//------------------------------// // Applejack/Honey - Chapter 4 // Story: Dawn of Crystal Empire // by TopWanted //------------------------------// Applejack rested a hoof on the train window and looked out at the terrain rushing by. She and the others had received Twilight’s message that morning. However no letter specifically stated the danger they were facing. Twilight had cryptically called all her friends to the Crystal Kingdom with the words, “Something terrible has happened.” She hoped it wasn’t anything too serious. “What do you suppose the egghead meant in her letter?” asked Rainbow Dash from the seat behind her. “I’m not sure,” replied Applejack. “But it’d be downright immature to assume this is a ruse for a party.” She eyed Pinkie Pie sitting across from her. The pink mare had been filling balloons for the past hour and they had now overtaken her seat covering her features with a rainbow of mylar. She had also somehow produced a cake from the train’s food storage cart that she was now delicately frosting while trying to bat away balloons. Pinkie parted the balloons obscuring her face and faced AJ. “But it’s so perfect!” she exclaimed joyfully. “Twilight calls us to the Crystal Kingdom just in time for Calamity’s birthday. It’s too fort-it-tude-ness.” “I believe you mean fortuitous, darling.” Rarity spoke up from her seat across the aisle and buried her nose back in her fashion magazine. “Yeah, that!” Pinkie replied happily. “Uh, who’s Calamity?” asked Rainbow Dash as she threw her front hooves over the edge of Applejack’s seat to face everypony. “You know, silly,” Pinkie waved a hoof at Rainbow. “The crystal pony on staff that keeps falling into those traps.” “Uh, sugar cube,” Applejack gave Pinkie a confused stare. “I don’t think we’ve met this pony.” “Oh, sure you have,” Pinkie replied excitedly. “And so have I! I memorize the birthdays of everyone I’ve ever met.” Pinkie pulled a huge stack of papers from the bundle of floating clouds and began to rifle through them. “That’s everyone you’ve ever met?” Rainbow asked with shock. “Oh, no, no, no. This is the list for the Crystal Kingdom. I always bring it with me when we visit! But don’t worry,” Pinkie leaned in closer to the two ponies across from her and whispered conspiratorially. “I have your birthdays committed to memory. Just in case of a birthday emergency.” “Um, what’s a birthday emergency?” This time it was Fluttershy to speak up. She sat across the aisle with Rarity. The yellow Pegasus apparently quietly listening in on the conversation. “Please, don’t ask-“ but Rainbow was cut off. “What’s a birthday emergency?!” Pinkie shouted. “What if tomorrow Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just disappeared and the sun and moon never rose again! Well, we’d have to look at the clock to tell time and what day it was. And I would certainly want to know which ticks of clock I should celebrate with my bestest friends!” Applejack lowered the Pinkie’s birthday papers in her hoof and sighed. “Yup, she’s got the seconds here too.” “You know, Pinkie,” Rainbow grinned. “Sometimes I think you might be even more obsessive than Twilight.” --- After another hour, the train came to a stop in the Crystal Kingdom’s station. The five disembarked, Rainbow on luggage duty since Spike wasn’t around. “You know,” Rainbow groaned from below the mass of bags and suitcases. “I wouldn’t mind doing this so much if it wasn’t for Rarity’s stuff.” “Well, no one knows when you’re going to need the essentials,” Rarity replied. “Now be a dear and hand me my sun hat from bag 2A.” Rainbow wearily lifted a hoof with a color coded list of items. “Is that the less purple one or the more purple one?” “It’s fuchsia, darling.” “Oh,” Rainbow stared up at the rocking pile of luggage on her back. “And that is?” Rarity sighed as her horn began to glow. A fuchsia colored box squeezed out of the pile and landed in front of her. She opened it with a smile and placed the fashionable hat on her mane. “Ready!” she announced and began to catch up to the others. “Oh, Rainbow, could you put that back for me?” She pointed at the box. Rainbow groaned once more as she looked on dumbfounded and slumped to the floor. Outside the station, Applejack and the others were talking to Shining Armor. “So, why couldn’t Twilight come pick us up?” she asked the flustered looking colt. “Everything is a little bit complicated at the moment,” the colt replied. “She hasn’t left Spike’s side for an instant.” The four present went dead silent. “Something’s wrong with Spike?” Fluttershy asked with tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “You’ll just have to see for yourself,” he took a quick look around. “Wait, where’s Rainbow Dash?” Just then Rainbow Dash crawled out of the station doorway, the pile of luggage on her back barely squeezing through and forcing her to pull with all her might. Shining Armor noticed her and walked over. “Here, let me.” A purple glow encapsulated the luggage as it was lifted off of Dash. Shining strolled away towards a coach that awaited the six ponies. “Oh, come on!” Rainbow shouted to no one. --- “I’m glad you’re here, everyone.” This time it was Cadence to greet the five. They stood in the center of the palace throne room and waited for Cadence to join them from the throne. “Things aren’t looking good.” “Shining was telling us about it,” Applejack reiterated. “Something happened to Spike?” “Yes,” Cadence replied. “But that’s not everything.” She turned her head and sighed morosely. “I’m afraid it’s all my fault. I made a terrible mistake and now Spike and the entire kingdom are suffering for it.” The five glanced at each other nervously. “How can we help?” asked Rarity. “First we should find Twilight. She’ll want to show you the problem.” “Already here.” The five spun around to see a clearly sleep deprived Twilight Sparkle stumble into the throne room. Her eyes were red with bags under them and the luster in her mane was replaced with frizzles and unkempt knots. “Twilight!” Applejack hurried to the side of her friend. “What have you been up to?” “You look terrible,” Fluttershy added. “I know,” Twilight sighed. “But I’m so glad to have you girls here now.” “Twilight,” Rarity spoke up. “Shining Armor said something about Spike being hospitalized?” Twilight chuckled to the surprise of the ponies present. “How is Spike’s health a laughing matter?” Applejack asked. “I’m sorry,” Twilight ended her giggles. “It’s just... It’s alright now. And Cadence,” Twilight looked over to her sister-in-law. “You don’t have to blame yourself. It’s just- --- -hibernating?!” Pinkie shouted. The doctor pony shushed her with a hoof to her mouth and motioned around the infirmary where another pony in a staff collar and several casts and scrapes lay moaning. “I’m not the best expert on dragon physiology,” the doctor began. “But he’s showing all the signs of hibernation. Slowed heart rate. Irregular breathing. And his scales seem to be growing.” The doctor held up a magnifying glass over Spike’s posterior which the six leaned in close to look through. Sure enough Spike’s scales flexed and slowly slid across his body creating a secondary coat. “But Spike’s just a baby,” Rarity stated throwing a hoof in the in protest. “How can he be hibernating like a fully grown dragon?” Cadence spoke up now. “My guess is that it had to do with that place. The stone must be special. Maybe something about it awakened an instinct to sleep.” Cadence blew out a breath of relief. “Is he gonna sleep for a hundred years like other dragons?” Rainbow asked the doctor. “Well, again, I’m no expert but-“ “He should be fine in a few days or so.” Twilight cut off the doctor. “At least that’s what the book says.” “The book?” Applejack eyed her friend. “Looks like there’s a lot more you should be telling us, sugar cube.” “Yes,” Twilight sighed. “And I will. But first we have a problem that we all need to deal with right now.” A loud scream of surprise followed by the sound of a kazoo cut the tension. Everypony turned to stare at Pinkie Pie who had just released her balloons and cake into the face of the only other patient in the room. A kazoo hung from her mouth as she stared back. “What? It’s his birthday!” --- Twilight walked up to the tarp that covered what everypony knew to be the Crystal Heart. But what lay beneath it looked somewhat different. Twilight lifted the tarp to reveal a half petrified crystal heart, the bottom half clearly changed into some kind of stone. The five gasped in shock. “What happened here?” asked Applejack. “We’re still trying to figure that out,” was all Twilight could come up with. “It became like this when I wasn’t present for the closing ceremonies of the festival,” Cadence spoke up. “As everypony knows, that is the moment when all the joy the crystal ponies have experienced is redistributed through the Crystal Heart and spread throughout Equestria. However, when I wasn’t able to attend it. This is what occurred.” “But,” Fluttershy was the one to speak up. “Sombra had the Crystal Heart for so long and the crystal ponies didn’t have a festival. Why would this happen now?” “Exactly,” Twilight replied. “Which is why I have a theory. Come with me everypony!” --- A few minutes later they were all now in Twilight’s room. Pinkie slumped to the floor in sigh of impatience. “Just how many times are we gonna jump cut today?” she wailed. Everypony simply gave her a curious glance and continued the conversation. “This,” Twilight motioned to the tome on her desk. “Is the ‘Journal of Bedim Haze.’” “Betty who?” Rainbow asked. “Be-DIM Haze,” Twilight corrected. “He was a pony who lived nearly two thousand years ago, around the time of the first Hearth’s Warming.” “That’s an amazing bit of history, Twilght,” Applejack stated. “But what does that have to do with our current situation?” “I’ll show you,” Twilight replied. --- Soon enough they were all in the library. “Oh, come on!” Pinkie exclaimed as she threw up her hooves in vain. Everypony now gathered around a suspicious looking hole in the center of one of the library’s wings. Twilight walked up to it. “This is the secret passage to the room I found the book in,” Twilight said. “I thought it was a simple secret room like Sombra’s secret library below the castle but,” She pointed to the ceiling. Above everyone’s heads a strange rune rested in the stone. “That was apparently guarding it.” “What is it?” asked Rarity. “It’s called a Black Dragon Sigil,” Twilight replied. “And I don’t really know what it does.” She pulled out the journal from her saddle bag and leafed through. “The journal mentions the name but I’ve still yet to find any mention of what it does.” “Wait,” Rainbow interjected. “Are you saying that you haven’t finished the book?” “Mostly. The biggest problem is that some of it needs to be translated. It’s as if some passages are written in two other languages entirely.” Twilight turned the book around for everyone to see. Sure enough the page she had turned to was covered in some kind of weird scrawling script that none present could decipher. “Hmm,” Rainbow scratched her chin thoughtfully. “What is it?” Twilight cocked her eyebrow in curiosity. “It’s just,” Rainbow paused and thought harder. “I can swear I’ve seen this before. Somewhere…” She trailed off and Twilight returned to flipping through the book. “So let me see if I got this,” Applejack lifted a hoof in thought. “You’re thinking that whatever that sigil up there was doing was keeping the Crystal Heart from getting all stone-like?” “Essentially,” Cadence replied. “But there’s more.” “No!!!” Pinkie screamed and everyone turned to her. “No more jump cuts!” Cadence gave an amused laugh. “It’s alright Pinkie we don’t have to go anywhere.” She directed them to a wall of shelves that appeared to have been burned recently. Her horn began to glow and a soft blue light flooded the room. Standing before them was the afterimage of small flame floating in the air. However surrounding it was a strange shadow in the shape of a lantern and a featureless pony that held it. “This is what I believe the sigil was keeping at bay.” Cadence’s face grew stern. “Do you have any idea what it could be?” asked Rarity inspecting the three dimensional image in front of her. “Not yet,” replied Twilight. “But that’s another reason I needed you here.” “We have to find it before something else happens.” Cadence added. Everypony nodded resolutely in agreement. Only Fluttershy didn’t turn back to her friends, her eyes focused on the little flame in front of her. “R- Right,” she agreed hesitantly and looked away. “We have most of the royal guard outside doing damage control with the citizens so only the staff has been able to help us with the search.” “Are you sure it’s still in the castle, Twilight,” Applejack asked. “Pretty sure,” Twilight turned her head hesitantly. “I’m not sure why, but I think it wants the book.” “I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.” Applejack turned to her friends. “Alright everypony, Pinkie and Rarity I want you to inspect the upper floor rooms and hallways.” “Aye-aye, Applejack, sir!” Pinkie replied with a salute. “Rainbow Dash, you and Fluttershy will sweep the throne room, library and entrance way.” “You got it!” Rainbow replied. “Oh, um, yeah,” Fluttershy added. “I’ll take the kitchens and servant’s quarters. Let’s meet back in Twilight’s room at dinner time.” The five ponies broke off into their groups and sped off from the library wing. Applejack began to follow suit but felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Actually, Applejack,” Twilight leaned in close to the other mare. “There’s something I needed to ask you about before.” “Shoot, Twi.” “Have you ever heard the name Apple Crisp?” ---------- Honey settled her rambunctious baby foal into her saddle bag and opened the door. The air was warm and the sky was a bright blue. Summer was coming to a close. It had been two weeks since Lullaby had bested the griffins and earned a place in the Wonderbolts. Almost every day since then she had asked Honey to babysit. Honey didn’t mind, the two baby foals actually got along quite well. But Lullaby always seemed to be in some kind of rush. Two weeks and she had barely shared ten words with her new friend. Today she was going to get a real conversation. The walk to Lullaby’s new house was quite pleasant. No raids or stalwart soldiers pushing their way past crowds. Not even that many people out. Just a nice day. Lullaby now lived on the end of the forest side of Main Street. Close to the soldier’s camp located in the forest proper. She had insisted on being close to town and the leader of the Wonderbolts, Cloud Catcher, had agreed. The house wasn’t anything special but it was a step up from her previous home which she had shown to Honey. Needless to say, Honey herself had a hand in building the new house. She was the closest thing the town had to a structural engineer and most ponies just went along with whatever she said. She kept her cutie mark covered up most of the time with her dress, out of embarrassment. Unlike most other ponies whose name matched their mark, Honey’s was a little odd. It was a compass and pencil laying on top of a single blueprint. Honey knocked on the new door to Lullaby’s house and waited for a reply. A few seconds later she could hear a moan and then shocked gasp. “Coming!” came a voice from indoors. The sound of wild flying and rustling about could be heard, including the sound of something falling over. A loud swear shot through the house and Honey leaned over to cover her foal’s ears. More rustling followed then suddenly stopped. Honey could hear hoofsteps coming toward the door and they swung open. “Hello, Lullaby.” Honey greeted cheerily. Lullaby looked like she had just gotten out of bed, which she probably just had. Her Wonderbolts tunic was unbuttoned and her hair matted in several places. She fixed her new friend with tired gaze and pointed to the clock in her room beyond. “It’s five in the morning.” Lullaby proclaimed. “And you go to work at six,” Honey replied as she entered the home she helped build. “So I thought this gives us plenty of time to chat.” “Oh,” Lullaby rubbed her eyes as she closed her front door. “What did you want to talk about?” “Can’t friends just make time to chat? You’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t gotten a word in edge wise.” Lullaby considered this and nodded agreement. “I guess you’re right. Cloud Catcher has been pushing everyone pretty hard since that last griffin raid. Even put me in charge of training for a few maneuvers.” “I’m sure you’re an excellent instructor.” “Yeah,” Lullaby rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry I couldn’t take that position at the school. I really would have loved to work with you.” “Oh, think nothing of it,” Honey waved a hoof in dismissal. “You’ve got your own important things to deal with.” At that, there was a cry from the crib in the corner. Lullaby rushed over to pick up the baby foal and rocked him back and forth in her hooves. Until he quieted down. She pulled a bottle of milk from a cold case near the wall and walked over to the stove and began to heat up some of it. Honey watched Lullaby’s back as she performed her motherly tasks and smiled. “So what’s his name?” “Bedim,” Lullaby replied nonchalantly then coming to a realization. “Aagh! I can’t believe I haven’t even told you his name yet! I must be such a bad friend.” Lullaby covered her face with her hoof. “No need to get so worked up, dear,” Honey smiled. “You’ve got a lot on your plate. I’m happy to pick up some of the slack for a friend.” Lullaby raised her head and gave an apologetic smile. “Thank you so much for everything. I’d probably be on the street if it wasn’t for you.” “Don’t talk like that,” Honey warned. “I just- I just think I’m having a really hard time adapting here, you know.” Honey furrowed her brow contemplatively. “I know it can seem hard, but as long as you have someone by your side everything will turn out alright.” She placed a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Lullaby gave her a smile and Bedim merely yawned quietly. Honey took a better look at him. “So, Bedim,” she started. “As in to grow dark?” “Not the greatest name, sure,” Lullaby returned to heating up the milk. “It’s a name his mother wanted.” “Oh,” Honey gave a surprised start. Lullaby slapped her hoof to her face once more. “I didn’t tell you that either, did I?” “Um, no.” Lullaby gave a slight sigh and returned her attention to Bedim. “Bedim may not be mine but it certainly is beginning to feel like it.” She gave the foal a quick “boop” on the nose as he smiled warmly. “I’ve kind of grown to like the little guy.” Honey smiled. “You seem to be doing just fine.” When the milk was done they both sat down and nursed their foals. The two talked about everything they could think of. Babies, architecture, flying, love, home. By the time they were done the clock was near to six. “I guess I should get going,” Lullaby handed the foal she was carrying over to Honey by placing him in the saddlebag on her other side. “Cloud Catcher doesn’t appreciate latecomers. I’m kind of worried about this one pony, he doesn’t seem to be doing all that well. Glad- something.” “Alright, well you be safe.” “I will,” Lullaby opened the door to leave. “You take care of yourself.” “I always do, oh,” Honey stopped Lullaby. “About the name, do you think I can call him Beddy.” Lullaby stared back in disbelief and then burst into laughter. “Yeah, that’s perfect!” And with that she was off. Honey leaned her head down toward the happy black foal. “Beddy.” She smiled.