//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Into Darkness We Ride // by Rated Ponystar //------------------------------// I wish we had seen it coming. I wish that I had known back then what I know now. I could have done so many things differently. I could have changed everything for the better. I could have stopped it all, or at least have taken preventative measures. Maybe I could have even prevented all of this nightmare from coming to be in the first place. Maybe. Or maybe it was all going to happen just because I let it happen. None of us could have known, however. Well, that's not true. Maybe some of us would have seen it if we had known what to look for. Maybe if Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and I had been more thorough, we would still have a place to call home. I don't know. Maybe there was a spell I missed in one of my books. Something so simple as a corruption dispersal spell could have been enough to end his reign forever. I could have stopped it before it even happened with a simple cantrip. I could have at least found him and locked him away for another thousand years. You have to understand that I never thought he could have survived. When the Crystal Heart was restored, I thought we had destroyed him forever. I thought his corruption had been purified, and we'd never hear of him again. Such great Evil can never be defeated so easily, however. It took the Elements of Harmony themselves to purge Nightmare Moon and reseal Discord. We should have known. No.  I should have known. Regardless of what anypony says, all of what has happened, all of the ponies we've laid to rest, the homes we watched trampled beneath the blackened hooves of an army... ...all of the blame is mine. I knew it when we found Rarity and Fluttershy's bodies. I knew it as I watched Pinkie Pie get cut down in Canterlot's streets. And now, as I look out across the battlefields around our Crystal Empire, where this nightmare all began, I know it. History will judge me harshly for my failings – if there even is a history when all of this is over. I've watched it all crumble before me. I've watched thousands of ponies be crushed underhoof by an enemy they could not fathom, and countless more in lands beyond that I'd never even born witness to. I watched Cloudsdale fall from the skies. I watched the gleaming towers of Canterlot turn to ash. I watched verdant forests and golden plains drown in the cold darkness of fear. And now I've seen thousands in this Empire, our last bastion of hope, perish defending the lives of those precious to them; those dedicated to the ideals of Harmony and peace. We huddle by countless masses in fear, crowding into buildings, on the streets and the rooftops of our gracious hosts in our time of need. But our food and water stores are running out, and the magic processes to make more aren't swift enough to feed everypony. Many will die of starvation or thirst in the coming weeks. Many more will will be slain in battles yet to be fought, and the Crystal Heart's magic won't hold out forever. The Crystal Ponies' willpower will fade in time, and then all hope will be lost. I can't even remember the last time I was able to sleep. It's certainly one of the perks of ascension to princesshood. I've used all this extra time to seek out some solution, or at least a glimpse of a cure that I've overlooked. I grabbed every book in the Royal Library I could carry with me before the Capitol fell. But there's simply too much to go through, and even with all the time I have, there isn't enough of me to do the research I need to formulate any kind of strategy. I don't know if there will be anypony left after this to read this journal, but I feel I owe you all my eternal regrets. And to my friends who are still alive... Applejack. Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for everything that's happened. I'm sorry for the friends and family we've lost. I'm sorry for the pain we've all endured. I'm sorry for the home we watched laid low by Sombra's evil. I'm sorry for everything. A thousand times I could apologize, and then a thousand more, and it would never be enough to begin making amends for all that I allowed to come to pass. Maybe if I had been a better Element of Magic, if I had been a better friend. Then I could have stopped all of this. If I had been worthy of becoming an alicorn in the first place, then perhaps I would have been powerful enough. If I had had the wisdom and foresight Celestia had always tried to instill in me, things would be different again, wouldn't they? But now there's little else for me to say. Assuming we all somehow survive this coming battle, I promise I'll make it right. I'll find a way to fix everything and turn it all around somehow. And if we don't survive, if there really is no tomorrow for us, if this really is our last stand, then wherever we go, whatever comes after this, I hope that we'll all be together. And I hope that both of  you, and the rest of our friends, and everypony else will find it in your hearts to forgive me. Your loving and ever-grateful friend, -Twilight Sparkle *** Applejack sat on the cold and uncomfortable glassy bench in the hospital's waiting room. She stared at the crystalline floor, polished smooth in defiance of the chaos and horrors that had raged only a few miles from here mere hours ago. Rainbow's anxious pacing passed into her view from the right to the left, her colorful tail twitching irritably. “Why haven't they sent anypony yet?” Dash asked with a growl. Her head was still encased in a crystal knight's helm, and the protective armor she wore was badly dented and scratched. True to Rainbow's Element, she had put her own care second as she'd hauled Twilight off to the emergency ward during the fight. Crystal pony nurses rushed to and fro in the intensive care ward outside. There were too many wounded and dying, and too few doctors to save them all. “A-Ah'm sure they'll bring news soon, sugarcube,” Applejack said hesitantly, doubting her own words. Her voice quivered, though she tried desperately to power through it to show a strength that wasn’t there. She had wished with all her heart that she could have joined the battle, but the residents of Ponyville, what few remained, had begged her to stay with them while they awaited the outcome of the battle. They had been through so much and wanted at least one of the Elements to reassure them, even if they didn’t have the jewels themselves. “I wish they’d frickin’ hurry up!” the pegasus shouted, grabbing a chair and throwing it against the wall, leaving another spiderweb-shaped crack. Applejack paused, looking both ways for the nurse they’d spoken with, hoping to hear some news. “D-darlin’, why don’t you come sit?” She got up, righting the chair her friend had overturned. “It ain’t good fer ya to be so angry.” Flourishing her wings irritably, Rainbow stomped over and huffed down angrily into the offered seat. Feeling somewhat relieved, Applejack softly ran a hoof against the pegasus’s side. “See? Ain’t that more cozy?” No reply. Her friend refused to look at her. Applejack’s ears pinned, and she swallowed nervously. “S-sugar, Ah know yer scared, but-” “I’m not scared!” the pegasus snapped. “Twilight’s fine! She’s gonna pull through! She always does!” The farmpony felt the world get bigger, while she herself shrank under the daggers glared in her direction. “She always does…” Rainbow repeated in a lower register. Her friend looked towards the door a moment, then got up and resumed her pacing. Sighing in defeat, Applejack sat down on the floor and turned her thoughts to other matters. Focusing on Rainbow wasn’t helping her nerves, and that combined with being worried sick over Twilight was making her a basket case. “What’s happened?!” thundered a loud masculine voice; the sounds of heavy hoofsteps accompanying it. Applejack looked up, and there was Shining Armor, followed by an exhausted-looking Cadence. “I heard the news from my guard captains!” he said, advancing on the two mares, “Tell me what happened!” Even Rainbow gave pause to his demanding tone. “Shiny,” came the soft, calming voice of his wife, stilling him with a gauntlet-encased hoof. He stopped, but his anxiousness still wore heavy. “Please… “ he tried fighting the tears in his eyes “just… just tell me that Twily’s okay…” Applejack had never seen a grown stallion cry, with the exception of her brother. But a bruiser like Twilight’s brother never struck her as the type to have shed tears. His face, though, was wet with them, like he had run straight from the perimeter at top speed as soon as he had heard the situation. She could see the blood and grime on both rulers’ armor, making her wonder just how brutal the battle had been. Then again, she had seen enough death and war for a lifetime. Memories of the burning of Canterlot and the sacking of Ponyville were still fresh and vivid. It all made her want to hunker down and cry again, but she brought out all her courage to stay strong. “Tell me she’s okay,” he whimpered, collapsing onto his rump and raising a hoof to his face. Cadence wrapped her forehooves around her husband and cradled him closely. “Tell me my Twily’s okay…” His wife softly shushed into his ear, stroking his back with a wing. Averting her eyes, Applejack had to bite her lip and take a deep breath to keep from losing her composure. The tears were coming already. Rainbow turned her head away. Applejack could tell just from her body language that Rainbow was struggling not to be lured into the collective emotions of everypony around her, even though the way her breath hitched in her chest gave her away. The nurse couldn’t have hoof-picked a worse moment to make her appearance. Her apron was spattered in blood, and her face stricken with intense agony over all the death she had seen as tears fell down her sleepless looking eyes. All four ponies turned to her, collecting in a line around her. The nurse looked nervously between them. “F-family?” she asked. Rainbow took a sharp breath, “And friends.” “What is it nurse?” Shining Armor asked, encroaching on her personal space. Nurse Redheart pinned her ears back, the two tears that dripped down her face following the channels left by scars. “Just tell me…” he said, choking on his words, “Tell me how bad it is.” The nurse’s eyes dilated. Rainbow bit her lip until it turned white, and unconsciously grabbed Applejack by the hoof. Then the dams burst, and the nurse collapsed, her brave facade failing her. “I’m sorry…” she whispered. “I’m so sorry… we did everything we could… everypony tried their hardest… but we… we couldn’t save her…” The prince’s coat paled, and his eyes were wrung with the tears of grief. ”NO!” he shouted, grabbing the attention of everypony nearby. He collapsed to the floor as though all of his immense strength had suddenly left him, and buried his muzzle deep into his hooves. “No, no, no…” he choked, weakly striking the floor with his hoof. Cadence held back the flood as long as she could bear, but eventually her face found its way into his navy-blue mane. Applejack had no immediate reaction. She felt numb from the head down, and her legs gave way as she collapsed against the crystal bench she had sat on. Rainbow had frozen, her magenta eyes were naught but pinkish dots swimming in an ocean of tears and despair. Her mane and tail lost so much of their luster in those few moments that she felt the world had lost its color. Twilight was dead. Another friend. Another Princess. Another Element. Gone at the hooves of Sombra. Then time resumed, and the puffy-eyed nurse swallowed her grief. “You… you’re all welcome to see her… but… but it… it’s terrible… what they did to her…” It took a few moments for Shining Armor to find his legs again, though his stance remained questionable. “Take me to her… please…” he uttered. “I just want to say goodbye… just let me say goodbye to my baby sister...” Following  at the side of her husband, Cadence too joined Nurse Redheart and was gone. There was a strange silence that followed, as though the hospital had ceased to function. There were no patients, no medical staff, no guests. Even with the nurses and doctors scrambling around in the background, hollering for more healers and antiseptic and anesthetics, it felt as though Applejack was alone with her single surviving friend. Her last friend… her only friend. She turned her green eyes slowly to the left and gazed at the stalwart pegasus. She either had no tears left to cry, or the many long months of constant battle and loss, and finally the death of Twilight Sparkle had broken her. “... … stupid…” Applejack’s ears perked. “S-sugarcube?” “She was stupid!” the pegasus suddenly yelled, bucking the chair behind her back into the wall. She lowered her ears again, wincing at the angry display. The chair clattered, fracturing in several spots as it ricocheted off the wall and against the floor. “What was she thinking, rushing into a fight like that?!” the pegasus shouted through a broken voice. Applejack saw from her face that her friend had indeed not been cried-out. “R-Rainbow…” she said nervously, barely able to contain her own sorrow. “It was stupid! She’s barely been an alicorn for a few months!” she shrieked, pounding into the crystal floor and leaving several more cracks with her hooves. “What was she thinking trying to take on a whole army by herself?!” Applejack backpedaled as her friend turned her fury against the wall. “She should...” Smash. “...have...” Smash. The wall cracked. “...known better!” she screamed. One last hit, and the section of wall shattered, showering fragments around her. Applejack winced with every strike Rainbow Dash made. It wasn't the first time she had seen her friend truly angry, and it was always a terrible and intimidating experience. Tears ran freely down her cyan-colored scarlet face. “She was stupid…” she muttered softly, obviously harnessing her grief with great care, lest she lose control of it again. “It’s…” Applejack started, trying to keep her voice still and even. “It’s okay, darlin’.” She reached out to touch Rainbow Dash, but her hoof met nothing. She couldn’t tell through her blurry eyes how close or far her friend was. “It’s okay…” she whimpered. “You can cry…” Rainbow turned on her with eyes full of fire and fury, flinging several tears off her cheeks in doing so. “I don’t cry, Applejack!” she said through a cracked speech. The pegasus had to turn away again. “I don’t cry…” she muttered, her lungs pulling in cool, jagged breaths desperately. “I don’t cry…” Gulping back the painful lump in her throat, Applejack looked up with swimming green eyes as tears etched multiple small rivers down her freckled cheeks. “Th-then...” she squeaked, reaching up with the back of her hoof to wipe the moisture away, “If you ain't gonna cry,” she sniffed. “i-is it okay if Ah do...?” Rainbow looked over her withers, her magenta eyes glowing with a sudden sympathy. Applejack didn't wait for permission. The weight of the world finally crushed her, and she collapsed to her rump. She felt her friend’s hooves envelope her, and for the first time in years, she wailed like a yearling into the soft, blue coat. *** The battle was over, but the nightmare was not. In less than five months, half the population of Equestria had been killed or converted into mindless horrors by the dark magic of Sombra. Among those dead were four of the Elements of Harmony: Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Magic, as well as Princess Luna who died defending her subjects from her converted and twisted elder sister. All of Equestria had become engulfed in a living blight, the land tainted with a black sickness and the skies covered in blood-red clouds across the sky with no sun or moon. There was no day nor was there night. A grim and hopeless darkness spread across the heavens, and only the light of the Palace provided illumination. Most of the ponies who had managed to make it to the Crystal Empire were from northern Equestria. It was unknown what had happened to those in the south like the ponies of Appleloosa, Las Pegasus,  or Baltimare. It was still unknown what had happened with most hoping they fled to the griffin lands by sea, while others feared they had retreated into the Badlands. Everypony had lost family, friends, lovers, and more. There had been an endlessly long series of memorials for those who had fought and died throughout the Crystal Empire. Rainbow Dash and Applejack had attended three of them. The first had been for the fallen Princesses of Equestria. The second memorial had been for those who died in the various cities, each one held separate for those who lost their neighbors, town mates, friends, and family. Ponyville was the smallest one, since it was the first place where the corruption spread. So precious few of them had made it out alive, and both of them had spoken briefly for the ponies who had touched their lives: Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith… The list was agonizingly long. All they could hope for was that their suffering plagued them no more. And now... the funeral of Princess Twilight Sparkle. It was no surprise when Cadence and Shining Armor announced that her service would be separate, and held in the Crystal Palace itself. She had been the one pony in their lives they’d loved more than any other. The castle was packed with those who had come to say their farewells to their multiple-time savior, and the youngest princess. Applejack and Rainbow Dash sat together in the front pew, hooves clasped together as Shining Armor tearfully went through his eulogy. He spoke through reddened, baggy eyes, his mane a mess compared to its usual order, and his posture slouched. It was obvious he wanted nothing more than to cry until he could shed tears no more. The responsibility to not only his kingdom, but also the rest of Equestria’s population, was the only thing seemingly keeping him alive. Cadence stood at his side, dressed in a black mourning gown encrusted with purple crystals in honor of her sister-in-law. She never turned her eyes away from Twilight’s crystal casket. Both surviving Elements knew what she was going through. Twilight had been a sister to Cadence since the day they’d first met, and it was she who would have to bury her. It haunted them both with familiar anguish. Rainbow could still remember when the thorny vines seized Scootaloo. She could still envision how they wrapped around her little body as she pleaded to be saved, squeezing the life out of her until her desperate cries went silent forever. She had had to watch in endless grief as the limp little body was dragged into the Everfree, never to be seen again. Applejack remembered holding her sister’s weak form as the poison she’d inhaled slowly took her. All that she had left of her younger sibling was her little bow that had once belonged to their mother. The eulogy ended, and only then were ponies allowed to come up and say their farewells. Rainbow and Applejack rose first and walked forward to the altar upon which their friend rested. They looked down at the mare who had brought the six of them together in the first place, a mare so special that she had created her own magic out of the love and friendship she had felt for them all. Applejack weakly placed her crystal rose on the purple crystal casket before lowering her eyes to Twilight’s form. They had dressed her up nicely, and cleaned all the wounds she had sustained. There was hardly any evidence that she had ever fought a day in her life, much less an entire war. She looked so serene; at peace with her eyes restfully closed and a small smile adorning her lips. Neither of them had seen an expression on Twilight in months, but if anypony deserved a good long sleep it was her. What drew out Applejack’s tears was what she held in her hooves over her chest. It was a photo, the first photo they had all taken together as friends, right after saving the world from Nightmare Moon. Apparently, that was enough for Rainbow Dash, as the pegasus turned and ran headlong out of the room as fast as her hooves would carry her. Applejack wasted no time in chasing after her. After a few minutes of searching, she found her by a balcony. She wept. She screamed. It was no curse, it held no anger, nor fear, nor sorrow. It was hopelessness. The one pony they both could depend on solving this crisis, the one that held them all together through the darkest moments was gone. Applejack trotted softly over to her only remaining friend in the world and engulfed her in her hooves, letting Rainbow cry on her chest like she had done at the hospital. The farmpony looked across the Empire, past the shield that was all but protecting them from the horrors that lay beyond, and saw only the darkness in the distance where the border separated them from Equestria and the frigid wastelands outside. Even if Sombra’s armies had retreated for now, they would return. The dark king would not stop until they were all dead. And as Applejack held Dash in her hooves, she made a vow that she would not die so quietly. They were going to fight back. They would find a way to destroy Sombra for good and avenge their loved ones. And even if it was the end, it would be an end like no other.