Ponyville rarely saw frantic activity. It was at it’s heart, barring the occasional doomsday, a small farming town. I felt a level of guilt of bring the full might of my Institute, and my title, down on the fragile harmony, but we needed to see things through.
The trains had started arriving within two days of Dash and I’s fateful trip to the Murdered Equestria. The first had been vast things, but then they had been carrying half a railway with them, and we’d trebled the size of Ponyville’s train station by sunset, just in time for the real cargo to arrive. Arcane generators, focusing arrays and prefabricated buildings to house all the delicate equipment, arrived on flatbed car after flatbed car. A horde of ponies followed them on specially appropriated trains, swarming around the site of a new branch of my Institute.
The building itself was ugly slab, it overshadowed nearly every structure in town and I’d had a dozen letters denouncing it as an eyesore by day three. I paid no heed, speed was the watchword, to the extent that we were going without a roof till the next round of deliveries. Rarity would have had conniptions to see such a monstrosity erected in her hometown, but I considered it a good week’s worth of work.
Rainbow Dash arrived while we were running through the final checks, a little over an hour later than I’d told her to arrive, but well within the two hour window I’d set aside for her tardiness. She swooped through the empty space that should have been the roof and settled into a hover by my shoulder.
“Phew,” she exclaimed, with a low whistle, as she surveyed the hive of activity. “You’ve got to introduce me to your contractors, it’d take me six months to pull this together with the Wonderbolts.”
“You use government workers,” I pointed out, flicking through my checklist. “The private sector is where you want to be if you want results.” That and liberal use of the phrase ‘Princess Twilight wants...’.
“You keep saying that, but somepony managed to complete that weapon survey you wanted...” Dash grinned, giving me an over exaggerated wink.
I met her with a flat gaze.
“Oh fine,” Dash sighed, crossing her hooves. “Laugh sometime Twilight. Anyway, Captain Blackbird and his high altitude flyers have combed Zerbradia. No launch sites, no new military buildings, no troop movements, no sudden bursts of construction, and not even any unexplained trains. It turns out that their Minister for War dressed up as a clown for his niece’s birthday yesterday, but that’s the most interesting thing we found out.”
I nodded in agreement. “That’s what I found out too. I talked with Princess Zamba. There was a lot of ‘realpolitik’, we are after all the heads of state of opposed powers, but in short she has no interest in attacking Equestria, has no idea of any plans to attack Equestria, all balefire stockpiles are accounted for and she has no idea of any weapons that could destroy an entire city.”
“Hold up! They have those killing firebombs?” Dash cut in, gesturing wildly . “That’s nuts! How can that be part of the treaty?”
A burst of green flame erupted from my horn. “Because, regrettably, Equestria has them too. What about those steel suits, anything in the RnD labs?”
Dash slumped in the air. “No. No iron ponies for now. Got the feeling I might have sparked a few ideas while I was trying to find the damn things though.” She paused, and dropped to the ground. “You know Twilight, we’ve had more than a few complaints from, well... nations, about all the running about I’ve got the Wonderbolts doing. ‘Sabre rattling’ they’re calling it. So before we do anything else; are we causing that war? I mean, what we’re doing to find out what happened, is that going to actually cause... that?”
I sighed. It was a complicated question, one that I’d been chasing around my brain from the moment we’d returned. “Theoretically no,” I admitted at last. “We’ve checked our numbers. That timeline diverged from our’s between five and thirty years ago. However there’s such a thing as destiny, if that war is fated to happen, then it is likely to occur no matter what we do.”
Rainbow Dash shuddered, her primaries rattling. “Not on my watch. Guess that’s why we’re going back. When’s Applejack due?”
“Umm... well. I...”
She fixed me with a flat glare. “You still haven’t talked to her, have you?”
I rubbed the back of my head. “Not as such...”
“Urgh, Twilight, I have first week recruits that aren’t half as stubborn as you,” Dash snapped, launching herself back into the air. “Come on, let’s get Applejack and get this over with.”
I took a steadying breath. To be fair, I had been putting off the meeting. But we still had-- I glanced at my Apple Tec watch --seventeen minutes before I absolutely had to speak to Applejack...
“Come on, Twilight. Come on!” Dash snapped. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come--”
“Alight!” I boomed. I can’t believe that still worked on me. “We’ll go.”
In a flash of teleportation magic, we vanished from the factory floor.
The orchards of Sweet Apple Acres had grown over the years, sprawling out over the surrounding hills till it was, by all measures, the largest family owned farm in the greater Canterlot area. The old homestead had long since been expanded, renovated, knocked over and righted again, until it was nearly unrecognisable. A lot of Equestria felt like that these days. The world my friends had saved all those years ago had eroded away until everything was new and alien. I couldn’t say I disliked the new home of the Apple clan, but it wasn’t the home I remembered.
“Phew, Oliver Apple’s come along,” Dash observed, as a tractor rumbled past us on the road. The driver, AJ’s eldest son Oliver apple a young stallion, waved, before turning his attention back to the controls of his vehicle. I wasn’t sure, but I was familiar enough with the design of the machine to think that a death grip on the steering column was not necessary for normal function. It seemed to be working for him though, or at least he hadn’t hit anything yet.
Dash shook herself, folding her wings back down. I rolled my eyes. “He’s less than half your age,” I chided.
“Hey, I’m not dead,” Rainbow shot back, sticking her tongue out at me.
“You will be if Applejack hears you.”
Applesnack was in the garden weeding. We’d teased Applejack mercilessly when she’d announced she was dating a stallion a mere syllable’s separation away, but with their wedding now a fond memory and their first child near full grown, much of the novelty had worn off.
“Hey Snackie, how you doing?” Dash crowded, hovering next to the olive coated stallion.
Okay, for some of us, the novelty had worn off.
Applesnack sighed. “Hello Dash, I see the scarecrow’s broken again.”
Rainbow Dash burst out out laughing, slapping the stallion on the back. “Never change Snackie, is Jackie home?”
“Ah don’t want to talk to her!” Applejack’s roared, and all three of us whipped around.
Applejack was aging gracefully; she still had much of the muscle that had characterised her youth and wore her hair back in her familiar ponytail. The stetson hat perched on her head was even the original, preserved by a powerful spell I’d wrought many years prior. Beyond that though, there were lines on her face that hadn’t been there when I’d last seen her and more grey in her mane than ever before. Three kids had also taken their toll on her figure, however I doubted even Applesnack was brave enough to mention that to her and he was a war veteran. The angry glare on Applejack’s face I was more familiar with.
“Oh come on,” Dash grumbled. “I had to drag Twilight here. Don’t make me pull you into this conversation by your tail.”
With a huff, Applejack turned away and stormed into the house, bucking the door closed hard enough to rattle the windows.
Dash snorted and raced through an open window. The yelling started moments later.
Applesnack sighed, and shook his head. “So, I take it that you’re the reason half of Canterlot is in town?” he enquired, turning to me.
“Yes, we’re trying to save the world... again,” I explained, with a weak smile. “I need Applejack’s help.”
The stallion frowned at me. “Will she be safe?”
I nodded. “Actually, this one looks to be a little safer than usual.” So far we had a hundred percent survival rate, and a sixty percent requiring therapy rate. Well above average on both counts.
The farm door banged open and Rainbow Dash emerged, dragging a thoroughly pissed off Applejack out by her tail.
“Right!” Rainbow declared, depositing the fuming earth pony at my hooves. “Now you two, talk!”
I held out a hoof. Grumbling to herself, Applejack took it and I hoisted her to her hooves.
“Ah take it ya’ ain't here to apologise,” she said, dusting herself off. Behind her Rainbow Dash made a face.
“I have nothing to apologise for,” I said, sighing.
Applejack raised a brow at me. “Twi’ we’ve been friends for a long time. And ah’ll tell ya’ now, what ah tell ya’ every time we meet. Ya’ made a promise t’ move on, and ya’re still breaking that promise.”
I flinched. “I haven’t broken it Applejack. It’s just taking me a while to fulfil it.”
“Horseapples,” she spat, then rolled her eyes. “But, ah take it from Dash this ain’t just a social call. Ya’ want me for this alternate future business, right?”
“Remind me to tell Rainbow what the term ‘state secret’ means,” I snapped, not looking at the rainbow maned pegasus as I spoke. “But yes. We need to find out what happened to that world, and apparently there is a shelter in Ponyville that will let you in.”
Applejack frowned. “Alright. Ah don’t know if ah’ll really be able to help, but for Equestria, ah’ll come along with ya, sugarcube.”
A smile found it’s way to my lips. “Just like old times.” A moment until I remembered how those old times ended and the smile vanished.
“Alright, we’re getting the band back together!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, punching the sky. We both glared at her. “Oh fine, the awesome parts of the band at least.”
With a sigh, Applejack turned back to me. “So what’s the plan?”
“Right,” I pulled a small note card out of my saddlebag. “So, as Dash has probably told you, I constructed a transdimensional device to take us to another timeline. Specifically so we could identify what extreme magical event took place to open the timeline such that we could access it.” I sighed. “As it turns out, our thirty eight minute window of interaction is due to an apocalyptic use of magical weapons, that destroy Equestria and possibly the rest of the world. We need to find out what caused this war, and stop it happening here at all costs.”
“Oh!” Dash interjected suddenly. “I just got an awesome idea, I should try and find me.”
I stumbled to a stop, trying to parse that sentence. “Sorry? You mean find your double in the timeline?”
“Well yeah, that too. But why don’t I just find the me from last week and tell her not to worry about the zebra’s invading us?” Dash beamed. I felt a migraine coming on.
“Did you meet yourself while there?” I enquired, a sinking feeling overtaking my stomach as I contemplated explaining temporal physics to Rainbow Dash.
“Well, no but--”
“Then you can’t” I snapped. “This isn’t time travel girls.” I groped around for a good analogy. “Umm, do you remember when I accidentally caused time to start looping?”
“Yes,” all three ponies groaned, I felt a blush rise.
“Longest three days of my life,” Rainbow added, kicking the dirt. “I still can’t believe I had to sit through a dozen first dinners with that sleeze bag mom calls a coltfriend.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “She’s been calling him husband for the last decade Dash. And ah don’t recall her kicking up such a fuss when ya’ brough Flutter--.”
I cleared my throat, before yet another conversation repeated before my eyes. “My point is that, like when we repeated the same three days over and over, only the final run actually counted. We can only visit this world during a specific thirty eight minutes, but we can visit that length of time as often times as we like, with our every action erased by our next arrival.”
Dash’s eyes lit up. “So you’re saying we can do whatever we want without consequence?” she purred, a sly grin spreading across her face.
“Yes, you’re free to do whatever you want,” I said in a deadpan. “In the apocalyptic hellscape.”
“Okay, that does take some of the fun out of it, but still just listen to it, ‘no consequences’.” She let out a happy sigh.
Applejack turned back to me. “So this going to be a long trip? ‘Cause ah have chores this evenin’.”
I smiled. “Technically speaking, we’re not even leaving Ponyville.”
Our arrival in the Murdered Equestria was, surprisingly, unexciting. I’d spent significantly more time on our own protection for the second trip, weaving resistance spells deep into our forms and even going so far as to acquire armoured barding and enchanting it for additional protection. Beyond the direct defences, we carried more than our fair share of scientific devices, though none more critical that the necromantic radiation detectors I’d affixed to our forehooves. They began to squeal with alarm within an instant.
“Sorry about that,” I said, reaching out to the spell work and turning down the sensitivity. “I forgot to calibrate those for our enhanced resistance.” The detectors began to emit a chiding clicking. “There. Watch out if they start screaming again, it means you’ll have only a few minutes before the fallout kills you.”
Dash rolled her eyes. “Yes Princess. I’m going to head out and see if I can’t find myself, or Cloudsdale. Either way, best of luck guys.”
She shot into the sky, her prismatic contrail a splash of colour against the dark and angry clouds. Applejack sighed, as she cast her eyes over Ponyville.
We’d arrived a short distance from the train station, in somepony’s garden. The plants had been thrown to the four winds by the magical shock, but they had been long dead, poisoned by the foul air.
“Ah reckon ah could have gone mah whole life never seeing this,” Applejack murmured.
Ponyville had not been hit as hard as the Canterlot suburbs, though that was a relative term. Windows had shattered, thatched roofs were aflame and bodies littered the streets. A fetid hue clung to the ground like a green mist and if it hadn’t been for our protective charms, a single breath would have been a death sentence.
“Well, we’re here to make sure it doesn’t happen at home,” I assured her, trying not to look too closely. It hurt to see Ponyville so wounded. “Now, there should be a shelter somewhere. Any idea where to look?”
Applejack grinned. “Oh shoot girl, ah figured that one out on the way here. Where’s the one place Apples are going to go in a crisis?”
Realisation set in. “Ah, of course. Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Got it in one,” she broke into a trot. “Should just be a quick jaunt around the memorial from here then...”
She paused, as she realised that I wasn’t following.
“The memorial,” I croaked. The blood was pounding in my ears as I stood there with a look of slack jawed horror on my face. I’d forgotten just how close it was.
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Twi. You can’t ignore it. It happened. It was a tragedy. And life carried on.” She sighed, and walked slowly back to me. “Please Twi. Ah’ve watched you tear yourself up about this for decades now. Please, we can--”
A flare of magic overtook us, and suddenly we were standing in a grove of dying apple trees. It took longer than it should have for me to realised I’d teleported us.
“--Or we can keep running,” Applejack sighed. “Twi’ ya’ know that waiting for her memory to die, ain’t the same as getting over her memory.”
I got halfway through a calming breath before the killing air caught in my lungs and it turned into a hacking cough. My radiation detector was kicking up a storm of protests.
“Not here,” I gasped, kindling my horn and plunging a healing spell deep into my chest. “Let’s find this shelter first.”
Applejack rolled her eyes, set her forehooves deep into the tainted dirt and then... did nothing.
After a long beat she sighed. “Ain’t been many Apples around these parts, soil’s pretty poor,” she observed, lifting a clod to her nose. “And this taint ain't helping things. Gonna’ take years to get all this out. Mah poor trees.”
“We have thirty minutes,” I pointed out, tersely. “Are you going to be using some earth pony magic to find this shelter or what?”
She fixed me with a flat look, and pointed at a barn in a low depression. “There’s suppos’ta be a hill there.”
It was amazing how often earth pony magic and common sense were confused.
“Murderer!” an anguished voice wailed. “Murderer! You’re killing us!” A hefty clang rang through the open door of the barn. Sharing a look, Applejack and I stepped into the dark recesses of the building. It was easy to find a, somewhat hidden, passage down into the root cellar and we descended, our radiation detector’s whining in protest.
“Let! Us! IN!” a mare screamed, punctuating each word with a buck against a titanic steel door. It was a vast thing, ten feet in radius and with a giant ‘2’ embossed in silver on the front. Two ponies lay before it, a stallion, his eyes closed and breathing rapid and shallow, and a mare, who’d reduced her rear hooves to bloody ruins from her hammering on the door. Beyond a dirty smear of blood there was no sign she’d had any effect at all.
“I’m sorry,” Sweetie Belle’s melodious voice echoed through the hall, choked with tears. “I can’t... I can’t.”
The mare looked up as we approached. She was a pretty young thing, her hair was rose red and tied by a ribbon complicated into a complicated braid. “Don’t waste your breath,” she snarled at us, and collapsed.
Applejack hurried forwards, already pulling a first aid kit out of her saddlebags. I rushed over to a small control panel set next to the door; the display wabbled as my aura washed over it but kept working. “Sweetie Belle?” I asked in a rush.
There was moment’s stunned silence. “Twilight? But, you were supposed to be at Maripony.”
I probably was, but I really didn’t want to explain over the intercom. “Things aren’t so simple I need to come in.”
A sob escaped the speaker. “I can’t Twilight,” she wailed. “If I open this door, everypony in this vault dies. You know that. Don’t ask me to do that.”
I sighed. Was it too much to hope the designer had used an airlock? “I have my magic, Sweetie Belle. I can hold off the radiation.”
“Not this much,” she said, her voice quivering. “Twilight. There are other Stables nearby, maybe one of them can... can still open the door.”
“Sweetie,” I began, revealing my trump card. “I have Applejack with me.”
The was a long silence, and for a moment I thought the terminal had finally failed.
“... no you don’t, Twilight,” Sweetie said, at last. “Applejack’s already inside. Please... go,” she whispered.
I looked over my shoulder at Applejack. “These two need a hospital,” she said simply, uncorking another healing potion. “Right now.”
I frowned, and stepped up to the door. Setting my horn against it I began to probe it with my magical senses. It was an impressive shield, five foot of lead and steel, with a hexum core that kept out all but the most powerful magics. Teleporting through it would be problematic, especially with passengers, but there were more subtle ways to get past a door.
“Grab them and hold on to me,” I snapped, beginning to gather power to my horn. Applejack hurried to obey, dragging the two ponies across the earth with as much care as she could muster. “Sweetie Belle, are you standing next to the door?”
“I... no?” came the confused reply.
A hoof grabbed my mane, and I let the power go in a rush. The spell proof core of the door flickered for a moment as the pressure built, but dutifully rose to counter me. There was an earsplitting crack as the spell discharged.
For a fraction of a second, we were nowhere, then reality reasserted itself with myself still pressed up against the door. Only on the opposite side.
Radiation alarms started squealing a moment later, along with the white unicorn who leapt away from us, as if she’d been stung. Frowning, I banished the lingering taint of necromantic radiation from our bodies.
“Twilight!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “Applejack?” Her eyes darted between us. “You... I... But... How can... Wings...”
She fainted dramatically; Applejack caught her with the ease of long practice. “Infirmary,” she snapped at me, jabbing a hoof at a nearby sign. “That way.”
I nodded, sweeping the two injured ponies up in my magic. My thunderous passage, and possibly the wings and horn, attracted more than a few looks as I raced through the corridors, but I paid them no heed. The infirmary was easy to find, it was small, but sparkling clean and filled to the brim with brand new equipment. The shelter’s doctor was dealing with a dozen small scrapes and burns when I arrived, but dropped everything for us. After convincing myself the two would live, I made my way back to the entrance.
The shelter itself was vast. A subterranean palace, fit to hold hundreds of ponies, maybe even thousands. Long, concrete corridors had been burrowed deep into the earth and I must have passed two dozen doors labeled ‘storeroom’ as I made my way through the, surprisingly empty, halls. I realised that I had completely failed the anticipate the size of the shelter; in my head I’d imagined a half dozen rooms and a few families, but the reality was so much more. It wasn’t a place for ponies to shelter for a few bad days, it was a place to live through the apocalypse, surviving underground for decades if they had to.
For all I reviled the necessity, I had to be impressed by the local’s ingenuity and vision. Though, as they had had time to prepare such a shelter, it raised worrying questions as to how long they’d had to anticipate the death of their world. Somehow, learning that it had not come as a surprise was more disquieting than discovering Equestria had been attacked from the blue.
“... and Twilight’s an princess because?” I heard Sweetie Belle ask as I stepped back into the entry hallway. She was leant against Applejack, eyes slightly vacant as if somepony had set off a firework in her face. Two stallions loomed over the pair, dressed in the same utilitarian blue barding as everypony else, though they held themselves with the easy confidence of trained soldiers.
“Oh she cast some cooky spell and swapped round our cutie marks,” Applejack explained, grinning. “Then she got all regal on us after fixin’ things.”
My ear twitched. “I prefer the term alicorn,” I pointed out, striding over. The soldiers stiffened at my approach, though whether they wanted to stop me or bow, I couldn’t tell.
“And... you’re from another Equestria?” Sweetie Belle continued, slowly. “So, why are you here?”
I paused, it was a very good question. “I guess we want to know what went wrong.”
“Heh,” she let out a bitter chuckle. “That’s a very long story. I’d better take you to Applejack.”
The look on Applejack’s face when her double walked into the room had been, almost, worth the price of admission. The state she was in was far less pleasant.
Applejack was exhausted, deep bags hung beneath her eyes; there was this impression of bone deep weariness to the mare. Despite her surprise at our arrival she never rose to meet us, instead she remained sat on her couch, or what little remained of the couch. Somepony (and my bits were on a certain farmer) had smashed most of the room’s furniture to bits, which was no small feat given most of it had been made of steel. Unlike every other pony I’d seen she wasn’t wearing the Stable barding, but still dressed in a tattered business suit. Her stenton must have clashed horribly with the ensemble when it was clean, but now they both looked like they’d been through a war.
Sweetie Belle sat next to her Applejack, a foreleg around the elder mare. Slowly, Applejack shook her head, looking between my Applejack and I with stunned bemusement.
“Okay Twi’,” she said at last. “This, is the craziest thing you’ve ever done.”
I blushed. “Well I can’t speak for your world, but it’s pretty high up the list for mine. Maybe the world tree incident tops it but that was more of a series of accidents than a deliberate attempt to--”
My Applejack elbowed me in the ribs and I managed to halt my nervous babble.
Applejack shook her head, and leaned a little more on Sweetie Belle. “So what are you looking for, Twi’? I hate to say it, but there ain’t much to share down here.”
“I guess in the end, we want to know where it all went wrong?” I admitted, shrugging my wings. “Chronologically, we’re about six months behind events here but...” I took a deep breath. “We don’t have a war.” Their eye’s widened. “We don’t... Well I don’t... What I’m trying to say is...”
“How’d it happen?” my Applejack cut in, straight to the point. It was the strangest thing, but I could hear the difference in accent between the pair. My Applejack still had the thick Apple drawl, but the local version’s voice was that much more refined and measured, though, it was nowhere near a high class tone.
“That’s a very long story,” Applejack began with a sigh. “We’ve been fighting the war for, what, twenty five years now?” She frowned. “Did that happen to you girls too?”
I shook my head. “We had a three year war against the Zebra that ended roughly twenty years ago. We’ve had a peace treaty since then though.”
“Well, here the Zebras were too damn crazy to even think about peace,” Applejack growled. “After Shattered Hoof Ridge, where they tried to kill the Princess, it’s been a fight to the death no matter what we wanted.”
For a moment I was there on that ridge, watching ponies dying all around as Princess Celestia lay at my hooves, desperately trying to summon the will to survive. I fought down a shudder. Never mind the battle, the assassination had been one of the most terrifying days of my life. It had been pure luck, and a touch of noble sacrifice on Big Mac’s part, that had brought us all through alive.
“Well, after that, the war really began to pick up speed. Princess Luna took over from her sister in running the country in the fight against the Zebras and we’d already been helping run the Ministries for a couple years. She asked us to run the war, and we stepped up.” Applejack smiled at the memory. I gestured her to go on.
“So I ended up running the industrial side of things in earnest. Wasted a lot of my life trying to make things safe for our soldiers, though it didn’t do them no good in the end. You, well Twi’, threw herself into her ‘Arcane Sciences’. Came up with a lot of ways to help ponies, and more ways to kill Zebra than you can count. Rarity’s Ministry of Image pretty much stayed the same, worked real hard to keep the Zebras out of Equestria, even started running our spooks if you can believe it.”
I smiled, Rarity would enjoy hearing she’d become a super spy in another life next time I saw her.
Applejack sighed. “‘Course, there were problems. Pinkie’s Ministry of Morale kept everypony’s spirits up till the last, but... let’s just say they started prying a little too deep into why ponies were sad for my tastes.” She paused, then hung her head. “Then there’s Fluttershy. I love the gal’, but she really went off the rails by the end. Sweet Celestia, I hope she’s okay. I don’t think she’s ever going to forgive us for this war.” She shuddered. “Anyway, Rainbow Dash had her Ministry of Awesome--”
My Applejack let out a bark of laughter. “Sorry,” she said, holding a hoof over her mouth. “That still makes me laugh every time ah here it. She ever actually do anything with it here?”
“Beyond fly around and look flashy?” Applejack sniggered. “Not a lot. Her ministry, now they did a heck of a lot of weapons development though. At least half the shit we’ll’ve thrown back at the Zebra’s will have had a rainbow stamp on it.”
I had to repress a shudder. It was one thing to see Equestria reduced to ashes by the war. It was downright terrifying to imagine that Equestria had inflicted the same kind of death and destruction right back.
Looking slightly queasy at the idea herself my Applejack interjected. “And after twenty years of fighting, ain’t no one ever tried to stop the war?”
“We tried!” Sweetie Belle protested before Applejack could get a word in, stamping her forehooves against the couch, which groaned alarmingly. “But every year more and more ponies died and things just got worse!”
“The Zebras are insane,” Applejack added, with a sad shake of her head. “They never tried to negotiate, they never listened to reason, they wanted Equestria gone and there was nothing we could do but fight.”
Sweetie Belle shot her a look. “There was so much we could have done beyond fighting!” she exclaimed, gesturing at Applejack and I. “These two are proof that there was a way to avoid the whole war! We never found out why the Zebras were so fanatical. We never gave peace a chance once we built the megaspells.” She turned to me. “Equestria went mad, Twilight. Ponies didn’t want to stop fighting. They wanted revenge. They wanted it so there wouldn’t be a single Zebra left on the planet once this war was done.”
Applejack recoiled from the white unicorn. “Sweetie Belle you can’t say things like that! If the MoM hears you...” She caught herself mid sentence, then let out a bitter chuckle. “Oh, of course. They ain’t got a say in things anymore, eh madam Overmare?”
“Small mercies at least,” Sweetie Belle admitted, with a tense laugh. She shook herself. “The point is Twilight. There were many times we could have stopped the war, but we never did. That’s what went wrong.”
“Well, I guess that’s as good an answer as any,” Applejack concluded, with a heavy sigh. She took her hat off and clutched it to her chest. “If you’d asked me a week ago I’d have given you a list of things that went wrong with the war. My own Ministry tried to kill me. I sold my farm to fund a thousand useless suits of armour. Steelhooves had... changed on me. Today. I don’t know. Maybe it was the war that was wrong all along.”
My Applejack’s jaw had dropped. Her mouth was working in silent horror as she tried to wrap her head around selling Sweet Apple Acres.
“I ran into Steelhooves on my last run through,” I said, while she worked through things. The local Applejack’s ears perked up, though she kept a neutral expression. “He wanted me to tell you that he loves you.”
“Dumb lug,” she sighed, smiling. A tear formed in Applejack’s eye, but she wiped it clear. “I knew that.” Sweetie Belle gave her another comforting squeeze.
“Ya’ sold the farm!” my Applejack wailed, catching us all by surprise. “But... how? Who?”
“To be fair, it was to Applebloom,” Applejack explained, shrugging. “Wasn’t like I ever got the chance to run the farm anyhow. I was too busy running Equestria into the ground.”
My Applejack whinnied in distress, shaking her head as if she was trying to erase the last minute of the conversation. “Sweet Celestia,” she exclaimed, I once again tried not to frown. She knew I didn’t like her swearing on that name. “What did Big Mac say?”
Sweetie Belle and Applejack froze.
“What?” Applejack croaked, eyes wide.
“Well, ah can’t imagine you selling Sweet Apple Acres without him raising a mighty...” My Applejack cocked her head, as she saw the pair were staring at her as if she’d grown a second head. “Somethin’ ah said?”
“Big Mac died,” Applejack said in a monotone. “He died saving Celestia's life on Shattered Hoof ridge.”
“No...” I whispered. Ice pressed in around my heart and I struggled to draw breath.
“Twilight?” Applejack said, putting a hoof on shoulder, though she may as well have been on the moon for all the attention I gave her. “Twilight, speak to me.”
“He can’t be dead,” I said, my wings flying open as I began to pace. “HE CAN’T BE DEAD!”
Magic was pooling around my horn in a maelstrom of energy. Somepony tried grab me and I rounded on my Applejack, knocking Sweetie Belle to the floor as my outstretched primaries caught her in the face.
“Sugarcube, calm down! Don’t do this again.”
I really tried. It was just too bad Applejack’s mention of ‘again’ just forced me to remember where my last freakout happened.
“...The Memorial.”
I flashed out of existence. For a moment the weight of earth and defensive spells fought against my teleportation, but I’d drawn enough power to level a building and with a thundering boom arrived outside the Ponyville Memorial.
The wrong pony stood in stone before me. Big Macintosh wore his armour with pride, a drawn sword in his teeth. The artist had captured his steadfast determination, his drive, and cast it into the cold stone with such skill it looked as if the statute was ready to step down off the pedestal and charge into battle at any moment.
“In honor of Big Macintosh,” I read. “Hero of the Battle of Shattered Hoof Ridge, and his noble sacrifice for all of Equestria.”
For a moment I just stared at the statue, struggling to breathe the poisoned air. The only sound was the screech of my radiation meter.
“How DARE you, you bastard!” I roared, slamming my hooves into the ground. The statue detonated, hunks of marble smashing the gazebo shaped shelter to rubble. “That HER spot! You pathetic--” I lifted the rubble up into the air and slammed it back down. “--waste--” I lifted it high, and brought it down with enough force to shatter windows. “--of air!”
There was an almighty roar as the rubble was consumed by balefire, the very stones burning under an evil blowtorch of rage and hate.
I collapsed then, the flames around my horn fading out of existence. “I saved you,” I whimpered, my eyes filling with tears as I glared at the glowing crater. “How can you take that away?”
My connection to the world severed and, as if drunk, I stumbled off the dais onto the factory floor. Ponies crowded around me, asking questions, trying to give comfort, but I ignored them all as I gathered power for another teleport.
The Ponyville memorial was a popular destination. It had been built in the centre of a wide green park filled with flowers of every colour. Mares and stallions strolled along the park’s elegant paths and fillies and colts laughed and played on the many slides and swings that dotted the space. Picnics, dates and fond reunions occurred in the shadow of that terrible reminder, just as she would have wanted.
I arrived with tears streaming down my face. Shattering the laughter and joy that characterised the park.
I’d saved Big Macintosh you see. It had been one of the greatest challenges of my life, drawing on all my skill, imagination and the raw power being the Princess of Magic bestowed on me. I never would have saved him and Celestia without having the anti-necromantic spells already in my repertoire. I’d sworn never to let another one of my friends die so horribly.
The marble statue of Pinkie smiled warmly at my arrival, but then that expression was fixed on her face. She stood on her hind legs, forelegs spread wide as she welcomed the whole world, with brightly coloured streamers and confetti exploding out from behind her. Her epitaph was simple, “I want to see you smile!”
The world remembered her with those words.
I remembered her death.
It had been neither quick nor painless, and I still saw the terrifying moment when the life faded from her eyes in my nightmares. Because of my promise never to let a friend die that way, I’d been able to save Celestia.
Because of her death. I’d stopped a war.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack found me ten minutes later, clutching the statue, sobbing like a lost filly.