//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Mac's Tale II: The Blood of Apples // by Sir Barton //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Blood of Apples The lengthening golden rays of sunset seemed to dance as they passed through the softly moving leaves of the trees of the orchard. It was spring, and the air was warm and sweet with the smell of apple blossoms. It was a serene and reflective moment for the light brown earth pony stallion as he sat quietly in the small, well groomed grove near the edge of the orchard. He had given his thanks to Celestia for her stewardship of the sun and its life giving warmth and light, and for the grant of land she had bestowed on his damsire years before. He also thanked his grandparents in turn for their hard work that had turned that grant of land into the proud and expansive orchard that it was today, and wished them peace in their well earned rest in Elysium. The last pony in his thoughts though was at once both the easiest to address and the hardest. For virtually his whole life she had been there by his side. She had been everything to him that a pony could ever want of a friend … I miss you so much Flicka, the Stallion’s thoughts were barely a whisper in his mind, but to his heart they were as if screamed at a level beyond deafening. I know, my love. I know, the gentle caring strength of Flicka’s voice inside him eased the hurt that he found in his heart every time he opened himself to her. In the three years since he’d lost her, had lost them, that hurt had always remained. Yes, it had abated at times, yet here in the family grove, in her ethereal presence, the painful wound of her loss was always as fresh as the day it had been torn there. You were my strength when I was weak, my joy when I was sad, my warmth when I was cold,* and my dearest friend most of all. And you were mine, Ridge. His as well. You know that, and I know you’ll never give up hope he’ll come home someday. Wherever he is, Ridge, he has to believe you still love him, believe that you’d pull the sun itself from the heavens and hold it in your bare hooves to light his way back to you if you could. I know. But you can’t, and you need to focus on what’s important there and now. I know I’ll always carry the best part of you with me … … and of you with me … … but I’m here now. I’m at rest and at peace; I don’t need it now. But I know you need mine, and that she needs yours. She needs you to be her strength, her joy, her warmth, and I want you to know that I want you to give her all that you can of it, because they are there with you. Thank you, my love. The brown stallion smiled as he felt the great radiating warmth of Flicka's kindness within him. I just wish she could hear it from you. “I already have, my sweet cider stallion.” He hadn’t heard the light orange mare enter the ‘Family Grove’, but she had. As she slipped up behind him, she wrapped him in a warm embrace. She rested her head on his withers as he turned his head to see her soft, gorgeous apple green eyes looking back at him. “What do mean, you already have?” “Exactly what I said, Sugarstud, ‘I already have.’” Apple Ridge tilted his head questioningly as he watched the mischievous twinkle in Orange Bloom’s eyes dance in the light of the sunset as she smiled back as she slipped herself around him to where he could return the loving hug. Ridge’s ears perked up as the realization dawned on him: Bloom had been trying for months since the wedding to try to reach out to this part of her newly adopted family with no hint of success. “You … you … you mean you have? You can hear her? Hear them? When did you … ? How?” Orange Bloom snuggled closer into the warmth of their embrace. She stroked her soft muzzle gently up and down the side of his neck, and he reciprocated tenderly just like that first day. It had been here in the ‘Family Grove’, in front of Flicka’s grave, her fore leg still bandaged and healing from the break months earlier when she’d somehow managed to wrap a bandage of her own around his inner hurting and eased it for the first time in over two years. He had felt Flicka’s approval then, as now, and he knew things were going to be all right. “I found out just a few days ago. When I found out ...” Bloom stretched her neck up alongside his and caught his left ear gently in her lips. Ridge loved it when she nibbled his ears like that, how she tickled the little hairs inside with her breath. His hind leg was about to start drumming in pleasure when she stopped and drew back a bit, planting a soft kiss on his muzzle before fixing him with a look inviting him to ask her how. “Found out what?” he asked as he looked into Bloom’s dancing green eyes. He could hear Flicka’s wild laughter ringing merrily among the trees. He knew she already knew (and she wasn’t telling him) as Bloom planted another quick peck on his nose. “I’m pregnant.” * * * * * The uneasy air swirled across the open space of farm yard, gently ruffling the feathers on the wings of the fallen pegasus guard. “And who are you?” McIntosh’s eyes narrowed as he watched the Albino turn his gleaming, hateful eyes on him, shifting his attention away from Applejack in the process. Dazed, Applejack used the reprieve to slowly roll herself into a semi-upright position. A tangle of sounds and voices echoed distantly inside McIntosh’s head: The crunch of bone. His mother’s scream in the darkness. And more ... “I’m McIntosh Apple of the Apple Family, by Apple Ridge out of Orange Bloom … and I know who you are.” Mac gave a threatening snort and pawed the ground for emphasis, only to see the Albino’s bloody lips curl into an oddly knowing smile, the hatred still burning in his eyes. The sick sound of the mocking chuckle that was Albino’s response grated coldly on McIntosh’s soul as the white stallion gave his dead toned reply, “Oh, do you now?” “Eeyup,” Mac rumbled. He tried to keep as much calm in his voice as he could, but the weight of the swirling emotions he was holding back darkened his words, “You’re the stallion that killed my parents.” “What?!” a young sharp voice suddenly blurted out. Mac snapped his head around at the sound of the outburst to find Apple Bloom standing two, maybe three lengths behind him. Her mane and tail were rumpled from bed and her hair bow sat lopsided behind her right ear. A croquet mallet lay forgotten in the moment, dropped in shock at her hooves. By the expression on her face, eyes wide, her jaw slack and trembling, Mac knew she’d heard that which he’d always feared having to tell her even as the Albino’s cruel chuckle carried across the yard. “Apple Bloom, I …” Mac began, only to be cut off by Applejack. “Apple Bloom! Run! Get Twilight an’ the Elem … !” The sound of a hoof-punch cut off Applejack's words, causing Mac to reverse his sight back to where Applejack lay sprawled on her back senseless before the Albino as Apple Bloom dashed for the farmyard gate. Something inside him snarled viciously as Mac felt the chains of his self control draw tight and strain to their painful limits. “What a waste, little sister,” the Albino snarled as he flexed his haunches and reared up to his full towering height. “Now I’m going to have to kill the little filly too.” The world seemed to float as McIntosh watched his parents’ killer prepare to deliver another fatal blow to a pony he cared for, but something inside him was unwilling to let that happen. When, or how, he had started running he surely couldn’t say, but each beat of his heart brought him closer to his goal. Finally throwing his full weight behind his left shoulder, he slammed hard into the Albino. It felt like he’d collided with a rock wall. The pain of the impact was in no small part due to the working over he’d taken earlier at the hooves of Creme Brule and Pig Pen. McIntosh let out a grunt from the impact as the Albino toppled clear of Applejack and rolled a short distance towards the work-barn. “AJ!” Mac began, eager to get his sister clear of the conflict. “Mac … he .. he’s … our brother … “ was all Applejack was able to mumble before going totally limp. The rise and fall of her barrel, though, showed Mac she was unconscious but alive. It’s true, my son, I’m sorry. It’s true. It was the sadness in the sound of his father’s voice, carried by the swirling wind, that echoed inside him that chilled Mac through to his core. A furious whinny and a thundering of hooves alerted McIntosh to the onrushing danger scarce moments before the Albino slammed headlong into him at a full charge with a body tackle. The momentum carried them clear across into the side of the main barn-house. Mac slammed back first into the side of the building with enough force to rattle all the shutters. Most of his breath was knocked from him with the impact, but not all. Enough remained to allow him to screech in pain as the Albino pounded a fast pair of hoof strikes into the base of Mac’s ribs. Emotions let us feel the world around us, Little Tree-bucker, McIntosh could hear the words of Miyagi-sensei in his mind as he fought his way through the semi-conscious haze of pain and anger in order to think straight and keep control of himself. They let us know what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is bad. But it is the mind that must tell the body what to do, so as not to act wrongly to feel right. A fast right hoof from Mac to the Albino’s left ear rattled the white stallion, causing him to twist away from the impact and loosen the pinning grip that held Mac to the side of the barn. Mac snarled in pain as he took a return shot in the ribs from the Albino, but the effort on the Albino’s part let Mac twist free of the hold on the white stallion’s left side. Mac quickly rolled his shoulder into his opponent, hooking his right foreleg under the Albino’s left as he moved back to back with the white stallion, executing a heavy back-over-shoulder throw that sent the Albino crashing out into the yard. Mac took the opportunity to drop back to a solid four point stance, pulling air in hard as his barrel burned in pain from the Albino’s blows. He could feel the sweat beginning to form under his crimson coat and his ribs throbbed in time to his heartbeat. The Albino just calmly rolled to his feet and shook himself as if he had simply enjoyed a dust bath. “I see father raised you to be more of a fighter than he was, little brother,” the Albino sneered. “Your death will give me far greater satisfaction than his did.” “Why?” Mac asked as the pair began to circle slowly as the winds of the gathering storm hissed through the trees, joining their slow dance. “Because he failed little brother! Failed in the one thing he always promised us! To always be there for me and my mother! He failed! She died! And he abandoned me!” No Lightning! Your father wasn’t even on the farm that day you ran into the Everfree, the voice of a mare McIntosh didn’t recognize burst into his thoughts as the thunder cracked and growled as lighting rippled through the clouds above the yard. McIntosh watched as the Albino cringed at the flash and rumble, for a second seeming as scared as a foal. “He didn’t abandon you!” Mac put his heart into his words as he remembered something from all those many years ago. Remembered watching unseen among the trees of the orchard, watching his father sitting quietly in the family grove shedding silent tears for what McIntosh now knew was a lost foal. “He never forgot you, ever!” “He did!” the Albino roared back as he charged with a renewed fury. The white rush of rage was aimed squarely at McIntosh, driving both stallions up onto their back hooves as a hammering uppercut slammed into the base of Mac’s jaw. “He did!” An unexpected hind leg sweep by the Albino dropped McIntosh hard onto his side with his back to his opponent and his ribs awash with fiery pain. The Albino towered over him, the fatal blow at the ready. Mac jerked himself back, rolling belly up toward the Albino’s back hooves. The Albino’s jackstomp missed, barely slamming hard into the earth of the yard. The back edge of one front hoof still managed to tear a bloody furrow up Mac’s right shoulder. Mac roared in pain, but capitalized on his position. As he had rolled in and under the Albino’s strike, Mac tucked his hind legs protectively into himself and he now had his hind hooves placed squarely against his older brothers barrel. Mac could feel the inrush of air as the Albino gasped in recognition of what was about to happen. McIntosh bucked as hard as he could. The angle was not perfect, but the larger stallion was flung hard, tumbling through the air and into the white twin rail fence that separated the orchards from the farmyard. The sound of the rails breaking as the Albino crashed into the fence meant more chores to Mac if he pulled through this, but it was grateful music to his ears in the moment. Wrenching himself hard back onto his hooves, Mac whinnied in pain as the tear in his shoulder burned exquisitely for a moment as his maneuver inadvertently dragged the fresh wound through the dirt of the yard as he did. “It doesn’t have to be this way, brother,” Mac grunted through the stabbing pain in his ribs. That last fall had cracked at least one, McIntosh was certain, as he advanced on the white stallion who was also righting himself. “No little brother,” the Albino snarled back as he too recovered his footing, swaying slightly before throwing himself back into the fray, “it’s the only way it can be.” McIntosh deflected the Albino’s charge with a circular double cannon block, turning himself away from the rush while moving his own hind quarters towards the break in the fence. The Albino stumbled slightly and circled out in a wide turn before again rushing back at McIntosh. Mac dropped his forelegs low and readied himself to execute a neck and shoulder lift-toss. It was a bad choice as the Albino spotted the maneuver and pulled up short, delivering a pair of fast left and right cross hoof strikes to Mac’s head, splitting Mac’s left ear vertically from skull to tip and bloodying the right half of his nose and muzzle. Mac howled as he recoiled from the bad position. The Albino moved in to press his advantage, driving a forward double-hoof thrust squarely into Mac’s chest. The heavy work yoke McIntosh wore cracked but thankfully cushioned the worst of the blow, the force still sending McIntosh over backwards. The Albino did not relent in his advance, moving in to add more blows to Mac’s misery, but it was a bad move. A hind hoof sweep from Mac tripped up the Albino’s advance, dropping him belly to belly onto Mac’s barrel. Mac quickly jammed his left fore hoof hard under the back of the Albino’s jaw, lifting his brother’s head away from him as he brought home a powerful, post driving right cross to the Albino’s muzzle that sent blood and bits of teeth flying into the night. The Albino roared in pain as Mac hit him again, and then brought a hind leg up between them as he flung his rabid half sibling hard away, back first, into a nearby tree. The trunk of the mature apple tree cracked and leaned from the impact, but didn’t break completely. The Albino dropped back to all fours, while adrenaline and determination brought McIntosh back to his hooves again. “I forgive you, brother,” Mac choked out over bloody lips. He felt the warming presence of his family around him as the storm began to pour cold rain on the warring pair. “You’re family. You belong here now. We can all forgive you.” The Albino gave a cough of his own, blood and froth spattering on the ground at his hooves. His feral, pink and red eyes glowing hot with rage in the darkness of the downpour as he turned his head in his reply to Mac. “But I don’t forgive them,” he snarled back. “Or you. Or your sisters. All this is mine: The orchards, the valley, the forest … mine and mine alone! Granted to my family by the Princess herself, and you are trespassing little brother. There can be only one Lord of the Valley and Everfree, and that stallion is ME!” “What in Tartarus are you talking about?” Mac shook his head in uncertainty. “Our family doesn’t have any Titles.” “We do!” the Albino roared as he charged. “And they’re MINE!” Mac chose to stand his ground as the wild avalanche of white pony rage slammed into him. Mac took in the full body blow of the collision and wrapped his forelegs around his brother, holding tight as the pair tumbled down the sparse grassy hillside that lead down from the farmyard into the zap apple grove below. At the bottom of the grade Mac pushed off of his brother and rolled clear of the pair, driving himself back onto his hooves. The Albino followed suit with a whinny of rage. “This has to end brother! Now!” Mac yelled as he steadied himself. He could feel the last tatters of his self control fraying, the adrenaline pounding thick in his veins and his gut knotting ever tighter and tighter. His limit was near, and he didn’t want to consider what may come after ... “It will end, little brother. By the old laws of stallions, it will end: One shall stand, one shall fall.” The Albino ground a hoof into the ground for emphasis as he readied himself again. “And I’ll see you buried with honor.” The Albino lunged in, the pair rearing onto their hind legs trading blows and blocks as they lashed out at each other, pushing and striking, seeking the advantage. McIntosh could feel the weight of the stance going against him; his brother had more than a hoof vertically on him and three or four stone of muscle to back it up. The leverage battle lost, Mac felt himself falling and the ground catching him, though not softly. Inside he could feel the last fetters of his self control finally break and fall away as his brother towered over him to deliver the killing blow, lightning raking across the blackened sky behind him. I’m sorry... We forgive you. Sparks flew as the two sets of shod hooves smashed together on blazing white legs. McIntosh could see the look of surprise flicker in his brother’s eyes for a brief moment just beyond the fires of his rage at having his blow stopped before Mac threw him back with a powerful shove. Both stallions got to their feet circling each other, tossing their heads, and eyeing their opponent before coming together in a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder. As the pair fought, tiny white hot bolts of energy began arcing between the trees of the zap apple grove, dancing around the warring stallions. Beneath their hooves the ground was gradually torn into muddy furrows sown with blood as again and again the pair clashed, then broke, then clashed again, neither yielding. On and on the battle raged. Regardless of their mounting wounds, the pair fought on: Ruthless; remorseless; relentless; merciless. Until at last a telling blow found its mark. One stallion went crashing to the ground as the other rose towering toward the storm. Lightning split the sky and thunder shook the earth as over and over and over the victor rained blow after blow after blow onto his fallen victim. The wild refrain of a furious howling scream forged in a lifetime of grief and rage filled the night and drowned out the thunder. And then the quiet fell. * * * * * Dawn was just breaking as Twilight galloped towards the main gate to Sweet Apple Acres, accompanied by the rest of her closest circle of friends and a very bleary eyed Apple Bloom. It had taken longer than she had expected to gather all the Element Bearers after Apple Bloom had awoken her in the midst of the raging thunderstorm. The littlest Apple had been frantic, repeatedly tripping over her own words as she had tried to explain the situation. There was something else as well. Something that had been there since she had been startled awake bolt upright from what she had thought was the crash of the storm outside last night. It was a strange, deep and powerful yet almost intangible steady pulse that seemed to be both within her and all around her from the moment she awoke. Its rhythm was like the beating of some giant heart: lub-dub, lub-dub. She could feel it tingling through the root of every hair of her coat and mane with each thrum of that mysterious force. Even more, the sensation was only increasing as she and her friends approached Sweet Apple Acres. “Applejack!” Apple Bloom cried out at the sight of her sister and broke into a gleeful beeline run. Twilight too was relieved at seeing her good friend emerge, albeit noticeably dirty and disheveled, from the main barn-house. The feeling was shared by the rest of the gathered friends. Applejack had looked better for sure: Her blonde hair was half loose and unkempt, and (along with her coat) spattered with mud. There was also a narrow rim of dried blood accenting the corner of her mouth and edge of her nostrils, Twilight noted. The enthusiasm and relief of the reunion faded quickly at realization of the presence of a large, white sheet covered form out in middle of the yard. Twilight’s heart sank at the sight, yet the phantom pulse continued unswayed “Is it … ?” she began. AJ confirmed Twilight’s fear with a solemn nod and a name. “Eyrie.” Twilight could feel much of the joy at finding their friend alive fade from the group, replaced with a sickening weightiness. Fluttershy gave a soft sob as she and Pinkie leaned on each other for support. Rarity daintily covered her mouth in open shock, and Twilight could feel Spike’s arms wrapping tightly around her own left foreleg for support. “Hey,” Rainbow Dash called from on wing overhead. “I thought there were two guards?” There was a fleeting murmur of affirmed concurrence from the others. “Khartoum 's ... in the work barn,” AJ attested with a sigh shaded deep with sorrow. Rainbow Dash was there in the flit of a wing. “Dash! Don’t!” Applejack cried out as she realized only too late what the impulsive pegasus pony meant to do. Twilight watched as Rainbow yanked open the door, only a barrel’s width or so, and stuck her head in … only to immediately snap it back out with a shriek of surprise and revulsion. She slammed the barn door as she did so before diving for the nearest hedge. “What I remember from last night weren’t pretty,” Applejack explained, as a shudder from the memory rippled down her loose hanging mane, her voice chilled. “Ah reckon it’s worse in daylight.” Twilight’s gut turned and a cold shiver of her own made its way past the sensation of the great ethereal heartbeat that still seemed to be everywhere around her and slithered down the length of her spine. “You can say that again AJ,” Rainbow gave her sound agreement as she trotted back over to the group, giving her muzzle an absent wipe with a fetlock. “Big Mac did all this? Whoa. Princess Celestia should have sent an entire platoon of guards, not just a pair.” “It wasn’t McIntosh, Dash,” Applejack’s blunt rebuke took on a more defensive and serious tone. “It was Lightning.” At the mention of Applejack’s lost half sibling’s name, Twilight felt the throb of the unseen heart turn abruptly cold, like the wintry arctic gusts that would occasionally slip past the magic dome of the Crystal Heart up where her brother, Shining Armor, lived in the Crystal Empire with Princess Cadance. “No way AJ,” Rainbow cut in on Applejack with her typical assuredness. “I know all about lightning. There is no hole in the roof for one, and lightning doesn’t chop pony's heads off with a …” A horrified gasp and the muffled thump came from Fluttershy’s collapsed frame as she fainted dead away at Rainbow’s statement, putting a quick end to Rainbow’s assertion. “Not the lightning that comes from the sky Rainbow,” Applejack admonished. Twilight felt another chill work it’s way down her back, her mind beginning to fit the bloody pieces together. She could feel the phantom heartbeat give a sudden cold kick as she drew her conclusion. “You don’t mean ...” Twilight finally broke in, soft enough for only AJ to hear. Applejack locked eyes with Twilight for a fleeting moment and gave a sad nod of acknowledgement in reply as Pinkie Pie and Rarity helped Fluttershy back to her hooves. Twilight’s heart slid into her gut as AJ put a hoof around Apple Bloom’s withers and drew the filly close to her side, giving the young filly’s mane a comforting nuzzle before turning to her friends. “Before I say another word on any of this, I want y’all to promise me that you won’t tell any other pony that doesn’t have an absolute, undeniable need to know anything about what’s happened here, understood?” The group nodded. and collectively with words and motions the group made their Pinkie pact without further comment before Applejack turned to Apple Bloom and steadied herself with a deep breath. Twilight was practically certain she could feel the nervousness of her friend reverberating from the trees surrounding the yard along with the mysterious heartbeat. She pushed the thought and sensation to the back of her mind as AJ began to speak. “Apple Bloom, I know Big Mac was hoping to wait until your were older to tell you any of this,” Applejack began, “but after what happened here tonight, there’s no reason to keep you from hearing the whole truth now. It’s part of why he got so mad at you the other week when you pestered him about how he got his cutie mark.” Apple Bloom gave her sister a nod of recognition. “I know about the white stallion Applejack,” Apple Bloom interjected. “I heard big brother say it last night. That the white stallion was the one that killed Ma ‘n’ Pa.” The sadness on Applejack’s face was as much apparent to Twilight as the shock and gasps of the others were at their friend’s revelation before Applejack continued her explanation. “I know, Apple Bloom. He told me that too, the night after he got mad at you. But there is more to it than that, and it gets a little complicated. You see, that white stallion is Lightning Ridge, and he’s ...” “Gone.” The group turned as a whole to see Big McIntosh standing in the broken gap of the fence across the yard. The grim weight behind his baritone voice had seemed to sweep all other sensations from the air of the yard for Twilight. Even the steadiness of the phantom heartbeat seized up hard at the sound of the red Apple stallion’s words. “Big brother!” Apple Bloom cried out in joy, quickly dashing from the midst of the group towards her massive sibling. Twilight and her friends gave a collective gasp as they watched as McIntosh lifted a hoof to move forward and greet his baby sister, only to collapse to the ground where he stood. At the same time she felt the unseen heart gave a sickening twist and nearly fade from existence. “Big Mac!” Applejack yelled as the group raced over to her fallen brother. As they reached him Twilight began to notice the plethora of injuries covering him. His muzzle was bloodied, with both upper and lower lips split, staining the froth around his lips pink and white. One ear was slashed vertically nearly in half and dripping blood down the left side of his face. Among dozens of knicks and scratches that covered his hide, a pronounced kink in the curve of his barrel surely meant broken ribs, Twilight noted. Still, the most prominent injury had to be the long ragged gash that ran nearly the length of his right shoulder from forearm to withers. “Rarity!” Fluttershy’s was hardly the voice Twilight expected to hear next, but it was. It was clear, strong, and dominant as she spoke. Her wings were raised in authority as she continued to bark out instructions. “I need some number two white suture silk, and a one-and-a-half 3/8th needle, stat! AJ, get me some boiling water, some clean rags, and a jug of Granny’s corn squeezings.” “No …” McIntosh groaned, raising a bloody and dirt caked hoof, bringing the flurry of activity to a halt. “Can it!” Fluttershy snapped at him before turning back to the others. “Rarity! AJ! Go! Go!” “AJ … “ Mac moaned, continuing to hold out his hoof for his sister, who gently shouldered past Fluttershy and leaned in. “What is it Mac?” “Tell Granny … I’m sorry … I … I couldn't save …” “I know that you tried,” Applejack comforted him, lowering his hoof. Twilight could feel the mystery heart growing weaker as Mac took a shuddering breath. She was sure now that the phantom heart was McIntosh’s somehow, or at least connected to him in some way. A flash of white out of the corner of her eye made her look up. “What is it, Twilight?” Spike asked. “Stay here and help the others,” Twilight absently replied. “Hurry! Rainbow, I need you to get me some pure clouds to clean this wound,” Fluttershy instructed Dash with commanding urgency as Twilight scanned her eyes across the trees of the adjacent orchard. The sound of her friends faded as she caught sight of the white flash further down at the bottom of the slope that lead to the zap apple grove. Relaxing herself, Twilight focused her thoughts on the location she’d chosen as her horn began to glow. The world beyond the mystic bubble bent and distorted itself, shifting and moving as the teleportation spell did it’s work. A moment later the bubble around her burst in a flash of lavender sparks and Twilight reoriented herself to her new surroundings. There! Twilight caught sight of the white flash near the trunk of a zap apple tree and moved towards it to get a better view ... and immediately regretted it. She reared back in shock at the sight and backed quickly moved away from her discovery with her eyes clenched shut, her mind reeling from what she’d just seen. Her stunned brain wracked itself, searching for the words, any words to make sense of what she had seen. The first word that finally came to mind, however, summarized things well ... Shattered. That’s what lay on just the other side of the tree trunk: the shattered remains of the other stallion. His head had been smashed like a pumpkin on Nightmare Night, barely recognizable save for the tattered white mane and the open jaw filled with broken and bloody fangs. His neck was broken in at least two places that Twilight could see, where repeated hoof strikes had torn the flesh through down to the bone; there were probably more. The stallion’s barrel had been completely caved in, broken pieces of shoulder blade, forearm, and ribs jutting up through breaks in the hide. There were glimpses, Twilight could tell, of parts of a pony that were never meant to see daylight. Twilight quickly conjured a sheet and covered the remains as she staggered away to dry heave against a nearby zap apple tree. The whole of the front half of the other stallion looked more like something crushed and ground under a massive rockslide, not something that could ever be done by another pony. The evidence, though, was as plain as the massive hoofprints stamped across the corpse. It had been. “Twilight!” Twilight shook her head to clear it of the images she likely never would be able to as Applejack’s voice reached her ears. “Twilight! We need you back up here right now!” Twilight again centered her thoughts and returned herself to a spot near her friends at the edge of the farmyard. “Twilight!” Applejack grabbed hold of her as she tried to regain her bearings. Teleportation, though seemingly quick, was never the easiest mode of transportation. “We need you to teleport Mac to Ponyville Medical pronto! Fluttershy says he’s bleeding internally an’ she can’t stop it.” Her friend’s request hit Twilight like a buck in the gut. “I … I don’t think I can Applejack,” Twilight stammered. At her best, she might manage about seven or eight furlongs in a single blink. It was over twenty to Ponyville Medical! And with an extra body along, that meant four hops at least… more than likely killing Big Mac from the shock from the spell before she got him to help. Perhaps Celestia might have been able do it if she were here, or maybe Luna, but for Twilight that level of power was just not available. “Please,” Apple Bloom pleaded, her big gold eyes wide and wet with caring tears that could surely melt the heart of even even the coldest Windego. “I’m sorry, Apple Bloom,” Twilight answered the little filly as kindly as she could, even though it felt like she was carving her own heart out with a dull knife as she did. “I’ve never been able to teleport that far on my own, let alone with …” “It’s all right,” McIntosh’s calm voice interrupted the moment. “Thank you, Twilight.” “But big brother,” Apple Bloom turned back to her fallen sibling, “if somepony doesn’t do something, you’re gonna …” McIntosh silenced Apple Bloom with a soft ‘Shh’ before continuing. “I know, little one. An’ when I do, I’ll see Ma and Pa an’ be able to tell them what a fine young pony you’ve become. Sometimes, Apple Bloom, we don’t have a choice in what happens... all we can do is make the best of things, however they come out.” With that said Mac lay his head down and closed his eyes. “Mac?” Applejack called to her brother as Twilight felt the phantom heart give one last half squeeze. “Mac!” At her side, Spike gave a solemn snif. Rainbow tucked her head under a wing. Pinkie lowered her head, her mane unraveling itself as it fell. Twilight could see Rarity’s mascara beginning to run, a dark streak trailing from one closed eye down her silver white face as a bead of blue-white light formed at the tip of her horn. Fluttershy oddly made no sound... she just raised her wings and lifted her head, muzzle skyward, closing her eyes as she did. Twilight too, lowered her head and closed her eyes as she lit a memorial light of her own on her horn. Beneath the ground, she could feel something move beneath her hooves like a great wave as the great phantom heart relaxed one final time. In the stillness that followed, another beat took it’s place: Young, strong, and rapid. Its pace quickening with each beat building, growing stronger, echoing from what seemed to Twilight to be every tree from here to the Everfree. Finally, she had to open her eyes. Something was going on, and she had to know what. The first thing she saw, though, was Apple Bloom. The little filly had her face buried between her brother’s fetlocks, but there was an image on the the young filly’s flank glowing brightly. A silver-white tree stood out proudly, with five upturned branches surmounted by an arch of six small apples in the colors of the Harmony Gems. Her brother gone, Apple Bloom had gotten her cutie mark! Twilight was just about to say something when Apple Bloom threw back her head. “NNOOOOOOO!” the grieving filly howled, her eyes gone bright … glowing ... as a monstrous wave of energy rolled outwards from her. It was a wave like Twilight could only recall once before ... long ago when she had not been able recognize it or control it. Now though … now … The world vanished in a burst of lavender sparks.