To Remember and Acknowledge
Surrounded by nothing other then the horrific beauty of the forest, Rainbow Dash vomited.
The way that Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had looked at her carved into her stomach, and added more guilt into the churning emotions that racked her body. They had looked so horrified when she told them about what happened to the strange creature that they had called friend. They hadn't yelled at her or attacked her. They just wanted to know where she had helped Twilight and Applejack drag him.
Why hadn't they attacked her?
She was the one that didn't fight against Twilight's decision to trick the human. She was the one that didn't press about the human's discomfort. She was the one that didn't make sure that Applejack was ready to speak to the human again.
She was the one that didn't stop Twilight from killing it.
Rainbow Dash pushed herself away from the damp ground where she had been sick.
He wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. Fluttershy was good at fixing injuries. He would be fine, just fine. Even if...
Zachary's neck and arms held the weight of his body as the chains that Twilight had so carefully crafted held his unconscious form to the tree. A corroding smell fill her nose and stung at her eyes as Zachary's skin continued to burn. She saw and heard the slow drip-drip splash as bright red blood fell from his obscured face into the small but ever growing puddle under him.
Drip.
Drip.
Splash.
Rainbow Dash's body was racked with another violent round of vomiting.
There was just so much, too much...
At least the paintings in that base weren't real! They looked horrible and were extremely violent and were drawn with the strokes of a mad pony! But they were only drawings, and couldn't, they couldn't, scream.
Rainbow Dash curled against her stomach trying to stop the her body from injuring itself further. The way that his body slammed against the bark of the tree, the way that his face contorted in pain with each drawn out scream!
He had to be dead, nothing could survive that.
“They sound pretty dead to me.” She had said so, so long ago.
“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack had shouted at her angry at her rudeness.
“Don’t look at me like that AJ you know I’m right, nopony survives living like that!”
No creature could live through that, they shouldn't have to. Ponies were supposed to be good, they brought peace into the world and never allow evil to reign. Ponies brought peace to places that didn't have it, because it was the right thing to do. The Princesses were wise, always had the answers and always made the right choices. That was why they led.
...But Twilight didn't make the right choices.
Rainbow Dash clutch her head, it felt like it was swelling and was just waiting to burst!
Twilight is a princess, but she wasn't making the right choices. Rainbow Dash was loyal to the princess because even though she hated to admit it, they were smarter than her and had all the right answers. Except when they didn't.
She struggle to stand up and tried to focus pass the pain that was trying to cloud her mind.
Twilight didn't have all the answers.
Twilight was a Princess.
The princesses didn't have all the answers.
They couldn't have all the answers, if they did Luna would not have had so much trouble getting close to them on Nightmare Night. Celestia would have known that the researchers that came to her all those years ago weren't lying. Twilight would have known that separating a human from its magic would have done...that.
Rainbow Dash forcefully banished the smell of burning flesh from her mind.
The princesses didn't know everything, but she was still loyal to them. How could she be loyal to them if she didn't agree with everything they did? Could she be loyal to them without agreeing with every decision they made?
The pain in her head slowly began to lessen.
Of course she could be loyal to them without agreeing with everything the said, she was loyal to her friends and she didn't always agree with them.
She stood up straight finally began to clean the leftover spit from her mouth as her stomach settled.
Okay, she was loyal to Twilight because she was her friend, and the fact that Twilight was a Princess didn't change anything. Now what does a good loyal friend such as herself do when one of her friends was being...whatever the hay Twilight was being?
Rainbow Dash nodded stiffly to herself before trotting deeper into the horribly beautiful forest around her.
She was going to smack the stupid out of Twilight, and help her do something about the terrible unexplainable mess that she had gotten them all in.
Applejack trudge away from the clearing in no particular direction. How could she? Just go get lost wasn't a proper direction and neither was three Ray Mesuus or whatever that monster had told them.
Why couldn't they see that the human was better off dead? Didn't they know that keeping it alive would only cause more problems? Just look how be acted out when she made an honest guess about his family. How would he act if he wasn't chained down and somepony said something worse? He had to be put down.
The smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils and made her gag. The mangled body chained to the tree in front of her was too much to look at. The way that his skin bubbled and shifted was just too much.
Applejack winched. Maybe they did go too far...
She roughly shook her head, "No! We didn't go too far!" Applejack shouted into the vastness of the forest. The strain she put into the shout tugged at her sore cheek.
Rainbow Dash glare had been filled with so much hate. "The Applejack I know wasn't a, a, a Celestia damned monster!"
Applejack gently placed a hoof against her stinging face, "I'm not a monster, it's not my fault that, that demon acted out."
She was Honesty, and Honesty was never wrong. She was never wrong.
So why was her stomach tying itself into knots?
Angry, she went to buck the nearest tree only to stop herself mid-kick. The tree was in bloom and had the prettiest pink and white flowers doting its foliage. It was so pretty in fact that it almost made a pony forget that it was the only blooming tree in the forest.
Applejack quickly backed away from the tree horrified at what could have happened if she wasn't paying attention...
"Applejack you can't draw conclusions like that!" Twilight said shocked at her rudeness.
Why did Twilight care that she was drawing conclusions? Wasn't that what they were doing ever since they started this search? Why did she care?
Frozen murderous ice blue eyes glared at her as a terrible growl left the monster that hosted them.
Why did he care? A creature like that wouldn't care about it's family no matter what Fluttershy tried to tell her. Applejack knew monsters. Some of Equestria's worst monsters lived a stone's throw away from her farm, and like all monsters he didn't care about who they went after as long as they where fed. Zachary should know that, so why was he so mad when she brought up his father's abandonment of him?
Applejack stop her stride.
Unless his father didn't abandoned him, but if his father didn't abandoned him why was he so mad?
Applejack's face went a light shade of green as she remembered something that Fluttershy once told her about dogs when Winona was in heat. Dogs were like wolves and wolves were beasts and Zachary was a beast.
He wouldn't, he couldn't, but why else would he be mad. Nopony would be mad about hearing about their father, but they would be mad about hearing about the pony that once held their position. Especially if they used unjust means to get that position.
"I knew it," Applejack whispered into the deadly quite forest around her, "He's a monster! A horrible demon that needs to be stopped!" Applejack voice rose into a shout, "Ah knew I should have convinced Rainbow Dash to leave it to die. Now Fluttershy is going tah save him and he's going to go back to his pack and they will follow him. That's what animals do they follow their leader no matter how they got into position. What if they decide to go to Equestria and get their revenge?"
Applejack's voice had risen deafening uneven shrieks, "We have to kill him. We have to kill all of them! It doesn't matter who or what they are we have to kill them before word spreads." Applejack's raging had brought her near a still crystal clear lake. "Twilight has to know the only way to protect our families is to stop that demon and his kin. Even if we have ta kill them even if we have to do after the cub. Who knows what lies she would spread if she was able ta leave. We have to because they're nothing but horrible evil murderous demons. And that's the honest truth!"
Applejack ended her loud vocal rant by slamming her hoof into clear lake, imaging that the crystal blue she distorted belonged to a certain smirking human.
As the disturbed surface cleared Applejack was horrified at what she saw.
Gone was the cheerful sweet smiling mare that she had always seen since she was a foal. Gone were the lovely green eyes that always lit up her face. Gone was tough but fair mare that worked so hard to be the voice of reason. In that sweet fair mate's place was a creature that Applejack did not recognize.
The thing that stared up at her, a cheerless permanent scowl ripped any joy or innocence from it's face. The creature's wide poison green eyes glared hatefully at her from the darkest deeps of a once serene lake. Cruelty that wasn’t justified, that couldn't be justified leaked like a deadly sickness from the face of the image before her.
Applejack raised a hoof to the bruise on her face only to have creature in the lake perfectly mirror her movements. Horrified she backed away from the reflection.
"What is wrong with me?" Applejack whispered, "Was ah really thinking about murdering a family?" She shook as her venomous words can back to her, "Did ah really compare it, no, did I compare him to a creature from the Everfree?"
"Applejack you can't draw conclusions like that!"
"I thought he would kill his father and do that to his mother?" Applejack breath came out ragged as her horror sunk in, "I was thinking of killing his sister."
"Oh Applejack you should see how Zachary talks about his sister." Rarity had told her barely a day ago, "I may not be a human but even if can see how much he adores her. To tell you the truth she kind of reminds me of little Apple Boom with how she always gets herself and her friends into trouble. You two should compare stories."
Applejack shoved her hoof to her mouth in an attempt to quell the churning acid in her stomach, only to cough out the sudden obstruction in her throat.
Damped black fluff stuck wetly to the ground.
Applejack watched as Rainbow Dash's face turned green, "You can't just pluck him!" The pegasus had shouted her own wings wincing for the pained noises Zachary had made.
Applejack backed away from the soft down feathers, "What is wrong with me?" Applejack whimpered as she tried desperately to find reason in her actions.
Humans were dangerous. Zachary is a human therefore he is dangerous. She knew that it was the honest truth, but that didn't mean that he needed to die. Nocreature should have to die for just existing.
Sharp white glistening teeth flashed as the creature in front of her grinned.
Just because he didn't deserve the treatment that she gave him doesn't mean that she trusted him or think that he shouldn't be locked up. There was just something about him that she didn't trust. He was hiding something, and as an Apple she had to protect her family and friends from his lies. However, she couldn't be an Apple right now. She was the element of honesty, and she couldn't let her own personal grievances get in the way of their collective goal.
Bring a human back to Equestria, share the information they found with the princess then with ponies of Equestria, and finally modernized the humans and apologize for the past.
Applejack winched as she remembered the state of the human, a state that they had much to do with. They never should have came to The Forsaken Islands. Why didn't she tell Twilight that coming here was the last thing that they should have done?
Her eyes glanced down to soft black fluff on the ground and she remembered the sick absolute pride she had felt when she finally was able to physically attack the nightmares and fears that had plagued her.
Applejack stood up quickly. She couldn't let her personal feelings make things any worse then they already were. She will be the unbiased honesty that her friends needed, that Equestria needed. She will keep an eye on the human but she will not engage with it.
Happy with her conclusions Applejack turned around and headed back to camp.
After all somepony had start dinner.
Alec muted his sigh as he tried to ignore his headache that had been getting worse over the past week. After what had felt entirely too long they had made it to the Equestrian coast or rather as close to the Equestrian coast as they dared. Everything was going fine and the first recon teams landed on enemy territory only to quickly return.
Apparently that language that the griffin spoke was not as universal as they had thought it was, and the translation pendants that Mage had helped to make were less the useless. Of course this angered everyone as they were forced to come up with a crappy plan B which was stupidly easy on paper and seem next to impossible to complete in the field.
Restrain and borrow a unicorn bring him or her to the sub and take the Equestrian language from him, and reprogram the pendants.
The plan should have shattered to millions of pieces, but it didn't because it seems that ponies were idiots. The town that he and Kim had came across was on edge. There was what looked like an organized patrol on the streets, and the themselves streets were completely devoid of ponies once the sun had fully set. Yet, no matter how prepared they seemed Alec couldn't see them as anything but idiots. How else could it be that a town so on edge, and panicked did the ponies manage to not lock the doors to their house?
It took them three tries but they had found a unicorn and judging by the state of its home, and complete lack of personal pictures, he was a bachelor too. It was quite a jackpot, no one would miss him if he was gone for the night. Knocking him out was easy. Dragging him back to the submarine undetected was harder but still do able. However that was what brought them to their current problem...
"We have to kill him after this is done!" A member from strike team one glare, her mouth clamped shut yet her message heard by all in the small room.
"Don't you know how suspicious that is? Everybody out there is already on edge do you really want to give them a reason to investigate further?" Someone shouted back making the inside of Alec's head ring.
He repressed a hiss as the voices in the makeshift integration room got louder. It would not have been so bad if they were not directly wired to his head like Standing Refuge's most demonic conference call. Everyone was shouting over the mental link and no one was backing down, and he just wanted everyone to,
"Shut up!"
Once the ringing stopped Alec was able to look at the person who shouted.
"Do you have any idea how loud you are?" Klein the Empathic and the conference call's sole mental anchor winched as he held his head, "I don't mind that you're arguing, that is what this link is for, just don't shout into my head."
Alec finally relaxed when a soft chorus of apologies flooded over the mental link. Seeing that this silence could be his only opportunity to interject, he spoke, "If you are done I may have a solution that will agree with us all." He continued once the rooms attention was directed at him, "Let's take the Equestrian language from him while he continues to sleep, after we'll wake him and test the accuracy of the spell on him. If the spell is instantly successful and he believes that we are ponies we'll knock him out and bring him back unharmed, however," Alec face took on a distinctly apathetic air, "If he hears common tongue and we have to tweak the spell. We will...dispose of him, after all we cannot leave loose ends."
The mental link lit up with a collection of buzz's as the people around him weighted the merit of his plan. The nods that he received told him all that he needed to know.
Alec approached the sleeping unicorn, taking off the dull medallion around his neck. The room was silent as he placed the cold metal against the unicorn's forehead and began to feed a steady stream of magic into it. The medallion pulsed signaling that it had received the language placed into it, causing Alec to remove it from the still sleeping Unicorns head.
He waited for the glow on the medallion to die down before signaling Kim to turn the lights in the integration room off. It was more of a precautionary measure seeing that the unicorns was already blindfolded and tied to a chair. As the room as flooded with darkness Alec returned the medallion to his neck.
"Wake him." Alec said into the low buzz of the mental link as he removed a pistol from it's holster, and aimed it were he knew the unicorn's head was. The faster this went the better.
Alec heard a loud splash that was quickly followed by coughing and sputtering.
"Where am I, what's going on?" The panicked unicorn shouted into the darkness, while a small smirk barely crossed Alec's face.
He had heard every word.
"Did you get that?" Kim asked over the link.
Alec breathed in softly as he cocked his, "Yep, I'm making the response now. Let's see how lucky this guy is."
Alec may not have been as good as Zachary at changing his voice but he could pass.
"Hello there." He replied in Equestrian with what he hoped sounded like a young woman, or would a better term be mare? Well it didn't really matter, what did matter was what the pony had heard. Alec carefully placed a finger on the trigger. If the pony in front of him didn't understood what he just said things were about to get very messy indeed.
"Oh sweet Celestia, Milky Surprise is that you? I said I was going to pay you for last night later. You know I'm good for the money!" The unicorn shouted as he struggled harder. "You can't tell Sugar Pop about this I still have tabs out for Honey Teats!"
Alec stared flatly at the darkness in front of him as the unicorn continued to babble.
"Alec did it work? Come on man say something!" Kim shouted at him. However his mind was currently occupied with trying to make sense of the pony before him.
"Milky Surprise, work with me here." The stallion whined, "If you tell Sugar Pop about this he won't let me take out any mares other then Red Tasty, and she's like fifty! It's like mounting a pile of slimy wet old rags!"
Alec felt himself get sick and before he could stop himself he replied, "You're disgusting."
"You weren't complaining last night when I did that thing with my tongue." Alec could feel his skin crawl at the greasy seductive tones the pony used.
To Alec's horror he started making wet slurping noises with his tongue dropping a few 'You like that huh's' in between slurps.
"Knock him out!" Alec shouted over the mental link. The loud thunk that followed ended the assault against his ears. The lights in the room flicked on revealing to Alec's disgust the stallion soaking wet muzzle.
Kim walked up to him and looking between him and the stallion coated in his own saliva asked a very well placed, "Dude, what the fuck?"
Alec outright ignored Kim's question. "The medallion works. Once we remove this... creature from the sub we can link it up with the others and continue the mission."
"Alec you can't walk away from this. Why was he grunting like that?" Kim said pointing at the stallion one of the teams were removing. "You cannot hid information like this."
Alec centered himself trying to think of a proper response before saying, "I engaged in conversation with the subject, and he thought I was a disgruntled call girl. Those noises were an attempt to pacify me with the promise of...intercourse."
Somehow he kept his calm even as the link lit up with laughter.
"I should have shot him." He muttered putting his gun away and following the still snickering Kim deeper into the sub.
"So you're saying that you wanted to blow his mind?" Kim asked between guffaws when they left the sound proof room. She then snorted at what Alec knew was an annoyed looked on his face, "Oh lighten up will you? We have only so much time before we have to renter Equestria take the jokes as they come."
"It wasn't funny." He said entering the amulet hub and synchronizing his with the rest of the active amulets on the ship.
Kim paused to check the glow on her amulet before saying, "It was pretty funny from where I was standing. Hey, who did he think you were? It looked like he thought you two were well acquainted."
Alec looked at the smirk on Kim's face and weighed the options if he said nothing she would pester him until they were deployed. He really didn't want to send the next twenty minutes like that.
"Repeat this," Alec said cold as a tundra, "and I will tell everybody that you where the one who caused the 'Bachelor and Bachelorette party incident' six months ago."
Kim's smile fell, "In my defense the idea to have one party strip for the other started out well. How was I supposed to know that the bride to be and the groom to be had a five year relationship before having the worst break up in history. They shouldn't have attacked each other and decorative swords should not be that sharp!"
"So you understand the seriousness of the situation?" Alec said voice as cold as ever.
"Yeah, yeah I won't tell anybody. So tell me who he thought you where already." Kim said raising a critical eyebrow at him.
With some hesitation he did.
For the next five minutes Kim's laughter could be heard throughout the submarine.
"This forest is too quiet." Rainbow Dash mutter to herself as she continued to look for Twilight. She had been searching for the princess for hours now and to her growing apprehension it was rapidly approaching dusk. She knew that if it got any darker she would have to head back to camp with or without Twilight. It wouldn't help anypony if they both needed to be found.
"Twilight! Come on we have to get back!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she carefully sidestepped the assorted plants on the forest floor. Another danger that the darkness brought. If they couldn't see how could they avoid the more colourful wildlife of the forest? The plant life was dangerous and they all took extra care not to touch it after Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had told them what a number of the individual plants did.
She had always wondered how they knew so much about those plants. Of course she now knew that Zachary was the one to tell Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie that, and that information had just hurt to remember.
"Twilight! Can you hear me?" Of course Twilight couldn’t hear her, if she could Rainbow Dash knew that the alicorn would've came after her. However that didn't stop her from trying.
"Twilight where are, whoa!" Rainbow Dash staggered and pitched to the right narrowly avoiding a patch of small toxic green flowers. The flowers grew in small tightly knitted patches and gave off a sickening glow. She gulped nervously as more spiraling blossoms opened up to welcome the approaching night.
"Ghost Tears." Rainbow Dash whispered as her path was lit and blocked by the incredibly poisonous plants. They unearthly flora spotted what little trail there was and made continuing impossible, just lightly touching the plant could lead to deep contagious ulcers on the body that almost always ended in death. At least, according to Fluttershy, was what Zachary said. Seeing how pretty the Ghost Tears looked Rainbow Dash decided to take the human's word for it.
She took to the sky breaking through the tree line hopeful that the aerial view would help her find Twilight faster. Rainbow Dash kept low to the canopy as she placed a watchful eye on the rapidly sinking sun.
"Twilight" Rainbow Dash shouted again straining her throat painfully, it still hurt from earlier. "Damn it Twilight where are you?"
She almost missed it, she would have missed it if the Ghost Tears didn't glow as brightly as they did.
Between the smallest break in the canopy she saw the flash of a purple mane.
"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed slamming through the tree line and land within feet of the alicorn. "Jeez Twilight do you know how long I was looking for you. Listen we have a lot to talk about because between you, me and Applejack we did some very stupid stuff." Rainbow Dash looked warily at the night sky, "We probably should talk back at camp this forest is way too dangerous at night, so come on." With that Rainbow Dash leaped back into the sky she was a few yards away when she notice how quiet the sky was.
Where there was supposed to be the sound of four beating wings there was only two.
Rainbow Dash quickly turned around and land hard on the ground of the forest floor. There was Twilight, head deeply bowed as she continued to lurch forward in a direction that not even Rainbow Dash could figure out.
"Um, Twilight? Camp's that-a way." Rainbow Dash said pointing in the direction she had came from, "We should be getting back not sight seeing, or whatever you're doing now. So what do you think we should head back ya?"
As if she didn't hear her, Twilight continued to walk forward.
Rainbow Dash's face went red in annoyance as Twilight continued to ignore her. Fed up with Twilight's attitude Rainbow Dash stood in front of Twilight halting her progress.
"Twilight I'm getting real sick of your attitude right now." Rainbow huffed at the still alicorn, "You can't just ignore what you did, what we did, and walking around like a lost foal isn't going to fix things. So why don't you just turn around, get your flank into gear, and head back to camp so that we can fix this!"
To Rainbow Dash's dismay, Twilight simply walked around her and continued on her directionless path.
"Oh that's how you want to do this?" Rainbow Dash huffed angrily under her breath, "Well then Miss. Too Good to Own up to my Mistakes," Rainbow Dash forcefully spun the Twilight around, "Why don't you just...!"
Finally Rainbow Dash was able to really look into Twilight's face.
Devastation. Total devastation.
The thousand yard stared that had imprinted itself on Twilight's face bore in to Rainbow Dash. Wide unblinking eyes glazed over with the failure of the past released an unending stream of tears that matted her face. Dark bags stretched under her eyes while her limp string-like mane hung loosely, completing her mournful appearance. Twilight began to sway on her hooves as Rainbow Dash backed away from her.
"Twilight, I-I, what happened to you?" Rainbow Dash whispered as the alicorn princess continued to sway in a cold nonexistent wind.
Twilight barely looked in Rainbow Dash's direction before once again walking around her and continuing to her walk in the now pitch black forest.
Rainbow watched her friend's slow lurching gaunt in shock before quickly catching up to her, "Twilight wait up!"
Twilight did not slow down, however because of the agonizingly slow pace that she stumbled forward with, Rainbow Dash easily caught up to her.
"Twilight, you have to talk to me. If you don't talk to me I can't help you." Rainbow Dash's voice became desperate as her words failed to reach Twilight, "Please Twilight you have to talk to me. We have to go back I know this looks bad but we can do something to fix this! So what do you say? Let's make some, some...charts! And plans and ideas, you know that stuff you're good at?" A weak smile broke across Rainbow Dash's face, "So let's go back to camp, okay?"
Twilight pace was unaltered as she let herself be condemned by the forest.
The smile slipped off Rainbow Dash's face. Her pace slowed to a stop as she watched her friend continue to walk into destruction.
Rainbow Dash quickly wiped away the tears forming at her eyes and shouted with an arrogance that was years in the making, "Fine! You can been a zombie if you want to, you can ignore me if you want to, but I am not leaving you! I'm all you have right now and I'm not going to run away from this. Do you hear me Twilight? I'm not going to leave unless you're coming with me!" Rainbow Dash ignored the rational part in her brain that told her if she left there was a very good chance that Twilight would get injured or worse in the current state she was in, "So you better be ready for some company."
Rainbow Dash almost missed Twilight's ear flicking back in acknowledgment.
"So you are in there." Rainbow Dash smirked as she caught up to Twilight, "Well I wasn't kidding you got yourself a traveling buddy. Now where to?"
As Rainbow Dash followed Twilight into the darkness of the forest she hoped that she could bring Twilight out of whatever she was in before it was too late.
MONSTER
Deep inside the recesses of her mind Twilight was bombarded with passages from the old tome she had found, as her body continued to move with its own accord.
MONSTER
The skeletons had longed since caught up with her. Their claw like hands were dug deep in her skin and they held on tight as their body's dragged along the ground. The mantra that they spat out of their nonexistent throats mixed along words of the condemning tome.
'King Conquering Wind used their trust against them...'
MONSTER
The demonic chanting weaved around the robotic almost soulless facts from the tome.
It hurt. The information injured her with it relentless need to be heard and she wished that it would just stop. It wouldn't though, and why should it? It wasn't like the voices were lying. She couldn't make the voices stop talking to her, and she couldn't run from them, Twilight knew that now.
However, maybe she could plug the voices out...but covering her ears did nothing. She needed a way to plug her ears permanently, and soon too. A new voice was starting to echo in the mix, except this new voice was muddled.
MONSTER
'As a violent, precise blast of magic on an unmagical source can and will distort or destroy said unmagical source.'
"Please ........ ... .... .. talk .. me."
The voices hurt. They hurt so much. She had to find a way to stop hearing them now. Twilight body continued it's path as her mind tried to think of a solution. She was good at finding solutions wasn't she? She felt a ear twitch at something the third voice said and ignored it. Twilight needed everything she had left to think of a way to escape.
Her mind chased it's self into circles as her thought process sent her nowhere. She pleaded into the darkness of her mind that something anything would show her the way to end the voices tormenting her.
Twilight's body stopped moving and control was once again given to her. Shocked she look down at what had caused her body to stop.
Bright lovely green flowers glowed up at her.
Ghost Tears, at least a part of her mind was awake enough to stop her from accidentally killing herself.
".. not leaving ... ...."
MONSTER
Yes, she knew that she was a monster but what did the Ghost Tears have to do with that?
In her stressed state Twilight could only catch the very last thing Applejack said, "...isn't it a good thing that we killed him?"
"Applejack thinks that Zachary is a monster and believes that monsters are better off dead." Twilight's muddled mind realized, "I'm a monster so that means..."
Twilight raised a hoof over the clump of toxic green petals. It made so much sense, it really did. If she died the voices would stop and her friends would leave the Forsaken Islands after Fluttershy healed Zachary of course. Then everypony, human, and griffin could go back to their lives. It was the perfect plan. With that decide she prepared herself for the task of covering herself with beautiful poison.
Her voice broke from her dry throat with what would be her last words, "...it's better if I die." As her hoof went to touch the petals of the flower Twilight felt the voices fade.
Only to be forcefully tackled into the ground away from the Ghost Tears. She went still as the mass on top of her began roughly hitting her in the face. Her head violently jerked left and right with each blow and dimly she let it happen. Not because of the pain, the blows barely hurt her as they were sloppy and unfocused, but because of the sear shock of having her attacker continue to hit her while crying.
The haze over Twilight's eyes lifted and the blurry image of her attacker became clear. Tearfully angry magenta eyes locked onto her's as a tangled rainbow mane bounced with each blow a cyan hoof gave to her unprotected face. The muddled third voice finally became clear.
"Twilight wake up! I know you can hear me! What do you think you're doing? Are you really gonna leave us here? You selfish old nag! What I'm I suppose to tell the others? What I'm I suppose to tell your family? That you killed yourself because you thought it would be better if you died?" Rainbow Dash stopped her assault her hooves dropping to her sides as a torrent of tears escape from her eyes, "What I'm supposed to do Twilight? Everything is just so wrong, this whole situation is wrong. We probably killed the only human ponies have seen in thousands of years. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie hate us and Applejack is who knows where. What are we supposed to do? Please, Twilight I'm not the idea guy that's you. I can't figure this out on my own."
The haze in her mind faded and with it faded the skeletons of the past, and smell of gave dust and burning flesh, "Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash looked down into Twilight's clear eyes and Twilight found that she couldn't think of anything to say. What could she say?
Twilight looked within herself and view everything she did, every wrong turn she took since the swamp, and every time she let her fear for Equestria overwhelm her common sense. She looked at all these things and said, "I'm sorry."
"You should be! What were you thinking?" Rainbow Dash said the harshness of her voice contradicting the emotion on her face.
"I wasn't. I should have listened to everypony, but I didn't. 'A princess should listen to every inquiry before making a decision. Especially the inquiry of those that know about the subject more then she does'." Twilight said reciting a passage from a book Celestia had given her when she had first became an alicorn, "I didn't listen, even when my closest friends told me that I was wrong. Rainbow Dash I am so sorry, please forgive me."
"Well good! Apology accepted." Rainbow Dash said getting off of Twilight.
Twilight weakly got up and watched with disbelief as Rainbow Dash wiped her eyes.
"Just like that? You're forgiving me just like that?" Twilight asked.
"Yep. You said that you're sorry and I believe it. I'm not the one you should be apologizing to anyways." Rainbow Dash said pointing at her, "You have to apologize to Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. We all have to. We betrayed their trust which wasn't a very loyal or princess-like thing to do."
Twilight hung her head as Fluttershy's rage filled face occupied her memory, "They won't forgive me."
"Well, no, they won't." Rainbow Dash quickly continued at Twilight falling face, "Not right now at least. We have to give them time and we have to prove it to them that we're sorry. I don't know how we're going to do that, but we'll think of something, together. Once we get back to camp and talk to Applejack. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to stay in the forest any longer, it's really creepy at night."
To punctuate Rainbow Dash's point a low mournful howl erupted through the forest and echo in the trees around them.
"O-okay let's get back to camp nopony should be out here." Twilight said spreading her wings and taking to the night sky, Rainbow Dash hot on her hooves. She marvel in the quietness of the night and beauty of the night sky. Happy that their were no condemning voices following her as she flew, and prepared to atone for her mistakes.
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WHAT'S THIS?! A sudden outbreak of, gasp, SANITY?
4924201 Eeeeh, it's probably only temporary. Then it's back to insanity land, where the sun ruler is heading!
But yes, it's good we have some sense enter the story with gusto!
Twilight may be sorry but she Rainbow dash and Applejack still need a good verbal smack down from Fluttershy and the others especially Applejack.
... let's see, if my friend had just murdered someone after months of acting like that, well, in the wild, thousands of miles from civilization of any sort... I'd kill her myself.
What kind of twisted logic is that? It must burn in hellfire.
WTF?! She's apologizing to her friends but not the man she abducted and almost murdered?!
their
Whenever I encounter another "AJ is stubborn and believes she holds the moral high ground", I'm reminded of this picture.
i.imgur.com/EcvBYlQ.png
4926585
I know, I know very cliché, right? Initially I didn't want her character to come off that way but I wanted to have half of the main six be against/wary of the humans when they first make contact.
First I chose Twilight because I wanted to have someone be worried about Equestria as a whole. Since she is a princess, always wants to please Celestia and has a habit of going too far, I chose her.
Second I chose Rainbow Dash because I needed someone not to worried about all of Equestria, but about the people closest to her. Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty and, pardon the repetition, is loyal to her friends and would be wary of any creature that could hurt them. So seeing that I chose to use her.
Lastly I wanted to have someone be worried about Equestria or her friends (because the main six can take care of themselves) but about her family. Applejack was chosen because let's face facts we hear more about her family more then we hear about anyone else's. We know that the Apple family is very tight knit and we know how Applejack reacts to what she sees as threats against her family. Ex. The vampire fruit bats (really hoping that those bats had a secondary food source). Unfortunately Applejack was the best choice in that regard and I chose her.
TL:TR, I wanted to have someone be worried about their family and Applejack was the best choice.
4925621
I was going for the logic of someone slowly losing their grip on sanity or better put 'Insane Troll Logic'. Something that I have sadly see before IRL.
4926944 Oh, I don't mind. Personally I think, and I believe most will agree with me, that it's very much in character for Applejack to be a bit xenophobic and overprotective. She has lived almost her entire life close to the Everfree and I wager she has seen her share of errant critters picking off her farm animals and attempting to do harm to her family, your example about the Fruit Bats very much so.
This stuff is really depressing. I LIKE IT
did Applejack just puke evil
4926959 ah. A loved one?
4934850
You could say that.
4937953 when you cut your loses before they become such
4938002 a family member?
4968908
More like a once friend who thought along the lines of 'since I'm the smartest person in this class and have the highest grades I can never be in the wrong about anything, even if everyone says I am." That lady screwed whole classes in highschool over because, "I dont care if the teacher wont push the test day back if one person disagrees with it. If you guys studied like me you wouldn't need extra days to prepare for this physics test."
For a better scope of the situation it was 1:23 and the class was filled with Hockey Players/ other sport players/ people with jobs that didn't have the time.
After that I stopped hanging with people who thought their status meant they were better then other people. And I'm going to stop there before this gets anymore ranty.
Wtf ........ can't wait for the next update
PS: kill Apple Jack off and you get a cookie
I love this.
It's very realistic in its depictions of fear and hate.
4990153
Thank you, I try to make it as realistic as possible.
5016477 after some thought I Decided to add your story to the good hie list congrats
5018108 If this story is deserving of that list then I will give it a chance
5025128
Truth be told I think the Dark and Gore tags scare people away.
5044176
Sorry I didn't mean to delete your comment. My phone is great at clinking things I don't want to click.
5043850
Yeah I have been thinking about revising the first five chapters, but I rather not put this on the hiatus needed to do that. Knowing myself at this point I would put it in the 'do this later' file and it would never get done. Or at least not done as well as I want it to be done.
5025128
Popular Stories in the first chapters are published with a short separation between them 2 or 3 days (even less) and then when they have several chapters or many followers pass a normal level of publication.
this story is great, but the author published every 15 days this made go unnoticed.
the author should write 3 or 4 chapters and when ready, release them every 2 or 3 days, although it is only an opinion other factors such as posting at the right time
the human in this story are like ants or Zerg chimeras
minute 1:50
5065595
While I would like to post like that in a perfect world I don't have that kind of leisure time. Also, if I post like that the chapters will be short and pretty shitty. Or even more simply I aim for Quality over Quantity.
5066070
I understand, but I meant to write without haste and accumulating a couple of chapters of normal length, and released in days interspersed. without altering his normal writing speed or free time,although we have to wait a little longer
I have no problem with waiting, I just wanted to suggest an idea to increase the popularity of this story
maybe this group help
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/201778/rage-reviews
is a group that gives reviews of stories, and so far they have been honest
Well, at least it's a safe bet that, for the time being anyway, the Elements are well and truly broken, meaning they can't be used against the humans even if that would work at all.
To Applejack:
4925621
Honesty is just opinion it is not truth.