//------------------------------// // Appleten's Rage // Story: Blooming Talent // by Griffin Productions //------------------------------// The trio of warriors hovered in a circle, facing away from each other and trying to sense for any remaining power levels that might belong to ponies. There had to be some survivors; the country was rather large from what Appleten had said, and they did have militaries, even if they weren't the greatest. The potara warrior herself was the first to sense a group of power levels off to the north, towards what she remembered as Ponyville's direction. She wasn't too sure if it was pony power levels she was sensing, but there was something. Piccolo detected something next in the direction of the west; several power levels, an one or two large ones in close proximity. Trunks picked up a multitude of power levels to the east; a couple hundred at least. They turned in to face each other and create a plan. There were so many places they sensed around, but the three they sensed based on proximity to Canterlot, which Appleten had figured Sapphic might be, size of power levels, and population were the highest on their priority list. "Ok, so here's what's going to happen." Piccolo said, bringing the two closer to him with a gesture. "Trunks, you'll head over to the multitude of power levels to the east; I'm sure you can handle whatever is going on there, and if it's nothing, make sure everyone stays safe there." Trunks nodded an affirmative, ready for a fight. "Appleten," The namekian continued as he turned to the potara warrior. "you head off to the north towards your hometown. If anyone is still alive there, bring hem far away from there. I Sapphic is indeed close to that place, it'll get pretty hairy once we clash with him. Until you are sure everyone is safe, do not engage him, understand?" She seemed to frown a bit at the do not engage order, but nodded anyway. Piccolo was right after all; when she found Sapphic, she was going to make sure he didn't get up ever again, and that would most likely mean the battle zone would be widespread if she was to deal out the punishment she planned for him. She should make sure the area was clear of innocents. "I'll head to the west." Piccolo continued. "I can sense a couple large power levels, and several smaller ones. It might be a few injured survivors, so I'll see if I can put a few new healing tricks of mine to the test." "Sounds like a plan." Trunks acknowledged, getting ready to take off. "Once we accomplish our goals, converge on my position." Piccolo finished. "From there, we can go and confront that slimeball." Appleten could not wait for that. The three gave each other good luck wishes, and flew off in the assigned directions as fast as they could go. As Appleten blasted across the skyline, she caused a small sonic boom from the mere speed she was traveling at right off the bat. The ground was a blur to her, but she knew thanks to her senses from training here she was and where she was going. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think of Appaloosa, and finding Ponyville in the same state of destruction and death. The macabre scene kept playing on a loop until she forced it away from her conscious thought. No way was Twilight and the others going to allow Sapphic to destroy their home. She hoped that when she arrived, she would either find an intact town, or an empty one; no corpses or charred skeletons anywhere. * * * Octavia had finally managed to calm the crying foals as they all sat in the bottom of the Canterlot dungeon. The poor little dears had lost their parents, and those hat hadn't had cried themselves to sleep ages ago, or at least it felt that long. At leastthree young colts and a little filly sat before the earth pony cellist as she soothed each one with a lullaby she had learned from Vinyl years ago. She smiled a bit, realizing a rough and tumble DJ had crafted a charming good-night song. "Oh, Vinyl..." She mumbled. "You were right...it was our problem afterall..." She was broke out of her trance as she heard the sounds of shuffling behind her. She turned, already knowing what it was, and gazed sadly at the princess of friendship[p, Twilight Sparkle. he usually collected alicorn was a mess; her fur and mane were in shambles as split ends and loose strands hung and clung off of ad to each other as if she hadn't combed them once in her whole life. HEr eyes, now pinpricks, darted around as if the pony was addicted to some kind of drug and was feeling the effects of withdrawal. Perhaps she was having a withdrawal, Octavia poetically thought. The princess, while having at least some combat experience, had never truly experienced violence on this scale; death on this level. She had watched her older brother be gored before her very eyes, and then each of her closest friends oblieratd by the same demon that had done the deed. She was having withdrawals all right; she was havingpeace withdrawal. In all honesty, few if any of the assembled ponies had ever experienced violence and war on this scale either. It was a shame and a moral breaker that the one who was supposed to lead them was now nothing more than a broken mess of shivers and shakes in the corner of the dark chamber. Seeing th princess like this had made several of the ponies give up hope of salvation or escape...or hope of anything for that matter. Octavia had to admit; she too was finding it hard to stay positive. Her loverwas gone, Canterlot had fallen, and the throne now belonged to the changeling king. If there was any hope at all, it would be a miracle. The sound of keys turning in a lock startled everypony into an alert state, and panicked mumbles filled the room along with whimpers of foals. The heavy door to the dungeon swung open and the tyrant himself stepped into the view of the prisoners, who scrambled back as far as the cramped space could allow. "Ponies," Sapphic started with a mock bow; a gesture that looked awkward with only one arm. "I require one among you who may be skilled in crafting armor. Is such a pony present?" There was silence for a few moments. "None of you? Are you sure?" Once again, nothing. The shivering ponies did nothing but stare fearfully at the one who had killed their beloved ruler. "What a shame." Sapphic said, swaying casually. "I suppose there's only one thing to do then. There are blank flank foals in her, yes? I'll just take one of them and train them until they are worthy armor smiths." He started o walk towards the group ofnow parentless foals that were hiding behind Octavia. As he neared with that savage grin on his face, the cellist took up a defensive stance. She wasn't going to let him take and torture one of these poor little ponies for his own selfish desires. He stopped and stared down at her; his muscles and eyes glowing brightly in the dimness. She was deathly afraid of the monster, but she couldn't just let him have his way with whichever unfortunate colt or filly he would choose. "Are you an armor smith, miss?" He asked mockingly. "I am not." "Then stand aside and let me see the blank flanks." "I will not allow you to--" Octavia was cut off andthrown across the room with one powerful smack from the tyrant. She would have hit the wall and probably splattered her brains all over it if one of the former guards hadn't caught her with his own body. She came back to her senses as one of the young colts started to struggle against Sapphic's mighty grip on his neck. "You'll make a fine armor smith once I've broken you in, young stallion." He cackled. He began to walk out of the dungeon, carrying the now screaming colt with him, but was halted by a sudden voice from within the multitude of ponies. "Stop! Please...." Sapphic turned to see the stallion that had spoken; a beige colored pony wth a brown mane and an anvil for a cutie mark. "I...I am an armor smith....take..take me...instead of the boy..." "Why did you not come forward sooner, stallion?" The changeling king asked challengingly, but the grin not leaving his face. "I...I was afraid..." The pony answered, quivering slightly. Sapphic chuckled darkly, bringing the young foal to bear. He looked at the child with evil intentions in his emerald eyes. "Hesitation can cost lives, my good smith." He stated cruelly. He began to laugh, ad Octavia knew what he was going to do. They all did. Before she could even move to stop it, however, Sapphic closed his fist tightly around the colt's neck, and the sick sound of bone snapping echoed through the chamber along with the final and suddenly silenced cry of the foal. Tossing the tiny dead body in front of the beige stallion, he stared him down. "Next time your king asks for you, you step forward, slave." The pony couldn't take his eyes off the dead child, nor could Octavia as it lay there, limp an never to move again. What a monster this creature was; he had killed this poor colt just to prove a point. To make them obey. The tyrant grabbed the stallion by he muzzle and dragged him away as the drones closed the door and locked it behind him. "Come, stallion," Sapphic said as he left. "you are going to make me a mighty suit of armor." As the heavy frame of the door slammed ad locked shut, Octavia nearly tackled Twilight in a rage. "Why did you do nothing?!" She screeched at the shivering alicorn. "You just let him kill a poor child and did nothing but sit here and cower!" Twilight did not respond; in fact, she didn't even seem to acknowledge Octavia was on top of her. Her eyes were not focused, and she seemed to be in another world entirely. This was just fantastic; the princess was nothing more than a shell at this point; a shell for her broken mind to wander inside while the rest of the ponies were forced to deal with reality. She almost wished the guard would've let her smash against the hard wall; at least then she wouldn't haveto see anymore suffering. She trotted back over to the dead body of the colt as the other foals cowered away from it as if it were evil. t least this young boy was in a better place now... * * * Appleten landed slowly in the center of the town once known as Ponyville. The place seemed deserted alright, but the blood all over the streets and ground made her stomach turn. Not from the sight of it, but because of what it could mean. There were no bodies, but that didn't mean there hadn't been death. She sensed through the ghost town, looking for any sort of power level. he focused on one; it was faint, and seemed to be decreasing at a steady rate. Moving quickly, the trail brought her to what looked like the remains of Princess Twilight's castle. There were only seven beings she knew who would be in there... As she made her way into the ruins, she continued to follow the trail of the fading power level as it continued it's decline towards death. She found herself praying against all odds that this was just a trapped animal or something. As she moved, she thought on something; even as powerful as he was, how did Sapphic manage to do so much damage to Equestria? Piccolo had said that Sapphic most likely had followers in Equestria, and she knew they were most likely changelings. But she knew there weren't many changelings left after the whole Canterlot Wedding ordeal. She had been young, but she knew what had happened all those years ago; the annihilation of the changelings by the princesses themselves. It was obvious some had survived; no way that Sapphic did all of this himself. But just how many? As she got closer to the dying power level, she decided the number didn't matter, ad that it would be dealt with when the time came. She walked into what used to be the map room, and saw in the middle of the crumbled debris... "Spike?!" She cried out in her double voice at the sight of the crushed purple dragon. He hadn't grown much since her childhood, and his small frame was stuck underneath several heavy looking stones. She thought she would jus move them, and heal any broken bones back to health when she brought him to Piccolo, but that idea was shaken by the sight of the dragon's own blood pooled around him. Spike opened his eyes halfway, and croaked out, "Apple Bloom..?" "Spike, what happened?! Are you alright?" The potara warrior blurted, knowing the answer to the second question already, but still needing to ask. Spike coughed a bit as he inhaled through his dry throat. "No...I'm not ok...and...as for what happened...that's a long story.." "Make it short then." She said quickly. "Give me the Trenderhoof Notes on it..." "Some guy named...Prince Sapphic....came back with a vengeance against us all..." The dying dragon explained. "Had a big battle...he killed almost everyone...he even killed Discord...." "And the others...?" "Before Discord fought him...he teleported everypony both living and dead to Canterlot..." "If that's the case, why are you still here.." "I guess...he just...forgot about me..." Spike shrugged slightly. Appleten brushed a hand against the small dragon's forehead in a soothing fashion, trying to help him somehow. She didn't think that even at her top speed she could get him to Piccolo in time. His power level was dropping far to rapidly, and was nearing non-existence. "If it's any consolation, Spike..." She said, trying not to cry at the fact that most likely everypony she knew was dead. "I never forgot about you..." Spike chuckled a bit; a sound that was morbidly out of place in this situation. "Thanks, AB....I gotta say...you..look...pretty....aweso..." Spike's voice trailed off as he breathed his last and stopped all movement. The potara warrior didn't have to feel a power level to know he was gone. She removed the heavy stones from his little body, and cradled it like a child as she slowly exited the place that used to be a beacon of friendship and love. This just couldn't be; Sapphic had killed them, and the little remnants that had been teleported to Canterlot were probably dead as well by now...she was far too distraught by this train of thought to even try searching for anymore power levels here or in the royal city. Her wild and vivid imagination began to involuntarily depict awful and painful ways of ending a ponies life; she pictured that devil Sapphic torturing and mutilating everypony she ever knew and loved. The screams began to echo inside her head, and the laughter of that monster along with them. She tried to block out the images, but she couldn't; her mind was a run away train, and there was no conductor at the head. She shouted to the sky and promptly blasted a hole into the ground next to her. The exertion helped to clear away the images from her forethought as she slowly lowered Ponyville's number one assistant into the makeshift grave. After a few moments of burying the dragon, she let herself go, but only a little bit. Her tears rolled down her face like streams as she tried to shove away the mental images that threatened to resurface. Even if they weren't actually how her friends had died, they were vivid enough to be, and she couldn't stand to see it. She was happy Discord had done what he had done, because she didn't think she could handle burying somany bodies. Her ears flicked as he heard a few voices not far away. They were raspy and carried an air of arrogance with them. As she listened, she heard them talking clearer. "See anypony else still alive down here yet?" "Nope. And I don't expect to. King Sapphic really did a number on this place." "Yeah he did; and he's going to do the same to all of Equestria soon!" "Nopony alive will be able to stop him! And we'll have all the remnants to ourselves for snacks!" Laughter followed that last statement as the voices drew closer. Evil, sickening, twisted laughter. These must be changelings that served undr Sapphic. She turned and saw a squad of nine of them. They were changelings alright, and they hadn't noticed her yet. They would soon. Getting up swiftly, she began to seed walk towards the squadron as they continued to cackle. One of them noticed her coming closer. "Look, there's one! She's a strange creature." One said. "You wanna take her?" Another asked. "Let's flip a bit for it." They flipped the golden coin, but before it could land to signify which one would get the "pleasure" of devouring her emotions, Appleten caught it above them. They looked at the intruder angrily, upset their game had been interrupted by a pony-thing. She stared daggers right back at them. "You'll all get a piece of me now." She said darkly. In the blink of an eye, her foot buried itself into one of the drones' bellies; the force of the kick was enough to shatter the changeling's carapace and implode his stomach, causing him to vomit green blood all over as he flew into the air, never to come back down again. Before the others could even scream in response, Appleten grabbed two of them by their wings and fried them with intense ki blasts. The six remaining changelings saw the danger finally, and began to fly off in retreat. Appleten looked up at them and saw three of them in a perfect line as the tried to escape. She pointed a finger away from them and then made a motion as if drawing a line through them. As she did this, a blue beam of energy like a ridiculously long sword shot from her pointed appendage, slicing each one in half promptly. The other three were scrambling in random directions now, and she flew up to literally put her fist through one of them. He exploded like a water balloon full of blood and guts that had been thrown against the wall. The gore covered Appleten as she flew through it to grab the the second of the three changelings. Once she had a hold of him, she pressed her hands together on opposite sides of his fragile little skull, relishing in the sound he made as his brains were squished between her fingers a his bones disintegrated. She stared, covered in changeling gore at the last standing drone. He gave a fearful cry, and tried to fly away in one direction, but she was overthere too. He turned again, and like before, she was there, but closer. He tried three more directions before finally he was face to face with her; her brown eyes ripping his soul to shreds. The changeling shivered, knowing the end was coming for him; who was this monster that wore a pony's face? She had just killed seven of his siblings in less than five seconds, and now he was going to suffer the same fate. "Are you scared, little bug?" The potara warrior asked him, barely contained rage evident in her double voice as she floated cross armed before the drone. "I--I...."He stammered. "K-King Sapphic..w-w-will make--will make you p-pay for this! H-how dare you--" "How dare I?!" She bellowed, causing some of her power to flow out of her like lava from a volcano. "How dare...I?!" She grabbed the petrified changeling by his throat, making sure to crush his windpipe and choke him. As he thrashed in her powerful grip, she brought him up to her face and screamed. "How dare you and that monster kill my friends!! Mark my words, bug-eyes, when the so called king comes looking for me, I'll squash him too! Just like he squashed my people!" She passed and squeezed his neck tighter. "And just like I'm gonna squash you." She tossed him at high speed away from her and took up the stance she had known both from training and experience. "Ka...me...ha...me..HA!!" The huge beam of energy blasted forth towards the helpless changeling like a lion's maw opening on a trapped mouse. The little insectoid pony was instantly fried as it hit, and then flew into the atmosphere. Appleten stared at where the changeling had been for a few moments, and then looked over the horizon at Canterlot. She could see pillars of smoke rising out of it, and knew her worst fears had come true. Somehow, this only steeled her resolve. Before she took off to find Piccolo, she pointed towards the royal city on the mountain. "Mark my words, Sapphic; what I did here is nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you."