Twilight Sparkle galloped down the dusty road that led out of Ponyville as fast as her legs could carry her. The noise of her hooves striking against the compacted dirt distracted her from the worries that clouded her mind. Something terrible had happened; she just knew it. Everything was not fine. Where was everypony going – and where were her friends? Why weren't they–
Over the horizon, a rainbow-colored pony streaked through the sky and headed straight for her. The pegasus raced toward her with incredible speed and landed expertly right in front of her path. “There you are!” Rainbow Dash called out. The blue pony was out of breath and panting heavily. Her body was drenched in sweat. “I've been looking for you – and Fluttershy too,” she panted. “I can't find her anywhere, though. But look, you gotta come to Sweet Apple Acres at once! Half the town is already there.”
“That's where I'm going,” Twilight replied. She skidded to a stop, inadvertently kicking up a small cloud of dust. “Wait. What do you mean, half the town is already there? What happened?”
“I swear it wasn't my fault,” Rainbow said urgently. “Really! You gotta believe me!”
“What's not your fault? Rainbow, talk to me. What's going on?”
Rainbow shook her head and took off.
Twilight became even more worried than she already was. “Hey – wait!” She leaped into the air and chased after her friend, but the princess wasn't fast enough. The pegasus quickly streaked away, leaving a rainbow-colored trail in the sky. “You didn't answer my question!” she shouted.
But her friend was already a small dot in the distance. She didn't answer.
Twilight flew as quickly as she could to the Apple family's farm. As she spread her wings and soared through the sky she glanced down at the road below. Normally the road that led out of Ponyville was fairly deserted at this early hour of the morning, but today she saw more than a dozen ponies galloping in the same direction that she was going. She still didn't know what the emergency was, but she had a bad feeling about it. That noise she had heard earlier could only mean – no, surely not. Whatever is wrong, I'm positive I can fix it, Twilight thought to herself. She wasn't sure if she actually believed that or not, but she had to reassure herself somehow. The suspense of not knowing what had happened was killing her. Couldn't Rainbow Dash just tell her? Why did she have to be so mysterious?
It only took Twilight a few minutes to reach the farm. What she saw confirmed her worst fears. Something terrible had happened. The enormous red barn that dominated Sweet Apple Acres had collapsed, turning the majestic structure into a pile of debris. It looked like a giant hoof had dropped out of the sky and flattened it into splinters. A cloud of dust still hung over the ruined structure, suspended in the humid morning air. It must have been the storm last night, Twilight thought. I guess it was rougher than I thought. Oh, I hope no one was inside when it happened. Surely–
That's when Twilight noticed that no one was gathered around the barn. Instead a large crowd had surrounded a single apple tree in the front yard, which was now lying on the ground. Somehow it had snapped off about halfway up its trunk, and its top had come crashing down.
And that is when Twilight saw the body.
* * * * *
“I'm telling you, this wasn't my fault,” Rainbow Dash kept repeating over and over. “If the storm had really been that violent, it would have destroyed homes and trees all over Ponyville! I had nothing to do with this.”
But no one paid her any particular attention. In fact, no one was even blaming her. They were too focused on the tragedy that was unfolding before them.
Twilight Sparkle landed on the wet grass beside Rainbow Dash and tried hard not to cry. A few feet behind her the surviving members of the Apple family were huddled together in a small group. Granny Smith was holding tightly on to Apple Bloom. Granny was trying to comfort Applejack's little sister, but she refused be comforted. Big Mac stood next to her. The large red stallion stared at the fallen tree but said nothing. He had little to say in the best of times – and this was not the best of times.
Behind them, standing at a respectful distance, was a large crowd of onlookers. Most of them weren't saying anything but a few spoke in hushed tones. Rainbow Dash was right – a large portion of the town really had turned out. But this time there wasn't anything they could do to help. It was already too late.
The focus of everypony's attention was the apple tree that had snapped. The tree was an old one that had grown to enormous size. From the outside it looked strong and healthy, but now that it was on the ground Twilight could see that it had decayed from within. Perhaps it had fallen victim to some sort of disease – it was hard to say. It's no wonder it collapsed, Twilight thought. It must have been on the verge of breaking for a long time. All it would take to come crashing down was one sharp jolt at the wrong place.
Beside the fallen tree stood a doctor and two nurses. They were packing up their medical equipment and preparing to leave. Twilight briefly wondered why they had bothered unpacking their gear at all. It only took a single glance to show how utterly hopeless the situation was.
Applejack must have gotten an early start to her day, Twilight realized. She came out here and gave this tree a good, hard whack. Then the tree snapped, and – and fell.
Twilight could not bear to look at the scene of the accident. When the tree fell over, it came straight down and utterly crushed Applejack. Her head was still intact, but that was all that was left of her. Everything else was simply gone.
She must have been running away from the tree when it fell, Twilight realized. She heard the tree cracking and bolted for it – but couldn't get away fast enough. If she had only had one more second she might have made it. But she didn't.
The doctor saw Twilight and walked over to her. He put a hoof around her neck. “I'm very sorry,” he said quietly. “I truly am. I know how much she meant to you – to all of us. But as you can see there's nothing we can do. If the tree had just been smaller then perhaps her earth pony strength...”
“I understand, Doc,” Twilight replied, as tears ran down her face. “I know you would have helped if you could. Thanks for responding so quickly. Has everypony been told about the accident?”
“They're working on it,” Doc replied. He walked back over to the tree and resumed packing his medical bag. “A message has been sent to Canterlot to inform Rarity. No doubt she will head back here as soon as she can. Rainbow Dash has also sent some pegasi to fly over the Everfree Forest to look for Fluttershy. No one really knows where she is, though, so it might take some time to find her. The Forest is a large place, after all. Still, I'm sure they will find her in time. The funeral probably won't be for several days, since it will take that long to make all the arrangements. I've already notified the–”
“Woah, woah woah,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Hold on there! Twilight, you can fix this, right? After all, you're an alicorn princess! Isn't there some magical spell you can use to fix Applejack?”
“Fix this?” Twilight echoed, uncertainly. “Look, I know how much this hurts – I really do. She was my friend too. This whole tragedy is just so senseless; I can't even take it all in. This feels so wrong. But there are no spells that can raise the dead. It just doesn't work that way.”
“What about necromancy?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Aren't there forbidden dark magic spells you can use?”
“Dark magic?” Twilight repeated. “All dark magic can do is make things much worse. Even if there was some dark spell that could resurrect Applejack – and I've never even heard of such a thing – it would just turn her into some kind of undead monster. She wouldn't be the same pony who was your friend.”
“Ok, fine. Then what about time travel? You've traveled back in time before, haven't you? Couldn't you just warn her not to go near that tree? Then she wouldn't die in the first place, and everything would be fine!”
The doctor looked surprised. “You have traveled back in time?”
“Just once,” Twilight said. “It wasn't as exciting as it sounds.”
“What are you talking about?” Pinkie interrupted. “I thought it was a lot of fun. Don't you remember breaking into the Canterlot library and trying to steal their top-secret spells?”
Twilight blushed. “Yes, I – wait. Pinkie, where did you come from?”
“I've been here all along,” the pink pony replied. She was sitting beside Big Mac. “In fact, I got here first. When I saw the accident I ran and told Rainbow Dash. My pinkie sense told me, you know. It was awful. I'd never felt anything like that before. I just knew something terrible had happened.”
“Are you ok?” Twilight said. “How are you handling this?”
“Well...” Pinkie said slowly. “I was really super sad at first. But when I found Rainbow Dash, she told me you could fix this. If you can fix it then there's no reason to be sad anymore, right?”
Twilight quickly looked at the blue pegasus. “You told her what?”
“Like I said – time travel!” Rainbow said quickly. “You've done it before, so you can do it again, right? How hard could it be?”
“It's not that easy. Yes, time travel is possible, but the spell I used was a one-time deal. The pony who casts it can never cast it again.”
“Who cares if it's against the rules?” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “What – do you think Celestia is going to throw you in prison or something for saving your friend? I'm sure we can explain the situation to her. After all, this is Applejack we're talking about!”
“It's not illegal – it's impossible! You don't understand. Some spells can be cast over and over again. Other spells can only be cast once. After you cast them, the spell changes you and you can never cast it again. It's just the nature of that spell.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “No way! That doesn't make any sense. Are you sure about that?”
“It all goes back to the nature of magic,” Twilight explained. “Not all spells are the same. Most spells can be used repeatedly, but there are entire classes of spells that are more complicated than that. There are some spells that can only be used on certain days of the year, or under certain lunar cycles. Some spells are time-limited – after you use them once, you can only keep using them for a fixed period of time and then you can never use them again. The time spell is in that category, only its lifetime is less than a second, which effectively makes it a single-use spell. If you're interested I have a good book on magic theory that you can borrow.”
“No thanks,” Rainbow replied, shaking her head. “That just sounds really arbitrary to me. And unfair.”
“Magic can be like that,” Twilight agreed. “Why do zap apples like bright colors and loud noises? Why do the apples respond to someone dressing in a bunny suit and hopping around? Magic doesn't always make sense. That's why it's called magic.”
“It's like eating a muffin,” Pinkie chimed in. “Once you eat it, you can't eat that same muffin again. The muffin just isn't there anymore.”
“All right,” Rainbow said, irritated. “Fine – so you can't go back in time again. But why can't someone else do it? Like Celestia, or Luna. Or even Moondancer, for that matter. I bet she's never traveled through time before.”
“Probably not,” Twilight agreed. “The time travel spells are kept in the restricted section of the Canterlot Library, and Celestia doesn't let very many ponies near them. I'm pretty sure that Moondancer doesn't have access to them. But Rainbow, traveling back in time isn't going to help. You can't change the past.”
“Sure you can! Just send someone back to warn Applejack. It's easy! It'll just take, like, a second.”
Twilight shook her head. “That's not what I mean. The past cannot be changed. After my own experience with time travel, I looked into it and discovered that nopony has ever been able to change the past by traveling backwards in time. Instead of changing things, they end up causing the very thing they wanted to prevent – which is exactly what happened to me. If you were transported back in time and tried to warn Applejack, you would end up causing the tree to fall on her. In other words, you would become directly responsible for her death. Do you really want that?”
“Of course not! But – there's got to be something. You can't just leave her like that! She was your friend, wasn't she?”
“She was a true friend,” Twilight replied softly. She looked at the tree and then quickly looked away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Apple Bloom was still crying. Twilight knew that if she didn't do something soon, her grief would overwhelm her and she would completely fall apart. “I would do anything to save her.”
“Then try,” Rainbow Dash said. “Take her remains back to your castle and read a book on raising the dead, or something. You have to at least try.”
“I'm afraid Twilight is right,” Doc commented. “There really is nothing that can be done. Applejack isn't just injured, Rainbow Dash; she is crushed. No amount of healing is going to help – not even magical healing. Her body would need to be completely reconstructed, and that simply isn't possible.”
“So? What harm will it do to try?” Rainbow demanded. “If Twilight comes up with nothing then we can bury Applejack's remains and that's that. But if Twilight does find something then we get Applejack back. Isn't it at least worth trying?”
“No one has ever done anything like that before,” Doc said. “If it was possible, somepony would have figured it out long ago. Death isn't exactly a new problem, you know. You're not the first pony to lose a friend.”
“Oh yeah? Well, Twilight's done lots of things that nopony has ever done before! Maybe she'll do it again.”
The doctor did not appear convinced. He looked over at Big Mac, who hadn't said a word. “What do you think about all this? Are you willing to let Princess Twilight give this rather morbid experiment a try?”
Big Mac didn't even hesitate. “Yup.”
“Me too!” Pinkie exclaimed. “What? I'm part Apple too, you know!”
Apple Bloom looked at Twilight. She tried to wipe her tears away with her hooves. “Please, Twilight, ya gotta help us. Please give me my big sister back.”
No pressure there, Twilight thought. But she couldn't bear to tell the little filly no. She had to at least try.
“All right,” Twilight replied. “I can't promise anything, and I don't want to get your hopes up, but I'll see what I can do. Doc, can you have Applejack's remains brought to the castle? Please be careful with her.”
“Well, I suppose I can, if you're sure you want to do this,” Doc said, shaking his head. “I don't think this is wise but I'm not going to try to stop you. I still think the family should be making funeral arrangements.”
“Just give me a week,” Twilight begged. “I'll know by then if anything can be done.”
“All right,” Doc agreed. “Since that's what the family wants, I'll help. Her remains will be delivered to you later today.”
Twilight nodded. “Thanks. Um, I guess I'll be going, then. I've got a lot of studying to do.”
“And I'm going to be right there with you,” Rainbow Dash announced.
“What?” Twilight exclaimed, startled. “Why?”
“Because Applejack was my friend too, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to fix this! Whatever. It. Takes. I'm not leaving until we get her back.”
“But you're not a unicorn!” Twilight protested. “You're not even capable of doing magic. How could you possibly help? This isn't really your field.”
“I can help in lots of ways,” Rainbow said defensively. “I can run errands, and fetch books, and make coffee, and keep you awake until you figure something out. You're going to need somepony to handle all that mundane stuff so you can focus on the task at hand.”
Twilight looked at her friend. It was obvious that the pegasus was in a lot of pain and that she desperately wanted to fix this situation. The word denial came to mind. She really does blame herself for this, Twilight thought. She's trying to deal with her guilt by offering to help. Well, I won't turn her down. She is the element of loyalty, after all. I'm not going to deny her the chance to be loyal.
“All right,” Twilight agreed. “Thank you, Rainbow. The first thing that I'm going to need is all the research that's available on raising the dead. I'm sure there must be material on this in Canterlot – probably in a restricted section somewhere. If you could make a trip there and fetch–”
“Already on it!” Rainbow Dash interrupted. She leaped into the sky and zoomed off.
After she was gone, the doctor looked at Twilight. “I mean no offense, your highness, but why are you patronizing her? This isn't going to work.”
“It's gotta work,” Apple Bloom shouted. “You've gotta save her!”
Twilight looked over at the Apple family. I have to stay strong for them, she thought, as she felt her grief rising. There's got to be some hope left. There's just got to be.
“I'll let you know what I find,” she said aloud. “I – I mean, I'm so sorry–”
“I know,” Big Mac said.
“Let me know if I can help,” Pinkie added. “I know you can do this.”
Granny Smith nodded. “If anyone can, it's Twilight. She's a smart one. Smartest pony I've ever seen.”
Twilight shut her eyes and leaped into the sky. She couldn't see where she was going, and she didn't care. She was on the verge of breaking down and she just needed to be alone.
* * * * *
That afternoon found Twilight hard at work in her castle's enormous library. Books were stacked all around her, and even more books were scattered haphazardly on the table and all over the floor. Her library was in complete disarray, but for once she just didn't care. She was looking for something – for a solution – and she was finding nothing.
The castle was utterly silent. Spike was still in the Crystal Empire and wouldn't be back for several days. No one else was home, and the lack of noise and chatter was oppressive. She was tempted to put on some music, but this wasn't the time for that. The princess just wasn't in the mood.
Twilight had hoped that a little time and a space would make her feel better, but she had been proven wrong. Somehow crying only made her feel worse, and being alone only compounded the problem. When nothing helped, she finally forced herself to stop dwelling on her grief and instead focus on the situation at hand. Think of it as a test, Twilight thought. You're great at tests! All you have to do is find the answer.
But as far as Twilight could tell, there was no answer to be found.
Rainbow Dash had still not returned from Canterlot, but Twilight wasn't surprised. The journey to Equestria's capitol was not a short one, and when Rainbow did come back she would be bringing with her a large pile of manuscripts and books. Twilight didn't expect to see her again until the next day.
An hour ago the doctor had come by. True to his word, he delivered Applejack's corpse to the castle in a simple wooden coffin. Twilight had his assistants carry the coffin down into a large, empty room in the castle's basement. The princess forced herself to peek inside, to see how much of her friend was even left to be resurrected. She instantly regretted it.
Twilight cast a spell on the coffin to keep the remains from decaying, and then headed back upstairs. The spell wouldn't preserve them forever, but it would at least halt the process for a while. That would buy her time – but all the time in the world wouldn't help if there was no solution to be found. There were some things that even magic can't do.
“I know what needs to be done,” Twilight said out loud. “All I have to do is somehow build a new body for Applejack. Then, somehow, take her brain and transfer her memories and personality from her crushed body to her new one. Then I need to somehow bring that new body to life.”
Twilight sighed. “Somehow. But none of this has ever been done before! Oh, what am I going to do?”