony form, “Ah still suck at lyin’, naturally, but actin’ is a whole different subject an’ somethin’ Ah can do as long as Ah’m not tryin’ to pass it off as honesty. Plus you were doin’ all the talkin’ so it was easier for me. Now, do you think you could help me out with mah hunger problem?”
“Of course,” said the pegasus as she moved to the fridge. After Applejack’s revelation to her family and closest friends, AJ had found their assistance very beneficial. For starters, it turned out Fluttershy imported meat in small amounts to help take care of her animal charges, as some of them were purely carnivores, to which she didn’t need to pay anything for due to being able to classify it as tax write-offs. She’d worked with Applejack to figure out a schedule on how to handle the issue of the farmer being slightly more carnivorous than her fellow ponies and just adjusted the meat order quantities to have some ready to give to the werewolf when need be.
On the menu tonight were some extra burger patties that had been left to chill out in the fridge. Normally, Fluttershy only ordered the patties so that after cooking them through she could cut them up into small chunks for her small carnivore creatures to eat easier. In Applejack’s case, Fluttershy essentially was running a small-time burger joint of her own, although the only customer was one of her best friends and she never insisted on being paid.
“Ah still can’t believe you’re okay with doin’ this for me, makin’ meaty meals an’ all,” said Applejack as she sat at a table Flutters had prepped for her while the pegasus brought over two meat burgers.
“A lot of ponies think that because of my connection to animals, my timidness makes me scared of having to deal with the remains of animals killed for food. But that’s not true, animals kill animals in the Everfree and elsewhere in places where they aren’t cared for by ponies, so while I do personally dislike the idea of killing for food I recognize it is a necessity to keep providing for these animals. And with you, I know you don’t willingly actually want to eat meat, it’s just something you have a need for due to being a werewolf and all, so don’t believe I think any less of you simply because of something you have to do against your will.”
“Thanks, Fluttershy!” Applejack chirped before she started to dig into the burgers Fluttershy had provided.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. Wordlessly, Fluttershy moved to greet the unexpected visitor. On her porch she found Rainbow Dash, who had a concerned look on her face.
“Hey, Fluttershy, is um, Applejack here?”
“Oh, yes, but right now she’s, erm, ‘satisfying’ those cravings she gets due to her lycanthropy at all, and although she’d probably say otherwise-“
Applejack interrupted from her seat; “Fluttershy, for Celestia’s sake just because Ah’m eatin’ meat doesn’t mean Ah have to eat like some famished critter or anythin’, especially since the fact these have meat in ‘em is the only thing seperatin’ ‘em from say, tofu burgers, which everypony eats, more or less.”
Unable to put up a defense, Fluttershy just sheepishly grinned and backed away from the door to let RD in. Rainbow did so, approaching Applejack.
“Listen, Applejack, there’s a bit of a situation in the town square that we kinda need your help with.”
Caught in the middle of a bite, Applejack waited to swallow the contents in her mouth before answering “What kinda problem?”
“Well…remember when Trixie came around looking for revenge on Twilight?” asked Rainbow, rearing slightly to allow her forehooves to tap together nervously.
“Are ya sayin’ that pony is back for more revenge? Ah thought Twilight let her off the hook pretty easily in regards to her, y’know, beggin’ for forgiveness after goin’ crazy with the amulet an’ all.”
“No, no, it’s not Trixie, it’s…” Rainbow took a deep breath, before revealing who was the ruckus rouser this time. “...it’s Lightning Dust.”
The utterance of a name Applejack thought she’d never need to hear again caused her to choke on the burger bite that, at the moment LD was mentioned, had been in her throat. She quickly reached for her jugular to try and dislodge it, but RD was faster. The Wonderbolt-hopeful had, within a second, gotten AJ out of the chair into a reared position and began performing the Haymlich Maneuver. After a few thrusts, the burger bite was ejected from AJ and flew across the room…only to hit the still-passed-out Angel in the face.
“Ah…Ah think Ah’ve had enough burger for now….” Applejack gasped, leaving Rainbow wondering why Angel was passed out and Fluttershy wondering how she was going to explain to Angel why a piece of almost-digested meat had hit him in the face.
“Is everything alright?” Lyra asked her companion.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that I never dreamed of ever having to go this far north for any reasons, since around this time last year it was literally nothing but snow and a dead-end train depot out here.”
As per the request of Princess Celestia, Sandalwood and Lyra had agreed to further help Applejack by going to the Crystal Empire in search of any information that would potentially help the poor mare be free of the curse inflicted upon her.
“I totally agree with you there, Sandy. Heck, I didn’t even know there was anything up here until the rumors after the Royal Wedding fiasco started saying they’d have to make up some kind of principality out of nowhere for Princess Cadence to rule over. The fact the Crystal Empire just “happened” to be prime real estate that showed up not too long afterwards didn’t help, but then again maybe it was all ‘destiny’ or something, I dunno.”
“Lyra, you’re just disappointed that there isn’t anything about humans in the Empire, aren’t you?”
“Well, duh, how long did it take you to figure that out?”
Soon, the train pulled into the old train depot that now served to link the Crystal Empire to the rest of Equestria. However, despite being the newest structure for miles around in terms of architectural design, it was dwarfed even on its own platform by the majestic Crystal Castle in the distance.
Dwarfing even that however was the royal delegation waiting on the platform. Already sticking out like a sore thumb due to the small number of Canterlot Guards (on loan from the capital until the Crystal Empire could finish training up an equivalent force to provide more jobs in the Empire), what was most noticeable was the bright pink alicorn dressed in regal regalia and a mane/tail coloration of light lavender, yellow, and more pink. Next to her was a snow white unicorn with multiple shades of blue in his mane and hair, but unlike the alicorn he lacked any royal accessories outside of a little paper sign that said “Lyra and Sandalwood”.
“Wow, a royal welcoming committee!“ chirped Lyra as both she and Sandalwood retrieved their things before heading over to the sign.
Sandalwood, however, was a little less enthusiastic about the whole deal. “Why is Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor meeting us here? I don’t remember being told about any of that when we left Ponyville, and it seems like major overkill to give us this much protection when all we’re doing is going to the library.”
“What’s overkill?” asked Shining Armor, who along with his wife and the rest of the delegation came forward, two of the guards offering to take the luggage from the newcomers.
After being overheard by who was arguably the most powerful unicorn stallion alive (no surprise considering he was Twilight Sparkle’s direct brother), Sandalwood turned a deep shade of red out of embarrassment. “I, uh, m-mean no disrespect, your highness, but Lyra and I are j-just here to look at old books and things in the library. It just seems a little excessive f-for an entire armed guard and the rulers of the Empire to personally greet us.”
“The Library?” Cadence asked, “I thought you were here to look up information about…well, that thing my aunt talked about in the letter regarding Applejack that we can’t discuss in public.”
“We are,” answered Lyra, “why, is there someplace else where we could get the kind of information we’re looking for?”
“Well, for starters you won’t find any info about what Applejack has become in the library, Sombra was smart enough to keep all that info locked away in his personal archives inside the Dark Crystal Castle. Luckily for you, and by extension Applejack, I personally went to the archives to see what was there and he’s got a lot of stuff about his, erm, ‘experiments’ that you might find useful.”
That got Sandalwood to perk up. “Oh, well, that’s certainly better, since all the info is right there. Princess Celestia also said that we would be staying at the Crystal Castle itself?”
Cadence smiled widely. “Of course! Even if my aunt hadn’t asked me to have guest rooms prepped for you, Twilight sent a letter almost demanding that I do so since you’re friends with her and, if I understand it correctly, one of you is going to give both Shiny and I some aromatherapy while you’re here?”
Shining Armor was shocked at his wife’s statement. “Wait, I was told Sandalwood was only giving you an aromatherapy session, Cady.”
Lyra was equally confused. “Yeah, that’s what I’d heard too….” However, one look at the devilish grin that had appeared on both Cadence and Sandalwood’s faces was enough to reveal that maybe there had been some secret communication between the aromatherapist, the ex-babysitter, and the ex-babysat to provide something extra for the son of the Sparkle family.
“Don’t worry, sugar,” said Cadence, leaning into her husband with a sultry look, “Aunt Celestia said she’d cover the bill. Besides, I think you could use a little personal R&R, don’t you?”
“Yeah…sure…” carefully agreed Shining Armor, giving his wife a grin but starting to show signs of fearing just what he was in store for. The fact Sandalwood, the pony he presumed to be the aromatherapist, was smiling just as evilly as his wife was not a comforting sight, however.
If Applejack had one thing to be relieved about when she trotted into the center of town, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying not too high above her, was that it initially didn’t look to be as bad was when Trixie Lulamoon had come looking for a fight some months ago. Whereas the power-mad showmare had been firing magic bolts all over the place to cause magical chaos on a scale that rivaled Discord’s previous, if brief, reign of chaos, here the town seemed relatively calm.
Except for the noticeable bulge that seemed to be forming around The Bannered Mare. As if viewing a large public piece of artwork, there was a large gap between the walking traffic and the front of the restaurant, and for good reason. There, sitting at one of the tables with a glass of water and half a hayball sandwich in her hooves, was Lightning Dust. It was clear that she’d seemingly learned nothing after her dangerous actions at the Wonderbolts Academy got her kicked out by the angry body language conveyed by her having what was probably her lunch, but there was something else about her that seemed off. It took a moment to place it, but after seeing the differences between her pony and wolf forms enough, Applejack realized Lightning Dust didn’t seem to be keeping up appearances too well. Her mane and tail looked like some attempt to smooth them out had been made, although not much of an attempt, her wings were visibly in need of some heavy duty preening, her coat looked dirty in some places, and what looked like the start of rings under her eyes.
The last time Ah saw her was when she got kicked out of the Wonderbolt trainees due to the whole tornado incident, thought Applejack, coming to a stop at the edge of the invisible gap, but that was only a few months ago. She really must have fallen on hard times afterwards, but why is she here? And why am Ah needed?
As if in answer, Dust’s head suddenly snapped to look in the direction of Applejack. “Well, whaddaya know, just the mare I was looking for.” She finished the sandwich in one last bite, left the amount she owed on the table, plus tip, and then got up and exited the fenced off portion of the dining area to get close and personal with Applejack. “So, you’re the one who has been going around and saying I’m inferior to you, huh?”
Applejack had no clue what Lightning Dust was talking about. “What in the hay are you on about?”
Unphased by Applejack’s lack of a reaction, LD began to walk around Applejack, as if sizing her up. “Yeah, now I remember you…the balloon that flew into the tornado back at the Academy, you were one of the occupants weren’t you?”
“Ah still don’t understand what this has to do with anythin’,” said Applejack, raising an eyebrow.
“Stop playing stupid!” Lightning demanded, putting her face about three inches from Applejack’s. “I know the rumors you’ve been spreading about me, about how a ‘certain’ Pegasus who was up for recruitment of the wonderbolts was in fact too much of a wuss to take on even an Earth pony is a straight up race?”
“Rumors?!” retorted an offended Applejack, “Ah’d never spread rumors about nopony! Even if they were somepony like you who put mah life in danger simply to showboat how ‘great’ you were, and even then Ah know you got kicked out of the Academy for that, which seems to be punishment enough to me!”
Rainbow Dash facehoofed. “Oh for Celestia’s sake, go home Lightning Dust, you’re drunk - even though it’s only one in the afternoon! I don’t know what you’ve been hearing, or if this is some massive ploy to try and indirectly hurt me through my friend, but-“
“Opinion noted and ignored,” Lightning Dust interrupted, shooting a death glare at her former compatriot, “I’ve had a hell of a time trying to ignore how somepony I thought was a close pal ended up selling me out simply to get a boost in the Academy, don’t give me a new reason to buck you in the face. The problem in front of me is substantial enough.”
Angered at Lightning Dust’s accusation of Rainbow’s resignation from the Academy having been something against her own nature, Rainbow Dash looked like she could instantly launch into a Sonic Rainboom and send the upstart LD sailing to the other side of Equestria. However, Applejack decided to put an end to the problem before either pegasus did something she would later regret.
“Alright, that’s enough out of you, Dust. Ah don’t know who your friends are, or what they’ve been telling you, but it would appear you believe them enough that nothin’ that Ah or mah friends say will change your mind even though there is no evidence to support those outlandish claims.
“So the only way Ah see settilin’ this is if we have a good ol’ fashioned race. You an’ Ah, through Whitetail Woods on the route used for the Runnin’ of the Leaves. If Ah win, you stop sayin’ Ah’m spreadin’ lies about you and whoever tells you otherwise will have evidence against ‘em. If you win, then we’ve proven that a pegasus who could’ve made the Wonderbolts can beat an earth pony and that’s that.”
“Fine,” said Lightning before spitting on her hoof and holding it out. Applejack did the same, spit-covered hoof touching spit-covered hoof. However, unlike the last time Applejack actually did this with a pegasus, it was with Rainbow Dash and there had been an initial competitive spirit. Not here, where AJ and LD just glared at each other, no friendship to be found.
The Crystal Castle, the shining beacon that spread the auras of good feelings all over Equestria, stood in all its majesty in the center of the Empire’s capital city. To the average newcomer, it was a marvelous monolith that looked far more like a starship that had arrived from some other planet instead of a product of architectural styles from a millennium ago. They would never have suspected the bastion’s true, dark origins, where it was the core of a fortress headed by the False King Sombra and it was more of a massive scar sticking out of the ground, covered in dangerously sharp looking crystal formations.
Then, even with the castle in its current, purified form, it still contained dark traces of its former master within its confines. In a room walled off to even most of the castle’s conventional janitorial staff, the personal archives of Sombra still remained. While rumors spread far and wide as to how Twilight Sparkle had needed to resort to corrupted dark magic to save the Empire, possibly damning her for the rest of time, the truth was Twilight had but used the most basic corruptive spell just two times to make her way to the top. Much more powerful and dangerous magics had been sealed in worn tomes for ages, waiting for a weak willed unicorn to come along and abuse them beyond the point of return.
Fortunately for Lyra and her companion Sandalwood, Celestia had sent some of the royal mage archivists to investigate the tomes and to remove anything even remotely dangerous on those terms. All that remained really was research notes on the more physical “experiments” Sombra had pursued in his dark reign.
“Looking at these notes, Applejack’s…issues… look downright miniscule in comparison to what these poor ponies suffered at the ‘mercy’ of Sombra,” said Lyra.
“No kidding,” replied Sandalwood, quickly tossing a tome aside after deeming it filled with nothing but rather graphic illustrations (drawn by Sombra himself) depicting the results of his attempts to make his slaves no longer need to be fed. Sandalwood was of the opinion that, after looking at just one of the images, it would have made her a strict vegetarian even if she wasn’t already.
“I think it’s safe to say that Sombra was, in fact, insane,” added the mint unicorn as she quickly paged through a book titled “War Thunder: A Beginner’s Guide to Waging Large Conflicts Between Multiple Nations At Once” which didn’t seem to really belong in a room filled with research notes.
“This secrecy thing sucks!” exclaimed Sandalwood, “we’ve been digging through this damn library of nightmares and horrors for almost several hours by this point and all we’ve found is every filly and colt’s worst fears except anything involving werewolves!”
“You sure about that?” cooly replied Lyra, who held up an opened book titled How I Did It, By King Reginald Sombra, “ This whole book is apparently all about his ‘greatest hits’ and stuff, and it has ‘werewolves’ listed as the second most significant thing he did.”
Sandy was stunned, “Really? He thought werewolves were the second greatest monstrosity he’d given birth to? What hellish thing did he conceive that he thought was better than that?”
“Self-generating crystal spells.”
“Of course.”
Walking over to Lyra, the unicorn and earth pony began to read into the texts that hopefully could provide the help Applejack needed to escape a curse created by a mad king.
“You could save us a lot of trouble by just admitting I’m faster than you, even on the ground, and you won’t have to tire yourself in vain” sneered Lightning Dust.
“Right, and avoid actually providin’ an answer to refute or confirm some stupid rumor you believe with all of your being,” retorted Applejack.
Together, the apple farmer and the jaded ex-Wonderbolt trainee stood at the top of the course set up in Whitetail Woods. It was almost like the Running of the Leaves all over again between Applejack and a speedy Pegasus, except this time there were no other competitors, the leaves were green, and there almost certainly would not be a happy ending to this story. In fact, the only thing similar was that the winged competitor had agreed to have her wings tied down.
Twilight, appointed timer for the race, stood facing the two ponies on the starting line. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike stood off to the side, rooting for Applejack. Suspiciously, Rainbow Dash had actually opted not to be a spectator, citing some weather management issue she’d forgotten about. Applejack knew something was up, but at the same time didn’t want to believe her previous opponent would go so far as to rig the race to her benefit. If Rainbow was the Element of Loyalty, then she should be loyal to what Applejack wanted. In this case, AJ didn’t really care who won the race or not, it was such a minor thing that LD was so worked up over that simply running the race was worth getting LD to leave town and stop being a public nuisance.
“Are you sure this is something you really want to do?” asked Twilight, horn flaring to ready the starting shot, but her gut sensing something bad was going to happen. Considering the challenger was a mare who not only seemed partially sociopathic but clearly wasn’t in the best state of health physically or mentally, and the other was a werewolf who still didn’t seem to be in complete control over her physical form, such a feeling was reasonable.
“Yes!” both racers shouted, anxious to get the matter settled.
“Alright, then. On your marks…”
AJ and LD tensed and got low to the ground.
“…get set…”
They narrowed their eyes, Applejack unconsciously having her mental state slip slightly into her more “wild” persona and deciding that although she merely just needed to finish the race, it would be oh so sweet to actually beat this annoying haridelle simply to put her in her place.
“GO!” shouted Twilight, a magic flare shooting out of her horn in place of a starting pistol.
Like a pair of rockets, one orange and the other light cyan, the mares shot into Whitetail Woods, victory now being at the forefront of their minds. Meanwhile, unnoticed by all, a pony-sized cloud began to move along the race path high in the sky, tracking the contestants like a hawk.