Act III:
"Changes"
Chapter Thirteen:
"Hand of Fate"
Serene piano music drifted from the speakers of the black car that Applejack now found herself sitting in. Outside her windows, stretching and clawing at the sky, where buildings taller than any she’d ever seen in Ponyville. Looming above them, climbing even higher, being partly obscured by the low hanging cloud layer, was the large, looming spire of Canterlot Castle.
Applejack’s eyes widened at the majestic structure. Never before had she seen such a beautiful building, nor one so tall before, and it, as well as the surrounding buildings, only seemed to be getting taller as the car drove down the street. It made her feel so small, so insignificant. She felt less like a pony, and more like an ant who was lost in a world of giants.
“Are you okay?”
Applejack flinched slightly at the sudden sound of someone speaking to her, and tuned to see the Professor giving her a concerned look. Applejack gave him a thin smile, doing her best not to look daunted as she actually was. “Yeah, I’m totally fine.”
Professor Schultz’s eyebrows lowered slightly. “Are you sure? You seem a little worried.”
Applejack looked down at herself ruefully. “I’m just...overwhelmed, I guess. I mean, I’m gettin’ injected with some weird magic juice I ain’t never heard of, an’fer all I know it’s gonna make me sprout wings or spit fire or sumthin’. I mean, that’s a good reason ta get a bit worried right?”
Professor Schultz nodded simply. "Well, I can't say I blame you for feeling a little overwhelmed, Applejack. We are both at a crossroads, and, with crossroads come uncertainty. Where will our future lead us? After all, it isn't as if we have some window to it, something to let us see what's ahead. We're simply left moving forward in the good faith that everything will work out in the end. Yes, there's the fear of failure, that something terrible might happen and that we'll get lost on our path of life, but there's also the fact that you're blessed with the friends you've made here," Professor Schultz placed a fatherly talon on Applejack's shoulder. "We're here, and we'll help you on your way as best we can. While your destiny is your own, the journey there is filled with others, others to give you support and to lean on. You're not alone, Applejack. Take heart in that."
Applejack didn't say anything, deciding it was better to take a moment and digest Schultz's words. She gave him a slight smile.
"Ya'll write that down earlier or sumthin'? Cause that sounded awful poetic of ya."
Schultz's eyebrows rose slightly. "Really? It did? Well, I'm flattered." He chuckled warmly. "But alas, I'm no poet. I simply speak from the heart, my dear Applejack. That is all."
Applejack gave him a warm smile. "Well, ya coulda fooled me," she paused, looking back out the window. "But I guess ya have a point. I gots ya here don't I?"
Schultz smiled. "Of course. Me, the Sparkles. Your fine family. All here to help you on the journey of life. Doesn't that make you feel less afraid?"
Applejack was silent for a moment before nodding slightly. "Yes. I believe it does."
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“Ah! Ve have arrived!” The Professor chimed as the car pulled to a halt, and Applejack peered out the window.
“Uh….where’s the lab?” she asked aloud, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the almost mind numbing generic brownstone building they were parked in front of. The Professor merely opened his door, slipping out of it and walking around the car, opening the door for Applejack.
“Why right here, Fräuline Apple. Wouldn’t be a good secret lab if everypony knew it was right, ja?”
Applejack continued to harshly inspect the bland building. “I suppose…”
Twilight was the next out of the car, a wide eyed look on her face. “You mean the most advanced scientific minds in Equestria are in that building?”
Night Light, who was already out of the car and opening the door, gave Twilight a nod, before lifting a hoof to his mouth to shush her. “Careful what you say, Twilight-” he motioned to his ears. “-ears are everywhere.”
Twilight snapped her mouth shut, and gave a nod, following after Night Light as he stepped into the building, followed by Professor Schultz. Shining Armor was the last out of the car, coming up next to Applejack. He gave an awkward smile, stopping the door from closing with his hoof.
“Mares first,” he added.
Applejack smiled back rather self-consciously, before nodding and stepping inside. Once she entered the building, she was greeted by what appeared to be a small shop dedicated to art. Almost immediately, the rest of the group seemed to disperse, and go to separate corners of the room, seemingly studying the mix of paintings and statues that lined the walls and cluttered the floors.
Applejack stood awkwardly in the center of the room, looking around at the antique collection from her spot. She glanced at Shining Armor and almost went to him, but stopped herself, thinking that her going next to him will lead to something awkward, like weird stares or Shining somehow stabbing a priceless picture with his horn. Or her giving off the vibe that an earth pony can hold attraction to a dashing unicorn stallion with great muscles, a snowy pelt, an amazing mane and a smile worth dying for.
So, not wanting to make the strange situation awkward, Applejack quietly shuffled to her own little corner to distract her confused mind at the wall of paintings. As Applejack looked at wall, the only thing she can feel combating her confusion is boredom. All of the pictures hold the same theme of ships and oceans and other seaside scenery, which did nothing for the variety, However, one painting in particular caught her attention. It was a steam engine going across a bridge in what looked like a storm of some kind, as most of the background was obscured by an ugly mist.
She exhaled quietly, her attention shifting slightly away from the painting to the sound of Night Light and the Professor speaking with someone in hushed tones. She leaned back slightly, peering over the mast of a small, cast iron ship. She might have only a basic understanding of what was at stake here, but she knew enough to know appearing distracted would work in her favor.
Fortunately, she did not have to wait long before Schultz crossed back over to her, trying to smile pleasantly, but coming off more anxious than anything else.
“Everything is ready. Please, follow me,” he said.
Applejack just gave a small nod and fell in place behind Schultz, as the group was led to the back door, which opened to reveal a staircase that went down into an armored basement. From below drifted up an ebbing noise of dozens of ponies shuffling about and talking.
"Come on, then," Night Light said, starting down the stairway, followed by a very eager looking Twilight.
The stairway was rather narrow, forcing everyone to walk more or less in single file. The only source of light was the occasional light bulb shining rather dimly from a small indent in the ceiling. The sounds from below grew steadily louder and louder, until Night Light came to a stop in front of a rather non descript door. With a glow of his horn, the locks tumbled and the door opened to reveal the bustling laboratory.
“Well, I’ll be…” Applejack murmured, slowly stepping down the stairs and into the laboratory.
It was a surprisingly large and spacious room, filled with strange and complex gizmos lining the walls. One wall looked like a bank of beeping lights and spinning gears and cogs, every so often pushing out a length of paper from a slot on one end. On the opposite end of the room had the appearance of a chemistry set gone awry, with dozens of beakers and vials all filled with liquids of various colors, some bubbling, some smoking, some sparkling.
Applejack could see Professor Schultz and Night Light already chattering with several unicorns wearing labcoats, apparently quite absorbed in whatever it was they were talking about. She turned to Twilight, who’s eyes were now the size of saucers as a supremely overjoyed smile spread across her face.
“Ya okay, Twi?” asked Applejack with a raised eyebrow.
"I’m more then okay…” Twilight replied, her eyes still wide. “I’m in heaven!”
She giddily clapped her forehooves together before darting off to go gawk at the massive bank of blinking lights and cogs on the far wall, leaving Applejack standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, and subject to varying glares and stares from the other ponies, all of whom seemed far smarter than her. She shily waved at a passing earth pony, who gave a terse nod as he carried a tray full of vials in his mouth.
Guess I’m outta mah depth here… she thought, sitting herself down by a table covered with various notes, and an ashtray overflowing with half burned cigarettes. Hunched over the table, going over the notes, was a very familiar looking grumpy unicorn.
“Oh...hello, Dr. Belle,” Applejack said, immediately regretting this as the place to sit.
Belle simply glared at her over the haze of smoke pouring from both the cigarette in his mouth and his nostrils, snorting dismissively before going back to his notes.
“Are you prepared for the Professor’s serum? Or are you simply here to sightsee?” he asked sharply.
Applejack gave a slight cough, the smoke from his cigarette irritating her throat.
“Well…” Applejack paused, glancing towards the Professor. “He said I was ready, suppose that must mean I am…” She pulled her hat from her head, reaching inside to pull out an opened pack of her asthma cigarettes. She pulled one out, leaving the pack in her hat as she put her hat back on. She glanced back at Dr. Belle, who was watching her the whole time. “Have a light?”
Dr. Belle’s horn merely lit up, and the tip end of her cigarette lit up and he returned to his note taking without a word. Applejack shifted where she sat, idly puffing her cigarette and tapping her forehoof. The snippets of conversation she heard sounding like unintelligible babble about chemicals or something. She looked around for Shining Armor, hoping that she could at least try to hold a conversation with him, since Twilight was obviously hopelessly enraptured with that glowing, blinking thing on the other side of the room.
Finally, the conversation broke up as Dr. Schultz approached Applejack.
“There are a few minor details we have to deal with,” he explained. “But we should be ready to start the procedure.”
“Ya sure?” Applejack asked. “Ah mean, I’m sure ya know what yer doin’, but it’s still me goin’ up here and all...”
“Don’t worry, we have taken all the necessary safety precautions.” Schultz gave Applejack a reassuring smile. “Now, if you would please step into the center of the room, we’ll get started.”
Applejack hesitated, but eventually gave a small nod before walking towards the center of the room. Once she had taken up position, Dr. Belle approached carrying a vial and syringe. Applejack closed her eyes and took a small breath as the unicorn injected her right foreleg with whatever was in the vial. Despite a little itch, the whole thing went smoothly.
“That wasn’t so bad." Applejack said, opening her eyes again. “Kinda was expecting more of a kick?”
“That was just penicilin.” Dr. Belle muttered bitterly, glaring at her. “The actual serum will be along in a moment.”
“Oh.”
Applejack bit her lip in embarrassment as two more unicorns approached, the closer of the two carrying a small metal box. The unicorn carrying the box handed it to the professor, who took it in talon, bringing it up to his face as he peered through a pair of reading glasses produced from his jacket pocket. Muttering to himself in what Applejack assumed was Griffin, he turned a few dials and a knob several times, before the lid of the box popped open with a click. He reached inside, pulling out a vial that contained a dark blue fluid.
“Ta-da! This, Applejack, is the serum.” he said, his voice filled with pride as he took a syringe and carefully pushed into the vial, filling the syringe with the blue fluid. He beckoned for Applejack’s foreleg, and readied the needle.
“Well,” he said, carefully lining the needle up with her foreleg. “Here ve go.” With that, he pushed the needle into her foreleg, causing Applejack to wince slightly as a spark of pain shot up her arm. The Professor did not seem to notice her wince, withdrawing the needle and passing it off to the nearest assistant before backing away.
“Now, you might feel a bit of discomfort for this next part,” he said as Dr. Belle and a few other unicorns took up positions around Applejack. “But I assure you, after this is done you will feel like a new mare.” Applejack did not know how exactly to respond to that, but had little time to think before a large dome descended towards her.
"Um...what's that dome fer?" Applejack asked, growing a little worried as it clicked into place like an upside down fishbowl, separating Applejack from the rest of the lab.
"It’s a Magical Conductor. It takes the ambient magic in the air and processes it, strengthens it, and then administers it to the subject." Schultz replied, giving her a reassuring smile.
Applejack nodded slightly. "This been tested?"
Dr. Belle snorted. "Of course it’s been tested. Whatever makes your dullard mind assume we'd stick a pony we're invested millions of bits into an untested machine? Don't be stupid."
Applejack gave Dr. Belle a glare in return, while Dr. Belle merely rolled his eyes, levitating a fountain pen and a clipboard in his magic. He then proceeded to slip on a pair of tinted goggles, a motion mimicked by Schultz.
"Alright, Applejack, you might feel a slight tingle, but otherwise, you'll be fine. You ready?" Schultz asked. Applejack swallowed, looking around the interior of the chambers. It felt uncannily like the inside of an oven.
"I...guess..." she replied, just as a series of multicolored arcs of electricity and magical energy began to leap between the large orb capped poles that jutted down from the ceiling. The Professor grinned, and Applejack couldn’t help but visualize the goggled griffin as a cackling mad scientist from a movie at that moment. Maybe it was the way the lights played off his goggles, or the fact that his grin was just that wide, made him look just the least bit crazied.
“Excellent!” he chirped, snapping a talon and pointing towards a random unicorn assistant, who stood by a giant switch.
“THROW THE SVITCH!” He declared, and there was a blinding explosion of light as the unicorn followed the order. The interior of the glass dome exploded into a wild array of color and light as the device proceeded to suck the ambient magic directly out of the air and collected it in a wildly swirling ball of energy directly over Applejack’s head. The frail pony looked up, and her pupils became tiny dots and her ears drooped as a sizeable lump went down her throat.
Oh cra-- the thought was cut off as the energy blasted downward like a laser, directly into Applejack’s body.
What followed could best be described as having a thunderstorm’s worth of lightning injected directly into one’s body. Applejack’s entire body, mind and consciousness was sent into a wild explosion of energy. Energy that was being greedily absorbed by her body like a dry sponge tossed in a sink full of water. Applejack cringed and blinked back tears as she felt her legs felt the bones of her legs being awkwardly stretched and pulled outwards. With every forced inch of growth of her bones, strands of muscles duplicated and hardened underneath her static charged fur.
Burning tears flowed down the mare's cheeks and stifled grunts and cries of pain leave through her gritted teeth. Her legs quivered, her heart raced and her tongue dried as the energy zipped in and out of her like needles and threads, stitching new mass to her. Making her into a brand new pony.
When the magic reached her organs, Applejack let out a choking, painful gasp from her lungs being broken apart and reconstructed. Just like her heart and lower organs. Applejack releases a shrill cry of agony when her eyes and the inside of her ears are burned away, blinding her and filling her head with ringing. But just as soon as the blinding and ringing appeared, they left, and in a dramatic final burst of magic, Applejack's body tensed.
Applejack's sore body stayed nearly completely still. All that pointed to her being alive was her chest barely moving with her quivering, sweaty body. Her eyes were dopey, but everything was clearer, and her ears, while sluggishly turning, picked up everything. From the clear words of private, concerned whispers, to the hums of the electricity going through the wires. She might even have heard blood flowing, too.
There was a click and the machine she was in whirred as the dome lifted up. But her body did not wait for it to go up, for as soon it started moving, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground, like a puppet whose strings were cut.
There was a long lull of silence and universal looks of concern as the dome slowly continued its retreat to the ceiling, revealing Applejack’s limp, smoking form on the ground.
“Mein Gott…” Schultz muttered worriedly, immediately sprinting over Applejack and looking her over.
Applejack meanwhile, blinked slowly, her head feeling as if it’d been taken off, shaken a few hundred times, rolled down a hill and then kicked back onto her body. The first thing to come into focus was the Professor’s tremendously worried face looming over her.
“Applejack? Are you alright?”
Applejack scrunched up her face as she shifted her body around to get on her hooves. For some reason, her limbs felt like someone strapped weights to them. The same went for the rest of her body, and as she steadily rose to her full height, she noticed everybody looked a tad smaller.
“I suppose I am, Professor…” she said wearily, lifting a hoof to rub her forehead. “Since when did y’all get so short though?”
The Professor’s worrisome expression shifted as he took a step back, his eyes moving across her body quickly before he smiled brilliantly.
“IT VORKED!!!” he practically screamed, leaping into the air to give Applejack a hug, tightly wrapping his arms around her neck. “It vorked! It vorked! It vorked!”
He let out a laugh like a filly on Hearth’s Warmings, sliding off her neck and back on his feet as he eagerly yanked away the clipboard and pen from a visibly gobsmacked Dr. Belle, who simply looked up at Applejack with wide eyes.
“So, Applejack, how do you feel?” asked the Professor giddily.
Applejack shrugged slightly, putting a hoof to her chin. “I don’t know...taller?”
The Professor clapped his talons together, positively elated.
“Applejack! Applejack!”
Applejack turned her head to see Shining Armor practically bull rushing over, seemingly oblivious to the various disapproving stares and glances he got from the scientists that had begun to crowd around her, all with their notepads out and furiously jotting down every little movement that Applejack made. Shining came to a stop in front of her, and Applejack couldn’t help but notice how he now had to peer up slightly at her, compared to before, when he had to peer down at her. Applejack cracked a slight smile, feeling an upswing of pride swell inside. She could get used to being taller than most stallions. It also helped that Shining’s eyes were practically bugging out of his skull by this point, and for the first time Applejack felt the feeling of having a stallion appreciate her figure, which was completely alien to her.
Most of the time, when a stallion looked at her, it was with a vague sense of pity or sympathy, usually followed by a muttered comment about how thin she was. Now, she could hear dozens of hushed whispers spoken between the stallions, and for the first time she noticed how her hearing seemed to have gotten vastly better from what it was before.
She flicked them around, trying to catch at least some of the conversations around her. Most, however, simply made her go red with embarrassment.
The sudden touch of a hoof along her foreleg made her tense up and her head whipped around to see Shining giving her foreleg another gentle prod, his eyes still wide as saucers.
“Uh...do ya like ‘em?” Applejack asked, shifting her weight awkwardly.
Shining seemed to notice what he was doing and instantly retracted his hoof, tensing up and cheeks going red.
“I-uh-well-” he cleared his throat, tugging at the collar of his uniform slightly. “Sure, yeah, sure, sure. Really nice muscles there.” He let out a forced laugh. “Do you lift?”
Applejack stifled a giggle at his awkwardness and shook her head. “No, can’t say I do. Do you?”
Shining’s response was another stream of stammers, before he clamped his mouth shut and swallowed. “You know I think I gotta see Dr. Heartstrings about the...place with the stuff and things.”
Shining cleared his throat and shuffled away awkwardly, leaving Applejack behind, still surrounded by scientists.
“Vell, it’s good to see that you’ve made an impression on Shining, ja?” Schultz chuckled, eyebrow slightly arched and a teasing grin spreading across his beak.
Applejack simply stammered awkwardly in response, before rubbing the back of her neck. “I reckon I did.”
“Well, who can blame you? You’ve both young and ready for love and…” Schultz paused, his eyebrows furrowing before he let out a laugh. “Ach, vell, I’m no poet, so vy should I be vaxing eloquent. Come” -he placed a talon on her shoulder and started to gently escort her away from her platform- “let’s get some samples of your blood so that we can study it and see if there are any improvements for the serum.”
He started to lead Applejack through the crowd, gently shooing prodding scientists and curious guards away.
“You did good, Applejack. I am proud of you,” Schultz continued in a fatherly tone. He then gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “Ve're all proud of you.”
“Professor Shultz!” called a surprisingly beautiful unicorn scientist with a pale white coat, soft pink mane and a fleur de lis cutie mark.
Applejack and Schultz looked at the scientist, and she waved her clipboard at them.
“Professor, can I show you something really quick?” The scientist asked, giving Applejack a brief glance that looked somewhat intimidated.
“Of course!” Schultz answered, before smiling at Applejack again and gave her shoulder another good squeeze and playfully pointed at her nose. “Now, you stay put and ve'll celebrate with some schnaps with you and your future husband, yes?”
Applejack nodded, “Yeah, sounds good,” she said. Then she realized what Schultz implied and she looked at Shining Armor for a split second before looking back at the griffin, blushing madly. “Wait, hold on a second!”
Schultz chuckled and playfully waved to her as he walked to the scientist skimming the data on the clipboard. “I'll be just a moment, Fräuline Apple.”
Applejack lifted her hoof to call after him again, but she ended up huffing and lowering it to the floor.
“My turn for science!” blurted Twilight, suddenly taking up all of Applejack's vision.
Applejack seized up, her hooves stomping into the ground so hard they left miniature indentations in the concrete.
“Jeeze, Twilight! Don't scare me like that!” She gasped, giving Twilight a wary look as she took several breaths to calm down, now having trouble adjusting to the fact that her lungs had considerably more power now.
Twilight giggled awkwardly. “Sorry. But I just wanted to have a look at you, too, since nopony had a chance to properly examine you."
“Uh...” Applejack glanced over Twilight's shoulder, trying to find the Professor in the ecstatic crowd of happy scientists. A small flashlight hovered into her field of vision, and her eyes refocused on Twilight, who was standing on the tips of her hooves.
"Lean down and follow the light." Twilight stated, her eyebrows scrunching up as she used her hoof to lower Applejack's head to her eye level.
“Why?” Applejack muttered, briefly looking past the light to finally see the Professor and the scientist still talking in their little isolated area. Everything was considerably louder now, her ears now much more sensitive, and she had difficulty picking up their conversation over the more than two dozen other conversations going on at the same time. She caught a few words about the serum, but couldn't really discern their meaning.
“Just follow the light.”
“Fine.”
Applejack obediently followed the light, and when Twilight shut off the flashlight, she levitated a notebook and a pen and scribbled down her observations, babbling to herself about how exciting the day had become. However, Applejack put her attention back on the Professor, and noticed the female unicorn scientist had seemingly brought herself entirely flush to the Professor, who responded by stiffening. Before Applejack had a chance to figure out the strange shift in the Professor’s body language from relaxed to frightened, there was a muffled, but instantly recognizable crack of a gunshot that cut through the rest of the noise.
As soon as the gunshot reached Applejack’s ears, the room exploded into a frenzy of panic and shouting as every guard in the room swarmed towards the Professor, who was already slumping down to the floor. Applejack bolted towards him, launching herself into the air and clearing the large expanse of the room in one leap, landing next to the Professor and instantly cradling his limp body in her forelegs.
“Professor! Professor you alright?! Speak to me!” Applejack choked out, tears already filling her eyes as she noticed the steadily growing pool of syrupy red liquid beneath the Professor. In the background she could hear someone scream for a medic.
“Applejack,” wheezed Schultz, his eyes still wide open as they weakly drifted towards her face. His body was trembling and he could barely lift a talon to wave her forward, and Applejack responded by tightening her grip. “I... I think I'm dying,” He said, his voice whispery thin.
Applejack sniffled, blinked tears out of her eyes and forced a smile. “You're still talkin', so ya'll be fine, ya hear? We're gonna take ya to the hospital, ya gonna spend a couple of days in a nice comfy bed with great food and radio, and we're gonna have some schnaps when you walk outta there like the tough bird you are.”
“With the cute nurses?” asked Schultz, his eyebrow raising slightly, wincing and tensing as a medic appeared, injected his quivering arm with a shot of morphine.
Now Applejack got a genuine smile as a bubble of hope rose in her chest and up her throat, making her choke out a half hearted giggle. “Yeah, with the cute nurses.”
Professor Schultz wheezed with a smile, as Applejack tried her best to laugh. She couldn’t lose him. Not now, not when they had only just begun to know each other. Schultz let out a sudden, sticky cough and the weak smile on Applejack’s face disappeared. She instantly leaned over him, pressing her hoof into the blood soaked spot on his chest, looking deep into his rapidly fading eyes as her vision began to cloud with tears again.
“Schultz! Schultz, stay with me!” She begged, her voice cracking and throat tightening.
Professor Schultz swallowed and gripped her hoof with his talons, his grip weak and limp. Applejack's eyes burned and her throat hurt from how tight it had become as she looked into his eyes, meeting his sad, accepting smile with quivering lips and refusal to believe what was happening.
“You're a good pony, Applejack. Don't let that change,” Schultz whispered before his eyes slid shut and his chest stopped moving. His talons slipped off her hoof and fell limp to the floor. The medic who had been injecting the morphine moved to check the griffin’s pulse and pressed his ear against his beak, then sat up and shook his head solemnly.
“He's gone,” said the medic.
Applejack's arms went limp as the medic’s words hit her ear. She tried to blink back the tears, but they came flowing freely as she let out a gasping sob. The look on the Professor’s face was so similar to the one she’d seen on her mother. A strangely ethereal, contented smile that seemed to sharply contrast the pale, deathly look of the rest of his face.
“No! No, no, no, he can't be gone! He can't be gone!” Applejack lunged at the medic, hooking her hooves on his shoulders and yanking him so that he was nose to nose with her. “Ya gotta help him! Please!” she sobbed, tears pouring out of her eyes.
The medic shook his head, trying to pull himself frere from her grip. “Ma'am, he's dead. I can't do anything.”
“You're a doctor! You're supposed to stop people from dying!” Applejack screamed back, shaking the medic in her sorrow, which was now shifting rapidly into a seething rage. She felt a strong pair of forelegs wrap around her as she let out a screaming sob, and she looked up in surprise at Shining Armor, who was now dragging her away from the Professor’s corpse, hugging her and rubbing the back of her mane, trying to shush her.
“I can’t lose him Shining, I can’t lose him! Not again! Not another father!” she sobbed, her grip tightening around Shining, who returned the hug as best he could, rubbing her neck and running a hoof through her mane, moving to speak into her ear.
“I'm sorry, Applejack, but he's gone.”
As if to drive the point home, a trio of sharp gunshots could be heard from down the hall, and with it, another explosion of shouting and screaming. A rose colored bubble quickly appeared from Shining’s horn, surrounding Applejack and the other scientists. She could hear him bark something about staying put, and before she had a chance to properly process the information, Shining had already started to gallop away, followed closely by a pair of guards. As Shining ran up the stairs, Applejack turned back to Schultz’s body and gently cradled him on her lap, hugging his head close to her chest, ignoring the now sticky pool of blood she was sitting in.
“I’m so sorry,” she whimpered, stroking Schultz’s head. “I should have been there! I should have been quicker!”
“The last vial is gone!” Came Dr. Belle’s sharp accent, and Applejack looked towards the open box on the floor where the vials of serum had been stored. It was empty. Another series of gunshots, slightly more muffled than the first volley, came from further down the building as Applejack rested her chin on Schultz and closing her eyes. As soon as her eyes shut, she felt a new feeling over take her every thought.
Rage.
Taking a deep breath and breathing slowly through her nose, Applejack's eyes slide open and glared at the stairs leading to the exit. Her whole body trembled as she felt raw power course through her. She gently lowered Schultz to the ground. Before, she’d been helpless. Unable to protect those she cared for. But not anymore.
It was time to do what she knew was right.
With a loud growl and her muscles tensing underneath her coat, Applejack steadily raised herself to her feet, her hooves already covering ground as her steady, tank-like trot shifted into a pulse pounding gallop. She ignored the shouts from Twilight and the guards telling her to stay. She was going on a mission. A mission to find the pony who took Schultz from her, and no one was going to stop her.
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Applejack exploded to the surface, tearing her way out of the antique shop just in time to see Shining standing and firing a bolt of magic after the slender, white unicorn scientist who was now running as fast as her long legs could carry her. Applejack completely ignored Shining’s protests as she bolted past him, her gaze narrowing in on the unicorn ahead of her. The other pony cast a panicked look over her shoulder, eyes briefly widening as her pace quickened.
“GET BACK HERE!” Applejack roared, her pace quickening faster and faster then she’d ever gone before. The unicorn’s speed also increased, and she leap into an alleyway, Applejack right on her tale.
Applejack was greeted by the front bumper of a black sedan, which sent her tumbling to the ground, causing the pavement to crack underneath her. Applejack shook her head to clear her swimming vision, already seeing the same sedan driving down the road like a bat out of hell. Applejack dragged herself to her feet again, and bolted after it as fast as her legs could carry her.
She raced after the sedan down a labyrinth of city streets, leaping over pedestrians and cars as she tried to keep pace with the fast moving car. The city around her steadily became more tightly packed and urbanized, the traffic becoming more and more congested. Applejack had quickly moved to leaping onto the tops of individual cars to keep track of her target, which was obviously having a harder time weaving its way through the increasingly dense traffic. It soon became horrifically apparent however, that the car’s non descript, black paint job meant it blended in near seamlessly with wave after wave of automobiles, and Applejack came to a stop atop a taxi cab trapped in traffic, her head whipping around in a frenzy as she tried to spot the car again.
They’d ended up underneath what looked like an elevated railway, and Applejack could see a steady flow of ponies departing from the ground level exits. Applejack’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the hordes of ponies, before she caught a glimpse of a particularly panicked looking white unicorn with pink mane desperately trying to force herself into the crowd.
Found you, Applejack thought angrily, leaping off the taxicab and landing on the ground with a firm crunch of concrete. “Hey! You!” She roared out in the direction of the unicorn, who, just as Applejack suspected, shot a fearful glance over her shoulder. Applejack pointed a foreleg at her, and the unicorn pace quicked as she ran up the forged iron stairs leading to the railway above, Applejack close behind. They weaved through the swarm of ponies, Applejack keeping her eyes fixed sharply on the white unicorn, who every so often, would look back at her in panicked fear.
The increasingly narrow staircase suddenly opened up, and Applejack found herself on the train platforms, and Applejack’s ears perked at the ear piercing whistle of an oncoming train. By the time she’d returned her attention to her target, the other pony was already standing on the edge of the platform, watching the train eagerly as it came to a stop in front of her, it’s doors opening and disgorging another wave of disembarking ponies. The wave came head on to Applejack, who tried to fight the current of ponies as, much to her horror, she saw the slender unicorn board the elevated train. Applejack began to force her way through, but by the time she’d gotten clear of the others, the train doors were already shut. The train let out another whistle, and with a groaning metallic lurch, began to move forward steadily, its speed increasing with each passing second. Applejack ran alongside it, staring daggers at her target, who looked back at her with wide eyes.
The fear in the other pony’s eyes was steadily replaced by a strange look of satisfaction as her lavender eyes darted between the direction the train was heading and Applejack. She steadily raised a hoof, and with a look that could only be described as intolerable smugness, gave Applejack a dainty wave as the Earth Pony raced alongside the train.
Roaring with fury, Applejack leapt to the left, smashing through the glass window like a wrecking ball. She crashed down into the interior of the train, sending passengers scattering in panic and shock amidst a hail of shattered glass. She wasted no time dragging herself to her feet, ignoring the crunch of glass beneath her hoof as she quickly rebounded and charged through the panicked herd of commuters, her eyes zeroed in on the white unicorn, whose smug grin quickly evaporated and switched back to the previous look of panic.
The unicorn’s horn glowed as she ran towards the opposite end of the train car, the door opening with a soft rose glow just in time for the unicorn to slip through and slam it behind her. Applejack was unfazed however, and she threw herself clean through the metal door, causing it to snap off it’s hinges with a crash, sending her rolling and tumbling into the next car. The unicorn was still several paces ahead of Applejack, but ended up getting blocked by a cluster of passengers, all of whom gawked at the pair of disheveled ponies. The unicorn began to force her way into the cluster, only to have Applejack leap forward and grab her tail in her mouth and give it a violent yank, causing the slender unicorn to shriek in pain and sprawl to the floor. Applejack wasted no time trying to pin the unicorn down, but the unicorn responded with a blinding bolt of magic directly in Applejack’s face, sending the earth pony stumbling in shock and anger. Applejack gave a wide swipe in the unicorn’s direction, and heard a crack and a yelp.
Blinking away the remaining sparkles of magic that danced in her field of vision, Applejack’s visioned cleared, revealing the unicorn dragging herself to her feet, a noticeable rivulet of red ebbing from her nose.
“You pack one hell of a punch,” The unicorn rasped, her accent vague and unplaceable, sounding like an odd mixture of Prench, Canterlot, and some other accent Applejack couldn’t place. “Like a stallion. Sure that thing didn’t give you anything else?”
Applejack’s only reply was a roaring war cry as she leapt towards the unicorn, tackling her like a rugby player. The pair crashed down to the floor as Applejack wrapped her hooves around the unicorn’s long next and tried to strangle her.
“You bitch, you killed him!” Applejack spat, lifting a hoof and readying a punch. In her blinding rage, however, Applejack failed to notice the unicorn’s horn glow, and fired off another shot directly into Applejack’s chest, causing the earth pony to keel over in agony as what felt like a thousand needles shot through her body. The unicorn wasted no time dragging herself away, choking and gasping as she tried to recover from the near strangulation.
Applejack got back on her hooves with a wobble, shaking away the remaining stinging sensation as she bolted after the unicorn again. “You killed him!” she screamed out in rage, spinning around to buck towards the unicorn, who ducked down out of the way before fluidly standing back up and firing another bolt of magic. This one missed however, leaving a scorch mark on the floor as Applejack leapt towards the unicorn again, who this time sidestepped, Applejack’s forelegs missing her head by mere inches.
Applejack bucked towards the unicorn again, who again, in a revelation of surprising flexibility, dodged the blow. Applejack caught a glimpse of her horn glowing. Applejack wasted no time, and gave the unicorn a sharp punch in the jaw, just as whatever spell she was casting was fired. There was a burst of light, and the two found themselves standing on the now empty train tracks, the train they were on rapidly departing behind them.
The unicorn stumbled back, Applejack pressing the advantage and giving another swipe, which ended up missing as the unicorn stumbled back defensively. As the unicorn blinked rapidly, obviously discombobulated by the repeated punches to the face, Applejack could have sworn she saw waves of what looked strikingly like dark blue, shiny scales ebb across the unicorn’s body, in time with the unicorn’s mane shifting from light pink to dark red and back again.
Applejack’s eyes widened at the sight, as finally, with a sputter from the unicorn, her coat shifted entirely to the strange scaly blue, her mane now dark red and eyes the color of gold. Applejack was dumbstruck at the sudden change, and the unicorn gave herself a quick glance, her eyebrows raising.
“Shit.” Was the only word to come out of her mouth before the unicorn spun around and began to gallop away in the opposite direction, her gait now noticeably staggering and awkward as the no doubt exhausting chase began to take a visible toll on her.
Applejack growled, her own body beginning to protest as she started after the unicorn. It didn’t matter that this unicorn was now some sort of lizard pony. What mattered was that the Professor was avenged. That justice was served.
“Don’t think ya can get away, ya filthy murderer!” Applejack shouted out, as the unicorn’s pace quickened. The sharp sound of a train whistle, mixed in with the heavy clatter of train cars reach both their ears, and the pair looked down in the direction of the sound. Underneath the tracks they were standing on ran another set of tracks, and, coming around the bend with steady speed was another train. The unicorn and Applejack both shared a look, with the unicorn steeling herself.
“Sorry, but I have a train to catch!” she shouted back, and without another word, leapt off the tracks and down onto the top of the second to last car of the passing train, just as it swept underneath. Applejack tried to leap after, but the train proved to be faster then Applejack, and it’s last car passed before Applejack’s hooves could find purchase. Her hooves brushed the smooth metal surface of the train car just enough for it to send her sprawling forwards, off the roof of the train and across the twenty foot gap between the tracks and the nearby , Seemingly abandoned tenement building.
With another shower of broken glass, Applejack found herself crashing into an abandoned apartment, landing on the floor with a crash and only coming to a halt when she slammed into the far wall, her body indenting into the crumbling drywall with a crunch.
And, just like that, Applejack was out cold.