Chapter 7 - Bloody Wounds
It was quiet inside the main barn-house of Sweet Apple Acres, as Applejack softly closed the door of Apple Bloom’s bedroom and made her way down the hall. It had been a long day. A long and unwantedly turbulent day at that, but at least Apple Bloom was finally asleep for the night. The little filly had had a big day, and had taken a big step on the road to marehood. Apple Bloom, AJ knew, would have much preferred to have gotten her cutie mark today instead of the much less likable revelation she’d gone into estrus. Still, AJ was just thankful by the end that Apple Bloom hadn’t gotten her cutie mark this day. What a cutie mark for ‘coming into season’ looked like AJ didn’t have, or want, a clue as to. The thought of her little sister’s destiny as a broodmare*, wasn’t too bad. The thought, however, of AB as a night trotter or stable girl,** was stomach turning.
Applejack paused a moment to look at the pictures that hung on the long wall between the door of her room and McIntosh’s, as the unsettling thought ebbed away. The pictures were of family, Granny and Grandpa Smith, along with Pa and his two brothers, Carter Seed, and Smith Forge. Carter, the eldest, had been struck with the same wanderlust that Granny had said was possessed of the Smith family, and he had left the farm as soon as he was able, travelling the length and breadth of Equestria, just as Granny’s Pa, Pokey Oats, had done. AJ smiled to herself, it was her cousin Braeburn, Carter’s son, who had eventually helped found the western orchard boom town of Appleloosa only a year and a half ago, much as their great grandsire had done for Ponyville.
Smith Forge, the middle colt, was more a pony of tools than trees Granny had always said. Forge had gone off with Granny and Grandpa Smith’s blessing to become a blacksmith and forge worker. Eventually he landed a job at Goldbuck Green’s plow shop in the town of Moline near Winneysota. Years later, he was still there, now a master toolmaker and the senior supervisor for the whole plow factory.
The last picture in the row, beside Pa's, was of a young bay filly. She had a darker mane and tail, and big, soulful, caramel brown eyes. The picture showed her about mid-way in years between AJ’s own age and Apple Bloom’s. She was seated, half turned away from the camera, looking up at an apple tree on the other side a fence, her cutie mark: two hearts above a tree. Applejack had always thought of her as her Aunt, Flicka Apple, it was the name the mare had been buried under in the 'Family Grove'. Yet Applejack now knew, it wasn’t.
Flicka Field had been the daughter of one of Granny Smith’s best fillyhood friends, River Field, a wild Mustang from the plains of Mustangia that Granny had met when the Smith family had passed through that region, many years before ever founding Ponyville. The two young mares had formed a strong friendship over the time the Smiths had spent there, and had maintained that friendship as pen pals over the years.
Eventually they had both settled down and started families. In time it was agreed, in the traditional manner of the earth ponies, that River’s daughter Flicka, would be sent to Ponyville to be accepted into the now Apple family as a bride and broodmare for Granny’s youngest son, Apple Ridge.
AJ gave a heavy hearted sigh as she turned from her late ‘Aunt’s’ portrait and headed for the stairs back to the main floor parlor. It would have been a simple end to Flicka’s tale there, she’d have grown up on the Mustangian plains, and when she was old enough, have come to Ponyville to be with Pa, and have foals to carry on the Apple line. Heck, Applejack’s own mother might not have ever even entered the picture, or so Granny had told her, but it seemed fate had other ideas.
When Flicka was only four, a wave of feather flu had swept through Equestria. It was a strain, so strong and terrible that there were far too few able pegasi to adequately manage the weather for months. Even Princess Celestia herself, Granny had said, had been stricken with it, though she gallantly held to her duties. The sun, in that time, had crawled dangerously slowly across the sky for weeks. It was in this dire heat wave that the green plains of Mustangia turned brown and dry, and Flicka was sent by her parents to the safety of Ponyville where the ‘free weather’ that formed over the Everfree Forest provided enough rain to keep the Harmony River valley healthy and green.
Nopony knows, Granny had said, as to what started The Great Mustangian Firestorm, all those years ago, the dreaded Field of Fire that claimed so many lives that summer. Some said it was a angry dragon, as black as night, others said it was a mishandled thunderbolt in the hooves of a pegasus, too young and hurriedly pressed into service. All Granny had told Applejack of it was, that because of it, Flicka would never be able to go back to Mustangia.
And so Granny had raised Flicka, who was a year older than Applejack's Pa, as one of her own foals. As the years passed the two young ponies grew closer than could ever have been hoped, Flicka grew into a beautiful mare, strong, vibrant, and full of energy. She was a tireless worker and achiever, Applejack remembered Granny telling her, much like Applejack herself, and just as headstrong. Yet her energy was paired and tempered to Pa’s own great caring heart, his deep rooted love of the valley and orchards. The magic that seemed to flow between the two of them brought many a great bounty to Sweet Apple Acres over the years, and eventually a very special one to themselves.
Applejack absent mindedly poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot on the stove and sat down at the kitchen table. The coffee was really there for the two Royal Guards who were even now dutifully searching the property trying to find and corral McIntosh. Though AJ didn’t particularly like it at the moment, it was good Apple hospitality. Still, she wished them luck all the same. McIntosh, for all his size, knew the farm and orchards better than anypony alive, and he had a perturbing ability to vanish practically without a trace at times among the trees. Playing hide and seek with him as a foal was a perplexing affair, and these guards were both novices to the farm.
Pushing the steaming cup aside Applejack reached out and drew the lone piece of paper on the table towards her. Twilight had brought it from the schoolhouse and left it here after the guards had arrived. She’d also cautioned the pair about having seen McIntosh experience a ‘Rage Shift’. The guards had, of course, scoffed. A ‘Rage Shift’ was a type of magical outburst experienced by unicorns under emotional duress. The thought of an earth pony experiencing a magical surge the like of that was, even by Twilight’s own admission, unheard of.
There was, however, no denying for the two friends what they had seen, and eventually Twilight had managed to convince the pair to take due caution in apprehending McIntosh. For AJ the sight of her brother, blazinging white, standing over Creme Brulee’s fallen form and ready to kill the brown stallion for molesting Apple Bloom had initially convinced her of a totally different conclusion. It had convinced her that McIntosh had in fact been the so called ‘Albino’ that he had told her had killed their parents that rainy night so many years ago.
AJ looked at the paper before her on the table. She knew more now than she had before, but it seemed like less some how. The name on the Ponyville school application was, Lightning Ridge, by Apple Ridge, out of Flicka Field. It was a name that Applejack now knew, by Granny’s admission, was that of her older half-brother; a pony that had died in the Everfree Forest along with his mother almost two years before AJ’s mother, Orange Bloom, had ever followed the rodeo circuit to Ponyville and met Pa.
Lightning had been a very special pony in many ways, Granny had told her, and was the reason why the family had began keeping hogs years ago. But there was one particular thing Granny Smith had told her about Lightning that had stuck in AJ’s mind and she couldn’t shake loose; Lightning had been an Albino.
AJ pushed the page away from her and turned slightly to look out the window. Through the window she could see trees and low white fence of the ‘Family Grove’, and she felt a pull inside her chest drawing her towards it.
We know you have questions, my beautiful princess, and we’re right here if you need us.
Applejack felt a shiver run up her spine as she recognized her mother’s voice as it spoke to her from somewhere beyond the trees of the farm, yet closer than AJ’s own heart. The voice was right, she had questions to ask, and the ponies that held the answers were not far away, waiting patiently for her to open herself up and ask.
The night was cooling as Applejack made her way across the farmyard to the sacred spot among the trees where her family placed their own for their final rest. In the sky above, she could see the silver light of Luna’s moon glinting off the dark clouds building over the Everfree, there was a storm coming, and her soul was as restless as the air around her.
She settled herself before her parent’s graves and cleared her mind like Granny had taught her, as she opened her heart to her ancestors. Applejack glanced over past Pa’s grave to her … Applejack paused, no, not her Aunt, but also yes, in a way.
I’m so sorry, little one. Forgive me, please?
The faint pleading voice was one Applejack knew she had never heard before, but in her heart she immediately recognized it as belonging to Flicka.
I do. Applejack thought, answering her stepmother/aunt’s request. In her heart, she knew it was the right thing, and the tension in the air ease with her thoughts of forgiveness.
Something, though, caught her eye as she turned her attention back towards her parent’s markers. There was something about the spacing of the graves she hadn’t noticed before. The gap between her father’s grave and Flicka’s was wider than between the others … almost wide enough to …
I could never bring myself to put the marker there. Applejack shivered as she felt the presence of her father beside her.
Why Papa? AJ asked as she felt the phantom sensation of her father nuzzle the side of her neck, like her used to when she was a little filly.
We only ever found Flicka, not him. In my heart I always felt he was still alive, that somehow he’d escaped, somehow. It was a hope I held … until the end...
But what about McIntosh? Applejack pleaded. He’s in trouble, he needs our help, we have to help him. Please.
Your brother is safe, Sugarcube, her father assured her, and not far away.
A crash from the work barn snapped Applejack's attention back to the present.
“Sayidati***, you should go in, where it is safe.” The smoothly accented baritone of the bay unicorn, Khartoum, came from behind her as the half-Arabian guard reached the low white fence that bordered the ‘Family Grove’, his attention focused, like hers, on the barn.
Khartoum, was the senior ranking of the pair of royal guards sent to the farm from Canterlot. He was a half-blood, by his own admission, when Twilight had commented on the unusual nature of his name. His father, he explained, was a noble from Saddle Arabia, and his mother a unicorn diplomat from Canterlot. He was tall and strong, with a coat like deep varnished wood and accented by an ebon hooves, mane, and tail. His noble and dignified manner and bearing gave him a regal presence AJ found most befitting of a royal guard.
Eyrie’s Honor, Khartoum’s pegasus partner, was by contrast a pony of a different feather. Headstrong and honest in speech, his mannerisms reminded AJ of Rainbow Dash, though Eyrie’s coloration was more typical of a royal guard; he bore an almost white, silver-gray coat that highlighted his sky blue mane and tail, and gave light to his flashing golden eyes.
“He’s my brother.” She replied firmly. Nopony was going to get between her and family.
“But you are valuable to Equestria, Sayidati, you are a Bearer of Harmony …”
“And that makes me overqualified to deal with my own family in this case.” AJ cut Khartoum off bluntly as she made her way out the Family Grove’s gate and headed towards the work barn. “So drop it.”
Khartoum raised his head and propelled a bolt of magical red energy into the sky. It burst a hundred or so feet up with an audible pop, sending out a shower of sparks and bringing another crash and clatter from inside the barn.
AJ looked up at Khartoum, who acknowledged her concerns with a nod of his head and a cautionary raised hoof. Applejack was about to offer another reminder to Khartoum that this was her farm and family, but an upward gesture of his head drew her eyes skyward to where Eyrie’s Honor swooped into view. A throb of color flashed about Khartoum’s horn, echoed by a low hanging cloud above the farmyard. Eyrie’s Honor rocked his wings in acknowledgment and swung up on to the cloud, peering over the edge at the farm in a ready stance.
As Khartoum turned his head back to Applejack the guards’ plan consolidated quickly in AJ’s mind, it made sense. Eyrie’s Honor was set to pursue her brother if he managed to somehow get past Khartoum and her on the ground.
“If you must follow me Sayidati,” the unicorn guard began, “stay behind me and talk sense to your brother, let him see wisdom and reason. Help him make peace with himself for what he has done. I swore an oath, to Princess Celestia herself, to protect your family’s line. Do not make a liar of me Sayidati. I do not wish to do harm to your brother, but I am prepared to if I must.”
Applejack nodded her agreement as she followed Khartoum towards the workshop-barn. Twilight had magically repaired the barn’s doors that had been broken in Mac’s altercation with Creme Brulee and Pig Pen after they had returned from the Ponyville Medical Center. While AJ hadn’t been too pleased with Twilight for using her magic, it just wasn’t the Apple way, she knew her unicorn friend’s heart was in the right place, and AJ thanked her honestly for it.
The good part of Khartoum being a unicorn, AJ noted as the barn’s doors glowed and swung open as if on their own, was that long reach their spellcasting ability gave them. If he could get Mac off his hooves and hold him up in the air she might just be able to talk some sense into her brother, or at least get his side of the story.
“Mac.” Applejack called out into the gaping entry of the barn as Khartoum continued forward. “Ya c’m on out now, y’ hear. These nice fellers ain’t gonna hurt ya. We wanna hear y’r side of the story, okay?”
There was no answer from within, but AJ could see that there was straw tossed all over the floor. That was odd, she felt, as Mac was nearly as big a ‘neat freak’ as Twilight or Rarity at times, so this was certainly out of place. Of course he had his temper issues, just like Ma.
Khartoum took the lead as they passed through the open doors, lighting his horn and channeling a magical beam of light into the dark interior.
“Mac.” AJ called out again, “Ya mind telling me what this here mess is about? It wasn’t here earlier when Twi’ fixed the doors.” She was running short on ideas as to how to call him out, gentle like, but still something seemed amiss.
As they made their way cautiously farther into the barn, AJ watched as the light from Khartoum’s horn played across the second work stall and its tool cribs. The hoof trowels and small garden forks had fallen around and into the harvest baskets below them. Applejack took a hesitant step in the direction of the first stall. The small tools were there, but what about …
The answer abruptly leaped up and struck her, mentally, and quite literally, as her second step entering the stall had her hoof find the business end of a rake, sending its shaft slamming upwards into her face
“Ow!” Applejack yelped, ducking her head to her hoof, as she staggered back a half step with the impact.
“Sayidati!” AJ heard Khartoum exclaim, “Are y…”
The sound of a swift swing of motion that ended in a heavy ‘thock’ of something embedding itself in the nearby wooden post, cut Khartoum’s words off as something else dropped onto the floor nearby with a heavy thump and muffled clatter.
Blinking her eyes harshly to clear the stars from her vision, when she could finally focus she found the barn had gone dark. As she stepped back from the mouth of the stall where the rake had struck her, she spotted the curved form of the scythe embedded in the support beam at beginning of the dividing wall. Below the blade she could now make out the shape of Khartoum, unmoving, on the floor, and her nostrils caught the coppery tang of blood in the air.
Oh Mac, please no. The thought jumped into AJ’s head as her gut and heart simultaneously leaped into her throat silencing any chance of vocalizing the words as she stumbled back from her brother’s folly.
As she moved back she became aware of the silent presence of the huge Earth Pony stallion, easily more than a hoof-and-a-half taller than herself at the withers, standing before Khartoum’s fallen form. He was massive, thick necked, deep chested, and broad barreled. His mane and tail hung long and loose over a powerful rump and withers lined with muscles that rippled like a filly’s fantasy. But what caught Applejack’s attention completely and sent a cold prickling wave of frost down her back was his color. Apart from the gleaming red pupils, full of cold focussed emotion, set in raw pink frames that gazed down on her like some disapproving godling, the stallion was white without even the faintest trace of a cutiemark. The unearthly scream of a mother’s grief echoed distantly from beyond the grave inside Applejack’s head against the silence of the barn as the realization came to her. The stallion wasn’t McIntosh, but the stallion was her brother, and the stallion was an Albino!
Applejack swallowed hard, her guts settling into a cold lump in the back of her belly as she kept backing towards the barn’s doors as the ghostly stallion turned and slowly advanced on her, casually stepping over Khartoum’s body as if the fallen guard pony were of no more consequence than a pile of leaves.
“Lightning?” Applejack murmured, half to herself and half in question to the white stallion whose ears pricked in seeming recognition.
“You’ve heard of me?”
The white stallion’s response sent a shiver down Applejack’s back, as he turned his view from the fallen guard pony, to look directly at her as she nodded her affirmation. He sounded uncannily like Big McIntosh in a way, a smooth, even unhurried tone with an earthy bass to it.
“How?” The big stallion took a step forward as AJ’s hooves kept her backing cautiously towards the barn door.
“I’m your sister, Applejack.” AJ answered plainly and honestly as was her nature
“I don’t have a sister ... “ The big pony rumbled, his eyes narrowing in scrutiny.
“Half-sister, actually, our Pa …” AJ began to explain, only to reconsider a heartbeat later as fiery flecks seemed to ignite in the hot red furnaces of the white stallion’s eyes merging into a hateful glow.
“Our father?” growled the Albino lowering his head threateningly as he drew a forehoof back, gouging a long scrape into the packed earth of the barn floor, as faint scarlet streamers began to leak from the corners of his eyes. “Was a cowardly fool who couldn’t protect those he loved. He left my mother to die, and me to the mules and dogs. So he could take up another mare. He tried to keep me from my birthright. A birthright granted to my great grandsire by the Princess herself, the Lordship of the Valley and Everfree Forest, and nopony will keep me from taking what’s rightfully mine!”
Applejack backed through the open barn doors as the monster advanced on her, her guts cold as she watched the Albino advance on her. He wasn’t the monster from her dreams. He wasn’t a tattered timber-wolf like pony construct with a bent changeling horn and bloody fangs and stone hooves. No, but her half-brother’s eyes were those from her dream, from her brother’s nightmare, hot red and shimmering with rage. They reminded her McIntosh’s eyes the night he confessed the truth to her.
Oh, how Applejack needed her friends by her side right now, how she needed them and the elements of harmony they represented. She had seen the power of the elements strip the darkness of the nightmare from Princess Luna, and restore the Alicorn Princess to her proper self. She needed them now to do the same now for one of her own family, if it was even possible.
No, Applejack reminded herself, as the Albino stepped out of the barn into the farmyard, it was possible, she just needed somehow to get word to her friends.
And then, like a bolt from the blue, opportunity knocked the Albino over.
* * * * *
Something had certainly gone wrong, Eyrie’s Honor knew as he watched Applejack back cautiously out for the barn That was what his gut told him as he watched from his perch on the cloud above the farm. His haunches and wings twitched with nervous energy as he watched and waited, ready to spring into action and chase the criminal to exhaustion. It was a sound plan that Khartoum and he had used many a time, though the half-Arabian unicorn preferred to talk his opponents down if possible.
It’s go time. Eyrie thought as the big white earth pony stallion stepped into view, and Eyrie tipped forward off the lip of the cloud. The ground rushed up as he plummeted towards his target, his wings guiding him in perfectly.
The impact was shockingly hard, Eyrie found, like playing Bumby-Rules Hoofball at flight camp, and his shoulder was going to be feeling the consequences tomorrow. But the big earth pony seemingly got the worst of it, getting knocked clean over, as Eyrie gave a flap of his wings to send himself up and over the big white stallion and touch down in a defensive posture on the other side.
“In the name of the Princesses I hereby place you under arrest, stand down!” Eyrie boomed at the white pony, flaring his wings as the big stallion rolled back over and regained his footing.
“Not likely, fool.” The white stallion snarled back. “There is only one Princess in Equestria, and on my land, I yield to nopony.”
One Princess? Eyrie pondered the odd comment for a second before the white stallion lunged at him. Eyrie took wing, deftly evading the blow and landing a pair of quick hoof shots to the bigger stallion’s muzzle with his back hooves before somersaulting in the air and landing two lengths behind the white.
The big earth pony wheeled about his mouth tight, and nostrils wide with rage.
“Not that easy big fella. Now stand down before you get hurt.”
The big earth pony just snorted defiantly and charged his opponent again. Eyrie took to the air, vaulting the charging stallion again this time landing a solid one hoof kick to the withers as white pony passed beneath him.
“I said: Stand Down!” Eyrie shouted as the white stallion turned about seemingly unphased by the kick.
The white earth pony gave an angry rumble in return, his red eyes darting across the yard. Eyrie followed his opponent's line of sight to where Applejack was cautiously skirting the pair moving towards the house-barn’s door.
Eyrie didn’t have time to guess the other stallion’s move before the Albino earth pony charged directly at the blonde maned farm mare, who startled and bolted for the barn-house at the surprise maneuver. Eyrie pushed off with legs and wings to get ahead of the white stallion, get between him and Applejack.
Oh Crap! Eyrie realized in a split second as the big white stallion aborted his false charge and whirled on him. The cross left hoof connected solidly with Eyrie’s head, sending him crashing back onto the dirt of the yard. Eyrie rolled upright onto his belly, his wings splayed out limply on either side as he shook his head to clear the double vision. The Albino trotted up quickly, pressing the advantage gained in the shift of momentum as Eyrie’s head settled.
A downed Pegasus pony was vulnerable, Eyrie knew, but the Equestrian Royal Guard’s self defense training was superb, and mind, training, and instinct quickly meshed in a moment of inspiration for him to take back the initiative. With a quick sweep of his wings and a push of Pegasi weather magic Eyrie sent a dust devil swirling into the white earth pony’s face as he threw himself back onto his hooves, and a moment later lunged into the air. The Albino earth stallion reared up and pawed useless frustration after Eyrie as the pegasus guard looped the farmyard on high, dropping down in front of the barn-house porch as Applejack made it inside.
Eyrie reared slightly raising his wings to show his protection of the ponies in the barn behind him. The white stallion merely lowered his head with an odd sideways glance of derision and proceeded to trot in an agitated circle in the middle of the yard.
“What’s he doing?” Applejack asked as she cautiously opened the upper half of the door a crack.
“I’m not sure.” Eyrie replied back over his shoulder, before addressing the Albino. “Give yourself up and stand down. Run and I can easily run you down and drag you back to Canterlot in chains.”
The white pony gave his head a firm shake and a defiant snort as he came to a halt in the center of the yard, a grim, hateful, look hung across his face as he stared back, and then, he lowered his head, and his rump and his barrel, and lay prone on the earth.
“Fine, feather head, come take me.”
Well, Eyrie mused, it seems the mad bronco has some sense after all.
"I’ll get my rope.” Applejack interjected from behind him.
“No need,” Eyrie assured her as he ducked his head beneath his left wing and retrieved a pair of fetters from a pouch that seemed easily too small to have held them. The pouch was magical of course, using something he remembered Captain Shining Armor called 'Tardic Manipulation'. That mattered not a whole lot at the moment to Eyrie’s Honor, as he advanced on the prone stallion. All that mattered was he had the fetters, and this wild white menace’s spree of mayhem was at an end.
“He’s my half-brother, Lightning Ridge,” Applejack added as she followed, "and he’s under some kind of spell, or possession, or something ... I think.”
“You think?” Eyrie hedged in reply.
“I don’t know, but I know Twilight could figure it out. I just need you to hold him here until I can get my friends.”
“If you think it can help.” Eyrie gave a grudging acquiescence to the Bearer of Honesty, as they stopped before her fallen brother. If a pony couldn’t trust her, who could they.
“Hello, dear sister.” Lighting grumbled sarcastically as he dragged a fore hoof idly through the dirt of the yard where he lay.
“Why?” Applejack asked. Eyrie could hear the heaviness of emotion in her voice.
“Because ...” Lighting began in a surprisingly calm tone, as Eyrie lowered his head to secure the fetters, “it’s time.”
The feral stallion suddenly lunged forward, and a sharp pain slammed through Eyrie’s throat as he dropped the fetter chain from his mouth suddenly gasping for breath as the big earth pony lurched to his hooves and sent Applejack reeling to the ground with a powerful backhoof.
Eyrie tried to call out to her, but all that came from him was a sick, wet, gurgling sound that dripped hotly down his neck, as a fervored panic built within him. The white stallion paid the sound no heed as he focused his attentions on Applejack, administering another powerful swat as the farm mare tried to get back to her hooves, again sending her to the ground. Eyrie tried to move forward help her, but the world swam unsteadily, his legs going from under him as the Albino turned towards him and callously spat a bloody wad of flesh and hide onto the ground.
The Albino looked at Eyrie, a smile forming across the white stallion’s bloody lips. Eyrie watched in horror as the smile grew broader and broader, the Albino's lips eventually curling back to reveal a set of long, wicked, fangs, like those of the Pegasi Tribe’s distant cousins, the Bat-Ponies of Princess Luna’s Night Watch, stained pink and red with fresh drawn blood. Diomedes syndrome, in it’s rarest of forms, Eyrie knew, as he lay his head on the ground, his strength was gone, and the world growing dark as the Albino turned his attention back to his fallen sister.
“I rise. You fall, dear sister.”
Darkness swallowed the world for Eyrie’s Honor. But he felt light, and warm, and safe, as blue skies opened above him and sweet flowered air flowed warmly through his nostrils and filled his lungs. He felt the hard earth fall away, as he rose into the Elysian skies, his wings buoyed upwards on warm gentle thermals. His last thoughts of the world he had left were now fading from his mind, yet he wondered of the deep, powerful, voice he had heard speak just at the end and what had it meant when it said,
“Nnope.”