“I hate you.”
Feigning perfect innocence, Rainbow Blaze looked up from his newspaper with a mildly hurt look on his face. At the same time, Firefly dropped onto the couch next to him in a huff and gave him an angry glare.
“What did I do?” he asked.
“Oh you know darn well what you did,” Firefly snapped at him. She folded her hooves across her chest. “The only reason I’m not tanning our stupid daughter’s hide right now is because you butted in.”
Blaze thought about it for a moment, then went back to reading his paper. “Well, it seemed like the two of you could use some time away from each other.” He then glanced over the rim of his paper. “By the way, are you feeling better now?”
“Of course!” Firefly snapped. “And don’t you give me that stupid cute grin! Ugh, that lousy good for nothing…! You should’ve just let me pound some sense into her.”
Pursing his lips behind his paper, Blaze gave her a level look. “You and I both know that wouldn’t have solved anything. Dash is a grown mare now, honey. You can’t just put her over your knee whenever she misbehaves.”
Firefly huffed derisively. “Watch me. And besides, weren’t you the one who grounded her in the first place?”
“Point taken,” Blaze said with an easy smile, “but we both know that was meant to calm you down more than her.” He shot her a sly glance. “Otherwise you’d both still be trying to throttle one another. And I’ve had a year or two to figure out my audience.”
Firefly let out an annoyed sound and threw her head back on the couch. “Ugh! If she wants me to treat her like somepony half her age, she’d better start acting the part.”
“Now you’re just being petty,” Blaze said with a slight note of disapproval. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to admit that she isn’t our little rascal filly anymore.”
Firefly just batted a dismissive hoof at him without looking his way, causing her husband’s mouth to purse. “Firefly, Dash has been all over the country. Hay, I’m pretty sure she’s saved it on a couple of occasions with those friends of hers. One of these days you’re going to wake up and see how much she’s grown up. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even see how much she takes after you.”
Firefly’s head snapped up off the backrest, and she turned to give him a hard look. “That’s what scares me, Blaze! I don’t want her growing up to be like me! Do you have any idea how reckless and stupid I was?! I was a troublemaker, a punk, a hotheaded nag with something to prove! Sure it was awesome then, but looking back on it, I’d never want somepony else to pull the same ridiculous stunts I did. It’s a wonder I didn’t get myself killed! No mother wants to see their daughter put their life on the line for kicks! If I could, I’d go back and smack myself up the head so hard!”
Firefly leaned forward. She looked tired and mad, all at the same time. “I don’t want Rainbow making the same stupid, featherbrained mistakes I did. Is that too much to ask for? I just… I wish I knew where I went wrong with her.”
Blaze studied her out of the corner of his eye. Then, with a sigh, he set his paper aside and scooted a little closer. Firefly responded to his unspoken invitation by leaning against his shoulder.
“This didn’t used to bother you so much,” he noted. “Time was you’d let Rainbow run halfway around the world with her friends with only a little concern. Now you barely let her out of your eyesight.”
Firefly scowled at nothing in particular.
“Does it have something to do with that friend of hers?” Blaze inquired.
Firefly’s frown worsened, her thoughts her own. Then…
“She got herself so hurt that night. Burns, broken bones, lost feathers… Yet she was just the same as ever. Not a worry in the world. The scary thing is, if it’s for that mare, I know she’d do it again in a heartbeat, too. I… suppose that made it a little too real for me.”
Firefly glanced out a nearby window towards the horizon, a deeply worried look on her face. “I’m not gonna say that Applejack is trouble, but it sure follows her around. I just… I’m worried, okay? I’m worried that that mare is gonna drag Rainbow down a path she can’t come back from… And there won’t be anything I can do to stop it.”
Blaze studied his wife in silence for a time, then set his head on top of hers. “I know, ‘Fly. I know. Times were we could solve all of this with a few stern words and a bedtime without dinner. But she’s way beyond that now. Whatever call Rainbow makes, it’s out of our hooves as parents.”
“… I get the feeling that you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s not really working.”
Blaze chuckled and stroked her mane. “Okay, then how about this? Even if we can’t stop her, she is still our daughter. If there is any pony out there cut out for being reckless and headstrong, it’s our little girl.”
“Still not helping.”
Again he chuckled, but this time he didn’t follow up. For a while, they were quiet, both lost in thought for a time. Until Firefly spoke up again, that is.
“You know she’s gone, right?” Firefly pointed out.
“Of course. She is our daughter, after all.”
~~***~~
The peace of the still evening air was shattered spectacularly behind Rainbow’s racing form. She pushed herself as fast as she could go, and then faster still.
Normally, moving at such speeds brought a wide range of emotions coursing through her body. Wild exhilaration, fluttering terror, and the glorious rush of adrenaline. Normally she thrilled in the breakneck pace, all the while balancing on the knife’s edge between control and flat out disaster.
Today, she wasn’t paying attention to any of it.
No matter how fast she went, no matter how much she outran sound and pressed harder and harder against that invisible wall of unyielding pressure typically referred to as air, it wasn’t enough. Trees whizzed by below at dizzying speeds. Clouds were just white, formless streaks in her peripheral vision. Whole mountains were smudges of shadows, only semi-solid in appearance. But it wasn’t fast enough! Canterlot was still out there – as in, not beneath her – and that was totally unacceptable! Applejack was still far, far out of reach.
Some voice in the back of Rainbow’s mind tried to tell her that there really wasn’t any need to rush. After all, Applejack was in the middle of Canterlot, probably languishing away in utter boredom under the watchful eye of the Royal Sisters and Twilight. There really shouldn’t be any call for concern, truth be told.
But that was not good enough for her. Something tugged at her gut, an urgency she didn’t like. There was no explaining it, nor her sense of pure restlessness. Something just didn’t feel right.
Rainbow kept her eyes fixated on the distant shape of the Canterhorn. It was growing closer, but soooo slowly! Sure, she was making a trip that normally took a train several hours in a fraction of the time, but her impatience did not allow her to appreciate that fact. She just piled on the speed, and didn’t look back.
If she wasn’t so single-mindedly focused, she might have noticed the periodic flashes of emerald fire through the trees below trying to keep pace with her.
Again, two figured were thrown clear of a burning hole in the ground, and again, two figures glanced up towards the sky.
“Dios mio,” Cassava panted, “that pegasus can move! Of all the times for somepony’s reputation to not be exaggerated…”
He lit his horn, and the two fell through a new hole that snapped shut behind them. A fraction of a second later, they reappeared hundreds of yards ahead, atop a small rocky outcropping.
Despite the impressive distance, they were still only just keeping pace with the speedy pegasus. If anything, they were starting to fall behind.
“Do you think something happened?” asked Agave, who was hanging on to Cassava’s chest. Again they plummeted, and again they were flung into the open air in the distance.
“Don’t see how she’d know about it,” Cassava commented, but there was a speculative look in his eye. “She sure is impatient, though. And here I had this whole plan to crash her place… Her reaction would have been so priceless…”
Plummet, fling.
Agave watched the rainbow contrail with a small frown of apprehension. “I’ve never seen her move this fast. Are you sure there’s no way she could’ve heard about something?”
Plummet, fling.
“Unless she’s psychic,” Cassava commented with a small laugh. “Or…”
Plummet, fling.
“Or?”
Cassava hesitated. For once, his cheery façade seemed to dull as a thought occurred to him. “Oooooh boy,” Cassava breathed under his breath.
Plummet, fling.
Agave glanced up at him questioningly. “What?”
“Well… it could be she’s psychic,” Cassava said.
Plummet, fling.
“You… already said that,” Agave said slowly.
Cassava didn’t reply. For once, his expression was oddly mute as he studied the shrinking shape of their target.
Down they went into another burrow and into squeezing darkness. Then, back out into the open air again. Except this time, Cassava’s hooves tightened around his charge. His horn did not come alight; instead, in a brilliant flash of fire, Cassava the pegasus spread his wings and darted into the sky.
“Cassava, what are you doing?” Agave asked, a little worried now. She’d known Cassava most of her life; he’d been tending to her since she’d hatched, actually. So she understood that he did not just change a plan unless something forces him to.
Cassava stayed focused on the distant glitter of towers and shining arcane fields that was their destination, his thoughts as mercurial as ever. He didn’t seem to be focused on catching Rainbow anymore. Instead, he seemed more intent on beating her to her destination.
After a moment, he spoke again, his voice empty of his usual humor, and so low it could have only been meant for himself. “This just got a whole lot more complicated…”
In a flash, his usual demeanor snapped back into place. He grinned down at a worried Agave, just as daring as ever. “Hold on, señorita. It appears you’ll be getting that adventure after all.”
~~***~~
Stationed in front of a locked-down district of towering trees, two armor-clad guards stood on either side of a barricade. The day had been long, and for the most part, uneventful. Not counting a little ruckus sparked by the Captain of the Guard, of course, but by and large the two had had virtually nothing to do all day.
That had all changed for no explicable reason a few minutes earlier.
A rustle in the leaves overhead drew both of their eyes upward, but they did not tense. They just watched as a little black shape extricated itself almost sheepishly from the brush a respectable distance away, and shyly shuffled towards them.
“Go home, changeling,” one of the guards barked. “The lockdown is still in effect. Go on, shoo.”
But the drone didn’t back away, not entirely. She started to, tail between her legs, only to slow to a halt two paces later and turn back. Just by looking at her, the two guards could tell she was trying to muster every ounce of courage she possessed.
“P-please, officers. Can I please just… just look for Queen Applejack a teensy little bit? I promise no one will find out.”
One of the guards – a fellow who’d been up too long and through too much to rally perfect tact – barely restrained a sigh. “For the last time, you lot, no one is allowed to leave the district, not while enemy elements exist in Equestria that could be mistaken for you and vice versa. You’re all safer in there while we do our jobs.”
“I-I know,” the drone squeaked, “but, but… I-I have a really bad feeling. A-Applejack… Applejack needs our help. C-can I please…?”
“Like I told the last twenty changelings to use that exact same excuse, no means no,” the guard said firmly. “Now go home. We’ll let you know when the lockdown is lifted.”
The drone backed away, still looking reluctant, then darted into a nearby bush.
Both guards exchanged an exasperated look, now that the coast was clear. “What’s gotten into this lot all of a sudden? Well behaved all day, not so much as a peep out of them, and now this?”
The other guard shook his head. “Don’t know what to make of it, either. But if Steel Shod catches wind of it, in the state he’s in, he’ll have a cow.”
Both shared a look. They’d been through enough drama for one day, and their superior was in a bad enough mood as it was. Whatever is going on with these changelings, neither was foolish enough to get their foul-tempered boss involved.
“Just keep a lid on it,” one said to the other. “I’m sure they’re just anxious. They usually get restless whenever that queen of theirs isn’t home, from what I’ve seen.”
“Like a bunch of lost puppies, they are,” the other grumbled. “Least they could do is come up with an original excuse for bothering us…”
His partner grunted in agreement, but privately he was thoughtful. Changelings being uncreative… That’d be a first.
Further conversation was cut off when another rustling branch heralded the approach of yet another drone, much to their exasperation… and mild concern.
~~***~~
Roseluck paced her office at a decent clip.
Restlessness tore at her. Periodically she’d force herself to sit down, only to fidget and wriggle without end until finally jumping to her hooves and starting around the room again.
Something was wrong. She could feel it down in her bones, as deep down as a sensation could get. Something was very, very wrong.
The office felt stifling. She didn’t want to be there, like all of a sudden the walls were pressing down on her and she’d developed the worst case of claustrophobia.
After ten minutes of pacing and agitation, she couldn’t take it anymore. She kicked open the door to her office and departed as swiftly as she could.
As she strode quickly down the hall, she couldn’t help but notice the other changelings in the building. Not one of them was sitting still, but none seemed to be able to commit to an action. They shuffled about, only looking up to throw her a look as she passed before withdrawing again.
Something was very wrong.
Outside, the district air hummed with barely repressed agitation. Wings chirped and trilled and buzzed, giving voice to the rising tension filling the streets. A little ways away, Bumblebee was pacing round and round, head down while nibbling on her lip.
Roseluck paused in front of the Vivarium, her eyes skyward. She looked around, chest tight. “What… what is this feeling?” she murmured.
“So, it’s finally started.”
Roseluck jumped halfway out of her skin at the sound of the dry, raspy voice coming from beside her. She spun, and found wizened old Nana Widow sitting in a rocking chair of unknown origin. Her hooves were placed neatly in her lap, and her sunken, half-blind eyes were turned towards the heavens. It was hard to tell if she was pursing her lips, or if they were just normally so puckered.
Nana sighed, sounding resigned for some reason. Her usual smile was nowhere to be found and even though her eyes were just as milky as ever, there was a strange sense of alertness to them. “The queen has begun her summons. Her will calls the hive to order.”
Roseluck’s eyes grew huge. A quaver ran through her, one she didn’t understand. “You mean, Applejack is…?”
Nana nodded, seemingly to herself. “It was this way on the day Carnation was Coronated. Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday…”
Nana started patting one hoof against the other slowly, rhythmically, purposefully, like the slow and steady beat of a drum. Roseluck frowned at her hooves, but as she watched, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.
Whenever Nana patted her hoof, a drone would pace faster for a moment. When next she did it, a drone would take to the air and shoot up into the trees. When she did it next, Bumblebee jolted forward just a little faster.
All across the square, drones were reacting in time with Nana’s beat, and each time they did, their agitation rose another iota.
Roseluck could feel it in herself. She constantly shifted, unable to sit still, and every beat of Nana’s hooves marked the urge to shift again.
“Applejack is drawing her subjects to her,” Nana said then, her voice stronger than it had been for years. “She is establishing her hive. There can be no doubt. Her Coronation is at hoof.”
Nana looked up high in the sky, and smiled. “Her mother would be so proud of her.”
~~***~~
This way…!
Applejack rushed after the darting light – her only source of light in the oppressive hedge maze. She ran as fast as she could, for fear of being left behind. That was the absolute last thing she wanted.
Behind her, queer sounds issued. Branches cracked and groaned. Unknowable calls echoed through the bramble. And it always kept pace with her, never falling behind. She didn’t dare glance over her shoulder, for fear of what she might see quietly giving chase.
Up ahead, the mote of light darted around another corner, and Applejack was right behind it in an instant. She flew around the corner, and promptly slipped on a splatter of black ooze. She nearly fell, and almost skidded off the trail entirely and into an awaiting crevice under the nearby hedge, vines grasping at her ankles. But she corrected almost right away, and sped off again. She threw the death trap one more look, turned around – and ran nose-first into a door.
With a yelp she bounced off and onto her rump. She rubbed her nose, then glanced up at the obstruction.
A door and part of a wall sat smack dab in the middle of the corridor of vegetation. It obviously had not been built there; the wall’s edges were ragged with exposed timber and drywall, like it’d been crudely carved from a hallway and dropped unceremoniously where it now stood.
Applejack recognized the wallpaper flanking the door; it matched the walls of Cadance’s manor. The door was open just a little, perhaps from Applejacks’ headbutt; she wasn’t in the mood to speculate, however.
The sounds behind her were growing louder, closer. Amidst them, she could have sworn she heard a velvety voice humming a foalish tune.
Applejack jumped to her hooves, and without turning around, shouldered the door out of her way. More than a small part of her hoped that maybe this was an exit to whatever nightmare she’d fallen headfirst into.
Of course there was no such luck.
Applejack found herself tumbling into a familiar bedroom. Only, not exactly the way she’d left it. Instead of being empty, Cadance’s room was filled with furniture; an impressive dresser and armoire, a huge four-poster bed and two ceiling-tall bookshelves crammed full of all manner of books.
The window across from Applejack was filled with dim moonlight, so at first Applejack thought the room was deserted.
She paced forward, eyes darting around and senses keyed for any further attacks. But for the time being, nothing was out of place. No black tar, no cackling monster, nothing… at least, so far.
Applejack made it halfway across the room when a sound caught her attention. Instantly she was on guard, ready for a fight. But the sound had been so small, too small for her to track immediately.
But then it happened again; a small sniffle coming from the direction of the bed. There, silhouetted by a thin ray of moonlight, was a filly-sized version of Cadance. She laid curled up on the bed in a little ball, and periodically she trembled with another sniffle.
I didn’t understand…
Applejack jumped and glanced around. But that voice had not been her sinister tormentor; this one was undoubtedly Cadance. If issued from nowhere and everywhere, filling Applejack’s head as if she was speaking right into her ear.
When she took it, after promising not to, Father was so mad… And when she didn’t come back, I thought…
Her voice came and went, sometimes strong, only to dwindle to nothing again.
She’d been my only friend… my only true friend… One who didn’t care about who my parents, or grandparents, or great grandparents were. She didn’t care about my family’s fortune, or influence, or anything. But she still did such an awful thing to me… I did not understand…
Applejack was so intent on the miserable shape of Cadance that she jumped when a floorboard creaked off to her right. Cadance did as well; she jumped, and her head snapped up. She looked terrible; all puffy red eyes and tear streaks. Almost immediately, she zeroed in on the culprit, virtually as the same time Applejack did.
From the shadows, a towering black shape emerged. She appeared seemingly out of thin air, her head held low, low enough to allow her crimson mane to drag across the carpet.
“Cadance…” murmured Carnation. Her voice was quiet, careful.
Cadance took one look at her, eyes huge, then turned away. “Go away!” she shouted at the opposite wall. “You’re not my friend anymore!”
Cadance didn’t see the look that crossed Carnation’s face, but Applejack did. It was one of pain – genuine pain, like Cadance’s words had been a punch to the gut.
“Cadance, please…”
“Don’t call me that! Only my friends call me that!”
“… Cadance…”
The little filly suddenly jumped up, grabbed the biggest pillow she could and threw it across the room. It struck Carnation square in the face, hard enough to pull her to a stop.
“Daddy was so mad at me!” Cadance shouted at her. “You promised! You promised you’d only look a little! You LIED to me!”
Cadance was on her hooves. She shook from head to hoof and glared a fiery glare at the changeling queen, completely unfazed by the sheer size difference between them. Her little wings were flared open in a threatening display, which might have actually been threatening if she wasn't so small.
I didn’t want to know her reasoning. I just wanted her gone. I… I didn’t care.
“Just leave me alone!” Cadance screamed at her.
But Carnation didn’t move. She stood in the same spot, sad eyes turned towards Cadance. She didn’t’ speak, or do anything at all. She just stood there.
Cadance’s anger only grew the longer she stood in place. “I said…!” She started. At the same time, she reached to the end table beside her bed – towards a ceramic vase filled with sunflowers.
Applejack’s breath caught in her throat as she watched Cadance heft her projectile, and launch it across the room.
“GET OUT!”
Carnation could have dodged it. She had plenty of forewarning. But she didn’t move, not until the solid vase crashed into her face and shattered into a dozen pieces.
Applejack had been halfway through intercepting the projectile, but it was too late. She heard the earsplitting smashing sound, and when she turned, she found her mother lying in a heap on the floor. Sunflowers, spilt water and shards of ceramic laid scattered across the floor, a piece of which rolled between Applejack’s stunned hooves before coming to a rest.
Cadance panted, emotions running wild. But as the seconds ticked by, and Carnation stayed down, her fury started to be replaced with something else.
“Carnation?” she said, her voice small. “C-Carnation?”
At the second sound of her name, the changeling queen groaned.
A gasp escaped Cadance’s lips. She was off her bed in an instant, and she rushed to the crumpled shape on the floor.
By the time she reached her, Carnation was righting herself. A few drops of something dark dripped from her cheek to the carpet, and she held one of her eyes shut.
Cadance drew to a stop in front of her, breathless. She watched the woozy queen sway, unsteady, but she stayed upright. “Wh… Why?” she breathed. “Why did you let me do that?”
Carnation raised her head. Emerald light danced across the many cuts on her face and glowed from under her closed eyelid, which was starting to turn purple. “I am not too proud to admit that I deserved that,” she murmured.
Cadance’s eyes grew huge, but not nearly as big as when Carnation reached out and pulled her against her chest. “I am sorry, Cadance,” Carnation said. “I am so, so sorry.”
Cadance didn’t react. She seemed too stunned.
I didn’t want to know her reasons for betraying my trust. But that night… I could tell something had changed in her. She wasn’t the silver-tongued, sympathetic ear she’d been before. She was… something else. I just… wish I knew how, or why…
Carnation moved back, leaving Cadance stunned and motionless. She barely seemed to notice the heavy blue book that was pushed into her chest.
“I believe this belongs to you, my dear,” Carnation said.
Cadance looked down at the thing in her hooves with an uncomprehending look in her eyes.
“Keep it safe for me,” Carnation told her. “There may come a day when somepony else comes looking for it. Somepony who would find it just as important as I have.”
Cadance blinked up at her. “It’s… just an old history book,” she mumbled.
Carnation smiled. She reached up, and she wiped away a trace of Cadance’s tears from one cheek. “Perhaps. But to me, it was the most important discovery of my life.”
Cadance cocked her head. “Really?”
Carnation nodded with a soft smile. “I never lied to you, Cadance. I have been searching for a way to solve a very important problem.”
She raised a hoof, and very gently placed it on the book she’d just given Cadance. She pushed it down, onto the floor, and with a flick of her horn, pried it open.
“It is an issue I was starting to suspect could never be resolved. One that has plagued my people for millennia.”
Applejack leaned forward on the tips of her hooves, trying to catch a glimpse of the book. Pages were flying in a flurry, too fast to make sense of any of them.
“But thanks to you, I now know. And thanks to you, we have a chance to fix what was broken long ago.”
The pages stopped flipping. The last one hung in the air for a moment, then fell into place. Carnation’s hoof came down on the exposed page, somewhere just passed the halfway point of the book. And with it, she gestured towards a sketching.
Applejack’s eyes grew huge, her breath catching. Underneath Carnation’s hoof was a drawing of the Crystal Heart.
Applejack looked up at Carnation, feeling stunned. “That’s what y’all were after,” she breathed. “But… the Crystal Empire was gone. Y’all couldn’t use the Crystal Heart. How in tarnation…?”
Are you satisfied?
The sound of wood creaking caused Applejack to snap her head around.
The door to Cadance’s bedroom was bulging inward. The polished wood cracked and split, and out of the rupture gushed a viscous black tar. The cracks spread across the walls, floor and ceiling, growing with alarming speed and tainting the room with an ever darkening black stain.
Because I am growing tired of this little game. I have been very, VERY patient, but that stops now!
Applejack backed away. She glanced around, looking for an escape, but that was the only door in and out. There was only the window, and the nebulous nothing beyond it. The images of Cadance and her mother were gone. She was alone in the room, her back to a corner – figuratively and almost literally. She was trapped.
The doorknob rattled and jiggled frantically, but it stayed firmly shut. The door, however, had bowed out so much that it was starting to gush black tar through its frame. How it hadn’t buckled and snapped in half was anyone’s guess.
The tar gushing into the room was starting to take forms. Not just one, but dozens; little black nightmares devoid of feature, besides slavering maws.
Mine…
The door split. The walls cracked and fractured. Fissures split open across the carpet now, oozing with black goo.
Mine!
A curtain of black ooze gushed over the door from its top. And with a sick bubbling sound, it dissolved entirely. It was barely out of the way before a towering figure as tall as the ceiling stormed in, impatient and furious. Through the growing shadows, all Applejack made of it was it’s impossibly huge maw and glinting fangs.
YOU ARE ALL MINE!
Without any warning, white fire was everywhere. It howled like a high wind, and suddenly it carved a path through the room, splitting Applejack’s half off from the corrupted portion like a scalpel. The wall of blinding iridescent flame rose between them, floor to ceiling.
The monster let out a nerve-rattling shriek of anger.
Applejack backed away, shielding her eyes against the blazing light. The darkness pressed oppressively against the searing light, which surged and drove it back. Claws raked at the flames, only to disintegrate into black clouds of nothingness.
Squinting around a raised hoof, Applejack peered at the dancing flames, trying to make sense of them. As her eyes adjusted, she realized that they weren’t white, but made up of softer hues. Pinks, greens, blues, reds, all nearly lost in the dazzling conflagration that held the monsters at bay.
And in the blaze, a shape of pure light stood. She could barely make it out through the light and flickering flames, but she knew something was there, standing between her and the darkness.
Run!
A terrible form was rising on the other side of the fire. It leaned against the flames, and like a high wind, they bent under it.
Applejack backed up further, eyes fixed on the monolithic creature crowding the other side of the room. She was so fixated that when her hind leg fell through open air, she yelped and stumbled.
Whipping around, she felt the color drain from her face. Where the back wall had been, there was nothing but a harrowing drop into swirling clouds without any sign of a bottom in sight. Applejack was quick to pull herself back up and step away from the ledge, only to remember that that was not the only threat she faced.
The brilliant flames were guttering now. Black fractures were worming their way past it, and were starting to snake towards Applejack again. The form in the fire was buckling as the shadows grew deeper.
Applejack gritted her teeth, and with her heart hammering in her chest, she cast a look over her shoulder, in the only other direction that wasn’t falling apart under corruption.
“Come now, my dear, surely by now you must know how this will end. Why fight it?”
Applejack turned back around. The monster was pressing up against the fire, which was alarmingly starting to bend around it, as if threatening to part. It was so close to the dwindling light that she could see its hideous, gelatinous form that barely resembled a pony at all, if a pony stood so tall it had to hunch under a ceiling and had teeth fit for a manticore.
“Ah, such a feisty young soul,” it cackled. “Oh, you and I are going to do great things together.”
Applejack stared the monster down, but inside, her heart was racing. “Ah ain’t lettin’ ya win, whatever ya are,” Applejack declared. “Ah don’t know how ya got me here, but Ah’m gettin’ out, one way or another.”
The black creature leaned its head forward. It was crossing the boundary now, bit by bit. “Oh, aren’t you precious, thinking you have a say in the matter. I would tell you to never change, but, well…” the sinister chuckle that followed sent a chill up Applejack’s spine.
“Now then, I have let your mother’s little message play itself out. I let you find what you wanted to find. I have been VERY patient with you. Now it’s time you repay the favor!”
It was straining against the wall of light, and to Applejack’s dismay, it was making progress. Here and there, the warding flames were sputtering out, and darkness was quick to snuff out whatever embers might remain.
The monster grinned wide as it approached. “Time’s up, Your Highness.”
The fire went out completely.
In an instant, a black wave surged forward, racing towards Applejack, the monster at its front. Applejack had nowhere else to go. All she could do was grit her teeth, turn, and throw herself into oblivion, and hope that, somehow, whatever awaited her wouldn’t be any worse than what was chasing her down.
~~***~~
Rainbow hissed, and nearly lost control. Confused, she reached down and clutched at her chest, right where it felt like she’d just been punched.
“What the…?”
She pulled her hoof away, but nothing was out of place. But that feeling…
She looked back up, her scowl deepening. Below, a bridge topped by train tracks was vanishing behind her. Down the tracks, closer now, a dome of pink light grew even closer, faster and faster as she closed in.
A barrier… that could complicate matters. But Rainbow wasn’t about to slow down. Nothing was going to stop her from getting into Canterlot, not even some fancy, glorified soap bubble.
The train station was coming into sight. She could just see the glimmer off the armor of several Royal Guards, some of whom were close enough for her to see turn in her direction.
She wasn’t about to slow down. If anything, she forced herself still faster, until her eyes watered and cheeks rippled and the world became one big, incomprehensible blur. Either she was getting through that barrier, or this was going to be one of the most painful experiences of her life, if not the last one.
All she could see was the wall of humming light in front of her now, and it was closing very fast. With seconds to spare, she lowered her head, threw out her shoulder, and…
… Nothing happened.
Rainbow stayed braced for a few extra moments, not sure if maybe she’d misjudged her speed and would be smacking into it any second now. Then, she cracked open her eye, and found the city of Canterlot whistling by beneath her.
Surprised, she slowed, then glanced over her shoulder. Behind her, the barrier was just as whole as ever, and hummed rather ominously. As it turned out, anti-changeling barriers were only really effective on changelings. Funny how that works out.
Rainbow frowned at it, perplexed. Then, she shrugged, turned back around, and shot off across the sky again.
For a moment, her gaze turned towards Canterlot Castle. If Applejack was any place, it would be there.
So… why was her attention turning elsewhere? Even in the heat of the moment, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel a little puzzled when her eyes were tugged towards the castle’s shadow.
The castle suddenly felt like the most unlikely place in the world for her to find Applejack. No, she was down there, down in the snootiest of snooty neighborhoods just visible on the edge of town. Her gut was dead certain of it. Applejack was down there, and she needed her.
Rainbow’s brow knit together – partly in confusion, mostly in concentration – and she veered off on her new course. For her gut’s sake, it better be right about this… And Applejack better be alright when she found her.
~~***~~
With a groan, Applejack stirred. She didn’t remember landing, only falling into blackness, then rousing.
The air around her was cold, and utterly still. Not a whisper of wind move around her. The ground underneath her was hard and uneven, like rock. And her surroundings were so dark…
Applejack cracked opened her eyes and looked around. Only gloom surrounded her. Quiet, still gloom. The only thing she confirmed was that, to her dismay, she was still in this horrible nightmare.
With another groan, she picked herself up. She wobbled slightly, but steadied after a moment. Peering through the gloom, she tried to find a way forward, or at the least a way out. At any moment, she half expected that monster to jump her, but it was absent, thankfully.
Well, she certainly wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. With no other options, she set off, all the while sweeping her eyes warily from side to side and her ears swiveling in every direction, keyed for the faintest sounds.
On and on she walked. For nearly ten minutes, only the dull thud of her hooves on stone met her ears. In the half-light, only swirling haze met her eyes. She wasn’t going up, or down; just forward.
She was just starting to think that she’d be walking forever when something finally caught her eye. Off to her right, a glimmer of white light – faint as a spark – issued through the oppressive haze.
She turned towards it immediately, and when it persisted, she carefully approached, on guard for the first sign of trouble. Slowly but surely, the source of light grew brighter, until she found herself almost nose-to-nose with it.
Hanging in the air was the tiniest mote of white light, hardly bigger than a dust particle. The warm light was so feeble now, and it flickered weakly in the gloom. Applejack reached out a hoof, and the mote settled upon its surface… and went out. When it did, the air around her felt somehow colder than before.
A squeal of sound behind her made her jump. Instantly she whirled around, ready for a fight.
Behind her, an entire scene had manifested out of thin air. It seemed so very out of place, like it had been carved from whatever setting it was supposed to belong to and dropped awkwardly onto the flat plain behind her.
Where once there’d been nothing, a bed of stone now stood. Its four columns rose high into the air, and were wrapped by flowering vines that gave off a faint, nostalgic aroma.
And on the bed of moss and lichen was her mother. She sat with regal poise, eyes closed in concentration. Her horn was ignited, green flames licking up its entire length. In front of her, revolving on eye level, was a small crown topped with brilliant rubies. As the crown slowly spun, Applejack noticed it quiver slightly, as if it was resisting the emerald aura clamped down around it.
Applejack looked at the scene with a frown. “What in tarnation…?”
Then the sound that first caught her attention happened again. And it hadn’t come from Carnation.
Lying on the bed in front of her mother was a mess of green shards. And in their midst, a tiny, soaked hatchling was flailing slightly. And again, the newly born baby Applejack wailed, kicking about in the remains of her eggshell.
Carnation didn’t seem to notice. Her brow pinched together, her concentration redoubling. She grunted with exertion, beads of sweating forming across her brow.
Her crown shook violently, rattled… and exploded apart.
Applejack’s eyes grew huge with shock as, without warning, emerald fire roared outward in every direction. It swirled in a nova all around them, tongues licking at vines and flowers but not wilting them. Flames kissed the newborn hatchling, but did not dry her.
Applejack shielded her eyes against the glare, and as she adjusted to the sudden brightness, she started to make out a shape at the heart of the firestorm.
Directly where Carnation’s crown had once been floating was a tangerine-sized orb. Despite being swathed in brilliant flames, it was as black and lightless as the deepest shadow, like a sunspot amid the roiling furnace of a star’s surface.
Applejack’s eyes grew huge. “That… is that a Corastone?” she mumbled to herself. But it was so small… almost half the size of the other one she’d seen.
She didn’t get an answer. The scene continued to play out, ignorant of her question.
Carnation’s expression twisted up even further. She bared her fangs with the sheer exertion of her spell. Her breath came out in ragged gasps. Her eyes pinched shut even tighter. The fires erupting from the Corastone grew more intense. On the bed, the baby Applejack was wailing even louder, and continuously now.
“Almost… almost… have it…,” Carnation panted to herself. “Al….most…!”
Crack!
Carnation’s eyes shot open at the sound. A fracture had appeared across the surface of the Corastone, splitting it right down the middle.
“Al…Almost…!”
Her horn surged brighter. Her shoulders hunched as she threw every ounce of her being into this one, single act. She forced the crack to grow, to spider-web out in every direction across the Corastone’s surface. It grew and grew, spewing fire and lightning, until, with an earsplitting sound, the stone’s surface exploded like glass.
The entire outer shell detonated and flew apart. Whole shards whizzed passed Applejack’s ear, only to pause, and fly backwards, as if time were rewinding.
Carnation gasped, gnashing her teeth as she poured every last drop of magic out of her body. The shards slowed, and eventually came to a stop inches from where they’d all started.
And there, at the center of an orbiting mass of agitated crystal fragments, floated a tarnished, hole-ridden heart-shaped crystal.
It pounded with life, fire erupting with every beat and coursing through the air in every direction. Untempered motes of pink light manifested in the air, only to be sucked in ravenously into the the crystal's surface, never to be seen again. If it were not for the half-dozen holes bored through it, or the acidic green light in gave off, it could have been the splitting image of the Crystal Heart itself.
Carnation panted. Her eyes were starting to unfocus and grow hazy. The sheer force of exposing the Corastone’s heart was taking every bit of strength she possessed.
She took a moment to struggle against the herculean forces being levied against her, then very deliberately, she lowered her horn. As she did, the beating heart crystal descended. It dragged its shattered shell with it as it drifted downwards, towards a crying hatchling.
Applejack’s eyes grew huge. She watched as, to her amazement, a small light started to glow from the little hatchling. She watched as that light grew out of its chest and reached out for the heart-shaped crystal descending towards it.
Tendrils of green changeling magic and ribbons of pure pink light stretched out, like a child reaching for its mother. As it drew closer to the object, Applejack noticed the motes flowing around the heart coalesce. As she watched, magical feelers drifted downward, until the two ends met.
Carnation physically jolted when the two joined. She tensed, as if every single nerve in her body had just been jarred. She gasped, and one hoof flew up to her chest.
Coils of magic and love intertwined, binding child to mother’s heart. And slowly, inexorably, the crystal heart was drawn downward. Applejack watched with rapt attention as Carnation’s Corastone was drawn down, and into her daughter’s chest.
Instantly the fire died. The roaring, howling flames and crackling magical lightning vanished. The shards of crystal ceased to be. Carnation’s crown slammed back together, empty, and fell to the bed. The light faded.
Carnation collapsed in a lifeless heap, landing right beside her daughter. Her eyes were wide open, stretched as far as they could go, pupils shrunk. She breathed in tiny, strangled pants. And as she laid there, petrified, a single tear budded in the corner of one eye, and rolled down her cheek. She gasped, and gasped again, her hoof pressed tightly to her throbbing chest.
Emotions flooded across her face. Overwhelming, overpowering joy that escaped her lips in hushed, breathy laughter; primal terror that cause her to clutch at herself in uncontrollable panic; consuming sadness, that brought her to teary sobs that she could not control. All of these and more rampaged through her, contorting her as they raged through her body.
A distraught cry brought her to her senses.
Applejack watched, transfixed, as Carnation stilled. Her eyes fell on the tiny, flailing shape of her baby and riveted on her. The look on her face was like a blind mare seeing for the very first time, and her eyes beheld the single most incredible sight in all of creation.
Carnation tried to speak, failed, and then reached a shaking hoof out. She wrapped Applejack so gingerly, like she half expected the barest touch to shatter her into a thousand pieces. As Carnation drew the hatchling to her, she reached out with another hoof, across the mess of broken eggshell, and towards a red towel lying on its other side. She claimed it, but only barely. She looked so exhausted…
While the little baby Applejack cried and cried and cried, Carnation weakly swaddled her in the towel, wiping as much of the broken egg shell and dampness from her baby as she could.
“You did it, baby,” she whispered in a weak, quavering tone. “You did it! Just look at you… Ha, you’re so gorgeous! I… I can’t believe it…”
The baby continued to let out distraught wails at the top of its tiny lungs. Carnation gave up on wiping her down, and instead clutched baby Applejack to her chest, safe and sound, and squeezed her gently. Tears of pure, unfiltered joy rolled freely down her cheeks, her smile turning radiant even in her weakened stand.
“It’s okay, it’s okay – ssh, ssh. Mama’s got you…”
At last, the baby quieted. She turned her muzzle inward, and pressed her face up against the warm safety of her mother’s collar.
Applejack stared at the familiar scene, unable to speak or move. She watched in stunned silence as the two drifted off to sleep, and a moment later, dissolved into darkness. Even then, she continued to stand in place, eyes huge.
“That’s how ya did it,” Applejack said to herself. As she spoke, her hoof lifted, and came to rest against her chest. “Yer Corastone… Yer heart… ya gave it ta me. All this time… Y’all have been right here, with me? Ya started ta feel again… cuz Ah had yer heart, all along.”
She looked down at her hoof, almost expecting to see something in it. But there was nothing; just leathery black chitin. “Is… is that all there is to it?”
The only answer she got was a heavy hoof fall in front of her.
Applejack’s heart jumped, then she turned her gaze up.
“How touching,” the monster simpered as it swaggered closer. No longer did it look like a creature formed of ooze, but instead now it resembled a long-dead cadaver; black chitin was pulled tight over its bony frame, so tight that Applejack could make out every individual bone and vertebrae in its body.
Its eyes were as black as coals, save only for the vertical slits of fiery green light that stayed fixed onto her.
When the monster spoke now, it spoke in a myriad of voices, all of which Applejack knew. Sometimes it was Granny Smith. Other times, Roseluck. Still other times, it used voices she had no name for, but recognized; the countless ponies she’d met and passed in the street across her whole lifetime. Worse of all was when the voices speaking in chorus were those of her close friends.
“So, now you know your mother’s dirty little secret,” it said with a disappointed sigh. “Are you satisfied now?”
Applejack scowled deeper. “Plenty. Now there ain’t no way yer goin’ ta win.”
The monster sighed in defeat. “I suppose you’re right. Oh, the things we could have done together, the atrocities we could have committed… Such a waste of potential.”
She started to turn away, her disturbing eyes lingering almost sadly on Applejack as she did. “And now you know. All you need to do is take your Corastone and give it to somepony who will accept it, and… that’s that. There is absolutely no way I can win now.”
Applejack narrowed her eyes at her, but said nothing.
Meanwhile, the monster turned her back at Applejack, took two steps in the other direction… and paused. “Wait a moment…”
She looked back over her shoulder at Applejack. Only now, she was grinning a huge, malevolent grin, eyes wide with manic glee. “You don’t HAVE a Corastone, DO YOU?!”
Applejack paled.
In an instant, the monster whipped back around, leering ear to ear. “Why yes, that’s right! You don’t! And do you want to know why? Please, ask me why!”
Applejack took a step back, fumbling for answers. As she cast around, she became aware of the weight on her head.
As the monster advanced again, she whipped off her crown and held it out.
“Not so fast, there,” she declared, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “Ah got my crown right here, and if Ah were a bettin’ mare, Ah’d be there’s a Corastone right in here, just like Ma’s.”
That only drew an amused chuckle out of the monster. It didn’t stop stalking towards here. “A nice theory… but wrong.”
Without warning, she thrust her horn at Applejack. At the same time, it came alight with a sickly flame darker and more malevolent than any changeling fire she’d ever seen before.
Before Applejack could jump out of the way, the jet of tainted fire struck her crown, dead center, and a split second later, it shattered into a thousand pieces.
And that was all that happened. No fire, no roaring, no blinding light. The shards burst apart and hovered in place, but where a Corastone should have been, there was nothing.
“Oops,” the monster lamented. “Nothing there. Not yet.”
Applejack took another step back. Desperate, she cast her mind around. Think! There’s gotta be a way out of this!
“Hold up,” Applejack said, suddenly recalling something. “As a matter of fact, Ah do have one of them Corastones!”
The monster paused, and raised a bony eyebrow.
Applejack grinned, her heart pounding a million miles an hour. “That’s right, Ah do. Now Ah’m dang happy somepony mailed that thing ta me, cuz it means—”
“It means NOTHING,” the monster interrupted tersely. “That, dear sweet Applejack, is not your Corastone.”
She leaned in, so close that Applejack cringe back, hurrying back another step or two. “That is my Corastone.”
The bottom of Applejack’s stomach fell out. Her eyes grew huge as a chill ran up her spine. “W-what…?”
The monster grinned maniacally. “And you were so kind to touch it, too! You were the one who let me in! I could have just been a voice in the back of your mind, whispering away as you lost your heart. Now… oh, now, my dear…”
The monster broke down in a fit of barely restrained laughter as she slipped ever closer, unstoppable and inescapable. “I see GREAT things in our future.
Applejack’s skin crawled.
“So, my dear, would you like to know why you don’t have a Corastone? It is really quite simple.”
Applejack opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a hiss of pain. Her skin was prickling uncomfortably, and as she watched helplessly, a tendril of green light issued from her chest, thin as morning mist. It curled through the air, before coalescing into a small mote in front of Applejack’s horrified eyes.
“See? You’re already in the process of making one yourself,” her tormentor cackled. “And your mother was so kind to leave a vessel for you!”
With a flick of her horn, Applejack’s crown snapped shut around the tiny mote, before dropping to the floor.
“Do you see? The only way to receive your Corastone is to lose your heart and be Coronated in the first place ! The only way you can win is for ME to win first!” The monster roared derisively. “Get it now? You CANNOT beat me! It is impossible. In order to win, you have to lose.”
Applejack’s mouth worked, but nothing came out. She tried to get her legs to move, but they felt leaden. Her whole world felt like it’d just upended itself, tossed her about, and left her in a jumbled mess.
There had to be a way out, there had to be. But she couldn’t see it. She could run, run as fast as she could and hope her strength lasted. She could fight, and at least go down swinging. But nothing she thought of seemed to afford her anything better than petulant defiance.
The monster knew that. She could see it in her sneer. She was drawing closer now, and no matter how much Applejack quickened her pace, she could not open up the gap.
“Are you scared?” The monster asked softly. “Don’t you worry. You won’t be for long.”
She lunged, her form exploding in a sheet of oily blackness.
At least Applejack went down swinging.
~~***~~
A look of confusion crossed Rainbow’s features as she flew into sight of the mansion. She recognized it, for some bizarre reason, but she quickly cast it from her mind. She only registered that it clicked in some way, which cemented in her mind that she was on to something… even if she didn’t understand what, or how, or why she was even so fixated on such a place.
As she approached, she slowed down to a glide and started casting her eyes about the property. It was several orders of magnitude too snooty for her taste, and if it was like that for her, she couldn’t imagine what Applejack would be doing in such a place at all.
Think, Dash, think… why does this place look so fami—hey, is that Twilight?
She was just starting her loop over the back yard – a monstrous thing the size of a park, really – when she caught sight of the familiar lavender hue below. When she locked onto it, she noticed that – sure enough – Twilight Sparkle was standing down below, staring at a water fountain for… some reason. Egghead reasons, probably. But she was alone, and that dispelled almost all of the relief Rainbow had started to feel.
Still, Rainbow trimmed her wings and dropped altitude. “Twilight!” she called out as she descended.
The alicorn jumped about a foot in the air, looked around, then up, just as Rainbow slowed to a hover in front of her. She gaped at her, failing several times to say anything before finally figuring out how her mouth worked. “R-Rainbow Dash? What are you… aren’t you supposed to be in Ponyville? How did you…?”
Rainbow was waving her off halfway through her disjointed questions. “No time for that, I’ll explain later. Where’s Applejack?”
~~***~~
A voice groaned in the quiet bedroom. A foreleg dug into the carpet, hard, as a tongue of emerald fire rolled up its length, burning away orange fur…
~~***~~
Twilight was still trying to process how her friend could just suddenly be here in front of her. A great many questions whipped through her head, but not before she said, “Up in Cadance’s old bedroom. Why? What’s this abou—Hey!”
Rainbow had just unexpectedly grabbed her and yanked her off her hooves while heading straight for the house. “Don’t know the way. Take me to her, quick! It’s really important!”
Twilight struggled in her grip. “Calm down, Rainbow! What’s gotten into you?”
Rainbow shook her head quickly. “Don’t know, but I have to find AJ, like, right now!”
~~***~~
Her back hunched. Hind legs flexed all the way back as far as they could go. Her fangs gnashed together as the cracks on her forehead grew longer…
~~***~~
Twilight tried not to roll her eyes. “Okay Rainbow, The two of you have been apart for only a few hours. Don’t you think you’re being a little possessive?”
Rainbow stared down blankly at her. “What? No, this is – look, Applejack’s in trouble, I just know it! Hurry up and show me where she is!”
“Okay, okay,” Twilight complained, “Calm down, geez. First off, Applejack’s fine. I’ve been keeping track of her all afternoon, and she hasn’t moved from Cadance’s bedroom. Trust me, Rainbow, nothing bad is happening to her.”
~~***~~
Half crouching, half lying, her body flexed and tensed. Agonized groans issued through her clenched teeth as she arched her neck. She buried her face in the carpet as her horn started to fizz and crackle.
Her whole body was tense, every muscle knotted to the breaking point. Something had to give.
Crack…
~~***~~
“No offense, Twi’, But I’ll believe that when I see her,” Rainbow grunted. “Now hurry up already! Time is bits!”
Twilight finally broke free of Rainbow’s grip, shot her an annoyed look, and opened her mouth to chastise her friend’s needless impatience.
The sound of second floor exploding cut her off first.
Both mares spun around as every window on the upper floor corridor shattered on a plume of emerald fire. Glass shards rained down on the garden below, very nearly pelting both of them with a deadly shower of razor sharp shrapnel. Only a quickly conjured barrier kept them from harm.
The glass had barely stopped falling when Rainbow removed her hooves from her head and stared up at the upper floor with wide, dread-filled eyes. “Applejack!” she shouted.
She was gone like a shot, zipping up into the ruined hallway before Twilight could even react. There, she found the corridor in disarray. Sparks of emerald fire danced in the air. Here and there, the molding was starting to catch fire, while fissures split open the floor and walls from the sheer force of the blast.
The door to Cadance’s bedroom had been sheered clean off its hinges and blasted – presumably – right out the window opposite it.
And beyond the doorframe, an inferno was raging.
The wallpaper, the carpet, everything was catching fire, and it was growing rampantly. Smoke filled the room and gushed into the hall, thick and smothering. But that didn’t stop Rainbow from diving head-first into the burning room. She crawled low, but already she was coughing.
“Applejack!” she called. “Applejack! Where are you?”
Nothing. The flames roared louder in response, but it was the only response she got.
Rainbow shielded her eyes and huddled as low to the ground as she could. “Apple—”
A cry interrupted her.
Through the curtain of smoke and orange flames, a bright pulse of green light burst into being. In the next instant, a wall of pure force slammed into Rainbow, knocking her over onto her backside. The concussive force blasted away the smoke for a moment, and through it, Rainbow could see its source.
Applejack crouched on the carpet as if about to pounce, but her posture was all contorted. Her pony guise was gone, leaving her in her true form.
And from head to foot, cracks were splitting all across her body. With every new series, an intense wave of heat would wash over the room. Her chitin was literally splitting open, leaving gouts of emerald fire wherever they opened up.
Rainbow could just make out Applejack’s face. It was screwed up, her eyes slammed as tightly shut as they could go.
Applejack clawed at the carpet, as if trying to get away from herself, but every time she moved, more of her chitin broke open.
“Applejack…”
Rainbow didn’t mean for it to come out so small and strangled, but when she heard herself, she snapped back to her senses, and the horrible reality in front of her. “Applejack!” she shouted.
This time, her voice got a response.
One of Applejack’s eyes cracked open, and roved to one side until it found her.
For the first time in a very, very long time, something in her eye scared Rainbow. Maybe it was how wide it shot open. Maybe it was how thin her pupil had become. Or maybe it was the intense look that possessed it. Whatever the reason, the look she got did not feel like one from the Applejack she knew.
“R… Rain…,” Applejack grunted, only to let out another cry.
CRACK!
With an ear-splitting sound, Applejack’s horn split once, twice, and exploded apart. As the bits and pieces of black shell hit the ground and disintegrated, Rainbow’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the long, pearly white thing that lay underneath. Already it had a wicked crook near the front, but it was the glossy whiteness of it that disarmed Rainbow the most, so unlike the typical changeling coloration.
As the shell shattered, another blast wave ripped through the room, knocking Rainbow over onto her back.
A section of the roof came down like a burning meteor, crashing right between the two of them.
Rainbow was on her hooves immediately, but she didn’t move. She wasn’t sure what to do! She could barely get close to Applejack, what with the blasts she was emitting and the fire. But the whole room was ablaze now, wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Doubtlessly it was spreading to other parts of the mansion, and the longer Applejack was left here, the more danger she was in.
But what was she supposed to do?!
Rainbow jumped when a hoof grabbed her shoulder. She turned, feeling disoriented, to find Twilight standing beside her. A bubble of light surrounded her, keeping the fire and smoke at bay.
“Rainbow!” Twilight shouted, “Where’s –”
Another shriek, and a lance of fire burst across the room, blasting a hole through a wall. That was when Twilight noticed Applejack.
“Oh no,” she said in a small voice, her eyes growing huge.
“What are we supposed to do?!” Rainbow shouted. “We have to do something!”
More timber from the ceiling thundered to the ground behind them. The floor trembled, and then a section buckled.
Twilight was a fast thinker, but she couldn’t think this fast. The whole mansion was burning down, but there was Applejack – and they had to deal with what she was about to go through – but that had to get her out – but they should’ve had more time – but… but…
“Get… get away…”
Both mares turned towards Applejack when she spoke.
With every ounce of willpower she possessed, Applejack forced herself upright. Even as her body tore itself apart, bit by bit, she found it in her to focus her gaze on the duo. “Get… get as far as… as ya… Don’t let m… me…”
She groaned and buckled again… then forced herself to straighten up. Her eyes found Rainbows, and the locked on for dear life.
“Rain… Rainbow…”
Very weakly, through the pain and fire and consuming wrongness, she forced herself to smile ever so slightly. “Come… come save me… ya hear?”
Rainbow’s eyes grew bigger. “AJ, what…?”
Applejack’s head went down again. But this time, as it did, her horn started to crackle… and came to life. It burned brighter and brighter, surging with barely contained force. Sparks of changeling magic started to dance in the air, circulating around her form in waves of fire and lightning.
It was that precise moment that Rainbow realized what she was about to do.
“No… no!” She cried, and tried to lunge forward, to stop it before it could happen, but Twilight caught her. “No! Applejack, stop!”
She didn’t react to her voice. She kept her head bowed as changeling magic crashed together all around her, enveloping her in a crude ball of fire. The roar of the flames reached a grating keen, and with a nerve-wracking screech of shredding reality and a deafening bang, Applejack was gone.
Both mares stared in numb, stunned disbelief at the spot where their friend had once stood. Now, only a crater in the floor remained. A moment later, even that was obscured as the roof caved in on top of it.
“Rainbow, we have to go,” Twilight managed to get out.
Rainbow didn’t move. She was paralyzed, eyes wide mouth frozen open. So, Twilight wrapped a hoof around her midriff, and with a flash of light, the pair disappeared a second before the floor gave way completely.
~~***~~
With a pop, both Twilight and Rainbow reappeared in a burst of smoke and embers back on the front lawn.
Both turned in unison, and beheld the eastern side of the mansion ablaze, with more succumbing to the flames by the second. The sheer heat of it burst windows and wilted grass and hedges under the eaves. For a time, the two just stared at it, unable to process what had just happened. It was Twilight who spoke up first.
“A-Applejack… what did she do? What kind of spell was that? What did she do?!”
Rainbow was slow to answer. She knew what kind of “spell” that had been, and just the thought of it horrified her.
“Did she just teleport?” Twilight continued to question, her voice high and hysterical. “On a spell like that? What was she thinking?!”
“Applejack…”
Twilight turned towards her, beyond worried and even scared. Rainbow was still staring at the fire, unseeing.
“Applejack… just bought us a couple hours.”
Twilight looked at her. Whatever expression she was showing, Rainbow refused to meet it. She looked fairly wretched herself. “Rainbow… this was supposed to be where all the answers were going to be.”
She turned and looked at the conflagration consuming the mansion. Windows stood silhouetted like the eyes of a jack-o-lantern against the fading daylight while the whole roof burned merrily away. And though she couldn’t see it, she could hear the building collapsing inside.
Off in the distance, she could hear sirens. Firefighters were coming, but it wouldn’t be fast enough.
Whatever secret Cadance’s mansion held for them was now forever lost to them. Whatever solution there was to be found there was gone.
They were back at square one, with only a matter of hours left to come up with a solution.