Grasping For Hope
Applejack could never get used to the sound of her hooves clicking against the floor of the Crystal Palace. The way they echoed across the chambers turned one pony into a marching army, and a skittering room full of them into an invasion force.
She shook her head as field marshals plotted battle plans in one corner of the room and a makeshift morgue was set up in another. She had to avoid looking at all the covered ponies lying on the gurneys. How Rainbow took it in such stride on a daily basis was beyond her.
The pegasus coolly led her to a large crystalline door. The pair of guards flanking it nodded at them and tugged on the handles with a grunt before leading them into the main throne room.
“Commander Rainbow Dash and Reserve Sergeant Major Applejack, Your Highness,” the guard announced.
Cadence looked up from her throne and removed the small, black-rimmed glasses from her muzzle. Her once-beautiful and flawless form was riddled with scars she had gained throughout the years and her smile seemed a little plastic.
“Thank you corporal.” She stood. “Please see to it that we are left entirely undisturbed. That will be all.”
The guard saluted, and the doors closed behind him with a firm and loud crash.
Applejack gazed up the carpeted staircase as Cadence descended to ground level to meet with Applejack and Rainbow Dash face to face.
Instinctively, both dropped to a fetlock and prostrated themselves.
“Oh, please, no need for that, you two,” the princess said with the edge of a chuckle on her voice. “You both are practically royalty yourselves. Let’s not dwell so much on court etiquette, shall we?”
Rainbow righted herself. “Works for me!”
“Y-yes ma’am.”
Cadence smiled. “I’d like to think that, given all we’ve been through and suffered together, I at least can count you two as my close friends.”
Rainbow blinked and looked Applejack’s way, who returned the glance with a shrug.
“Well… sure. Any friend of a friend is a friend of ours.”
“Heheh.” The Princess of Love smiled. “Well put…”
Silence.
The princess heaved a heavy sigh and looked up towards one of the statues carved in the honor and memory of the six Elements, the dragon who saved her kingdom from Sombra the first time, and her aunts. Their designs took up most of the throne room, leaving little space for open court, though there was little point to such things with martial law in place. As Cadence turned her eyes up to one particular statue carved from amethyst, she gained a rather morose expression and sat on the cold, stony floor.
“Been a rather rough few years, hasn’t it girls?” she asked, forcing a sad smile onto her face. “First Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike. Then Pinkie Pie, Celestia and Luna… never got to say goodbye to any of them…” she muttered as she motioned to each of their statues. “Not even Twilight… and that doesn’t even count all the ponies we lost in the war,”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared in a somber look.
“Love really hurts sometimes, doesn’t it?” the princess rolled her eyes and rubbed a tear out of her vision; though given her level tone, she had precious few left in her to shed. “I always knew that. I always knew that loving something would someday hurt me. If I grew attached to something, I would hate it when I had to let it go. And I knew that pain wouldn’t go away quickly, either.”
Applejack looked up. “Cadence…?”
The princess either didn’t hear her, or she ignored her. Either way, she turned to face the two again. “But you know what I told myself?”
Rainbow Dash looked her way, then back to the princess. “‘Remember to brush and floss twice a day -- to stop the cavities and tooth decay’?” she sing-songed
Cadence chortled and even the ever-stoic Applejack managed a thin smile.
“Never lose your sense of humor, Rainbow Dash.” She smiled. “If Loyalty doesn’t work out for you, you could always give Laughter a shot.”
Rainbow’s smile thinned.
Rubbing her temple, Cadence looked back up to Twilight’s statue, the late pony princess standing proud and strong and bold before her citizens in her crystalline armor.
“I always told myself,” the princess said hesitantly, “that love was always worth it… for all the pain and heartache and sadness and loneliness it would cause in the end… love would always be worth it. It would always keep the cold winter nights warm and the hot summer ones relaxing and fun, and the memories of sharing that love with somepony would help to ease the pain away in its own time…”
Silence again.
“I never thought that…” Cadence clenched her jaw and closed her eyes, letting her sentence die in her throat.
Applejack looked around.
“Umm… Princess? W-where’s Shinin’ Armor at?”
Cadence looked over her withers and frowned, before casting her gaze back to the floor.
“He… had to deal with a situation today… One of his friends was injured pretty badly in an incident. He’ll be along soon.”
Applejack saw Rainbow not even bat an eye at that.
“Who’s up for a drink, in the meantime?” the princess asked, eyes brightening a bit too quickly at the change of subject. The wrinkles about her lower lids became more pronounced, and Applejack couldn’t help but shift uncomfortably at the thought of the princess being drunk. “You two have probably forgotten what really good alcohol even tastes like, haven’t you?”
Rainbow shifted a bit from the corner of her eye. “Umm… I’ll pass.”
“You sure?” Cadence asked, trotting over to a crystal cabinet and withdrawing a large container. Applejack recognized it immediately. “‘Sweet Apple Acres Sparkling Cider’. Equestria’s own and finest drink! Probably the last batch left anywhere,” swishing the bottle back and forth.
She swallowed, sorely tempted, and hated it when she said, “Ah’ll pass too, darlin’.”
The princess’s smile fell a bit. “Suit yourselves. When you get to be a princess, though...” POP! The cork went flying with a flick of telekinesis and she marched back to her guests. “...you learn to savor the calm moments. You’ll never know when you’ll get the next one.” She tilted her head back and took several long gulps of the drink.
“C-Cadence?” Applejack heard herself say, earning a look from Rainbow Dash.
“Mmm?” the princess mumbled around the mouth of the bottle. She dabbed her lips with the back of her leg. “Yes, Applejack?”
The earth pony shifted from left to right and back.
“How’re things goin’ between you and Shinin’ Armor?”
Cadence stared levelly at her, then turned back to the bottle for another long, long drink, emptying about half of it.
Applejack coughed. “Umm… not that it’s any of mah business.”
Rainbow turned to look at the princess, also seeming interested.
As Cadence stared at the gold-tinted bottle, she seemed to stare not at the alcohol contained therein, but through it and beyond it entirely.
“Shiny and I…” she finally said.
A long silence.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other.
The princess shook her head.
“It’s… been strained,” she said. “It’s just not easy when you’re a ruler who has to look at the death of every pony and soldier as a statistic, compared to your husband who’s constantly on the front lines with stallions and mares that he’s known his whole life. To him, these ponies aren’t numbers or figures. They’re friends and comrades.” She took another long drink of her family’s cider, gasping when she finally came back up for air. “He doesn’t like that I see them differently… he doesn’t like that we aren’t drafting more ponies into service, or that living conditions on the front lines are so bad…” She sighed. “I know he understands, you know. But I think, on the inside, he’s angry with me for it. He won’t say it out loud… but he is.”
Applejack frowned. “What… makes you think that?”
Cadence shook her head. “It’s just the way he looks at me… the way we talk—or, rather, barely do anymore.” She rubbed her forehead. “The war’s just taking its toll on both of us.” Her face brightened. “Don’t misunderstand. I still love him with all my heart, and I know that he does me, too. We’re just… in different places right now. He’s a soldier at the moment… I’m his queen… he’ll do whatever I ask him to do.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to interject, but the door behind her rumbled. The sharp clang of the unlocking throne room doors echoed through the massive chambers, and Shining Armor’s heavy hoofsteps carried him in.
He blinked as the doors closed behind him, looking between the two of them, then to his wife as she averted her eyes, taking a soft sip.
“Sorry I’m late,” he muttered, stepping past their saluting forms and up to Cadence. “Any of that left?”
She passed it off to him, and he drained the last of the cider in one long drag, letting out a rather rude belch.
Rainbow didn’t comment.
“So…” the pegasus said, scuffing the floor with her hoof, “you wanted to see us?”
“Yer messenger said it was an emergency,” Applejack said.
Shining Armor’s expression soured. He set down the empty bottle and sat. “More deserters…” he sighed, shaking his head. “Another big group snuck out through the gates to the north. A couple hundred or so. Bunch of foals with them too…” He closed his eyes. “We put down the rioters that made it possible, but there were a lot of casualties.”
Cadence looked up at him. “And… Golden Scabbard?” she asked.
Applejack saw Rainbow bite her lip. From what she had told her, she’d known Golden Scabbard from her time under Shining Armor’s command, and even fought alongside her a few times. She was a skilled unicorn from the sounds of it, excellent with a blade, and had been a personal protege of Twilight’s brother for the past two years. Rainbow had recounted several acts of her daring during multiple skirmishes over dinner. She’d seemed like a determined mare the one time she’d met her, and never once revealed any loss of hope. One day, she said, all the survivors would band together and figure out a way to fix everything.
Shining Armor sighed and looked down, shaking his head. “She’ll live… barely.”
Applejack found herself sighing in relief.
“Finally,” Rainbow muttered. “Some good news.”
“The field medic said she’ll be out of action for several weeks though,” he continued. “They chipped her horn, broke one of her legs and several of her ribs.”
Cadence softly stroked her husband’s back. “She’ll be okay, Shiny.”
He nodded. “I know she will.”
Rainbow sighed. “That’s more than we can say about the deserters…”
Applejack frowned. Desertion was depressingly common these days. Sombra’s armies surrounded them to the east, west and south, but left the path to the bitter cold Frozen North open. Many ponies had preferred to take their chances with the cold and fled by the hundreds. It had gotten so desperate that the border guards had had to be doubled at the north gates to keep a steady stream of survivors looking for escape in check.
None of them had ever been heard from again.
“That’s not the only emergency,” Shining Armor said, brow furrowing.
She blinked. “Uhhh… it ain’t?”
“I wish it was that simple,” the prince said, standing again and trotting towards the center of the room. The other three followed him as he stepped into a giant circle patterned on the floor. His horn glowed, and an image of the Crystal Empire appeared in the center of the chambers.
Despite knowing it was just a hologram, Applejack felt compelled to step back and stop crushing the city.
“We just got word from our pegasus scouts that a large mass of troops is coming up from the south,” Shining Armor said, twitching his horn. A mass of black dots swarmed up from off the edges of the map, thickening the black fog that surrounded the Empire. “Judging from their number, it’s Her army reinforcing the siege.”
Shivering at the thought, Applejack looked down at the map again. Craters surrounded the walls of the Empire from the artillery barrages over the years, and there had been no snow to fill them in. Sombra’s forces sat just out of range of their far-reaching cannons.
“In a few days,” he said grimly, “there’ll be too many of them for us to hope to fight. Once they’re all mobilized, they’ll be able to attack us directly and overwhelm us through sheer numbers. Even if we killed them two-to-one, there’d just be too many of them and not enough of us...”
Rainbow frowned. “And since she’s with them, we won’t have a prayer, will we?”
The prince shook his head softly. “No…”
Silence settled over the room. A long one.
Cadence frowned.
“Well…” Applejack said, finding her courage again, “that don’t mean we gotta make it easy for ‘em neither.”
Shining Armor nodded. “I’m having my commanders draw up plans for a last stand. We’ll use every square inch of the city we can and take as many of them with us as possible.”
Rainbow thrust out her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah… just let ‘em try to get in here. We aren’t gonna give up without a fight. I’ll take as many of them with me as-”
“Rainbow Dash, you misunderstand,” Cadence said, cutting the pegasus off. “I don’t want either you or Applejack taking part in the coming battle,” the princess said, giving them both a firm and commanding look.
Shining Armor’s eyes widened marginally.
Applejack couldn’t feel her face as she was struck dumb by what she heard. “Ah beg yer pardon?!” the ex-farmer asked incredulously.
Rainbow was no less shocked, and zoomed to the princess’s face. “Did you take a few too many shield-bashes to the face in that last fight or something?! What the hay is that supposed to mean?!”
“It means exactly what I said,” the monarch said harshly, causing the pegasus to hover backwards a pace or two. “I don’t want either of you here when the final battle begins. I want you both gone and far away when the time comes.”
Rainbow hit the ground with her rump, her jaw agape. Applejack’s own back legs betrayed her to gravity.
Cadence’s husband leaned in. “Dear, I thought we’d talked about this...”
“We talked about it, Shining Armor,” she said, frowning at him. “But I’ve only had time to think about it over the last few days.”
“Cadence, please. There has to be some other way…”
“What ‘other way’ are you talking about?!” she asked, frowning at him.
“Sweetheart, these two are the last beacon of hope for all ponykind now!” he said, meeting her frown with his own. “They’re the only reason we’re not all in shackles… or worse…”
“You think I don’t know that?!” she asked. “You don’t think I’ve seen what they’ve had to endure? You think you’re the only one that’s seen what they’ve had to suffer through for the sake of us all… just to keep hope alive?” Tears streamed down the princess’s face. “I’ve seen what they’ve given for us time and time again, Shiny… but living one battle to another is never going to win us this war…”
Shining Armor met her eyes with his own, squaring his jaw stoically.
“They’re our only hope, now…” she sobbed. “There’s no other choice…”
“Uhhh… ‘scuse me?” Rainbow Dash spoke.
The two royals turned to look at her.
“You guys wanna start talking like we’re here anytime soon?”
“We might have our own thoughts and opinions about what we might wanna do ourselves, if’n ya don’t mind,” Applejack said.
“Just what the hay are you guys talking about? What do you mean you don’t want us to be in the battle?”
“Exactly,” Applejack replied, narrowing her eyes. “It sure don’t sound like y’all have been entirely honest with us. Trust me, Ah’m an authority on that.”
Cadence sniffed and lowered her gaze, unable to meet their eyes. Shining Armor stepped forward between the pair and his wife.
“Cadence has been working on a contingency plan ever since the siege began five years ago.” He looked back and forth between her and the duo and continued, “She’s been planning for the worst ever since this whole thing started. Ever since we originally dealt with Sombra, we knew what he has been capable of… so she thought it would be better to have a backup plan put in place.”
Applejack blinked and looked at Rainbow looking back at her, before returning her gaze to the prince. “A-Ah don’t get it… what plan is that?”
The princess regained her composure, softly pushing her husband to the side. Her horn lit up, and the hologram beneath them changed, peeling away the buildings of the city until a close-up of the royal chambers was revealed.
The image of the bed was peeled away, revealing a large, crystalline gate in the floor. The gate opened and the hologram morphed again.
“When the siege first began,” Cadence said, “I knew that there would be only so long that we could hold out. Eventually, we would be forced to take action. I had originally intended to slowly sneak citizens out of the city…”
The illusion finished morphing, revealing an intricate map of...
“...using a cave network that my personal guard have been carving underground. They’ve been hard at work on it for the past several years now. And just a few days ago, it was completed.”
Applejack eyed the hologram as a spark of light travelled down the huge cavern image. It looked like it just went on forever, twisting and turning in a general southerly direction before taking a sudden turn up at an angle towards the surface.
The image morphed again to the top world.
“The tunnel stretches for nearly sixty miles out of the city to the outskirts of the Empire,” the princess continued. “It surfaces in the Crystal Fields, well past Sombra’s siege line.”
“It was Cadence’s intention,” Shining Armor said, “to slowly sneak everypony out of the city and escape without Sombra ever knowing when the tunnel was completed. By the time he figured it out, we would be long gone, hopefully where we could acquire ships to head across the ocean where we could seek refuge from friendly nations.”
“But we’re running out of time, as you can see,” Cadence said, motioning to the black fog gathering around the city. “There’s no hope of a mass evacuation that would go unnoticed by Sombra’s army. Once he saw the city virtually abandoned and figured out what we were up to, he would pull his army back, and render our only means of escape useless.
“Even sending small groups is too dangerous now. If Sombra’s troops catch sight of anypony outside of his perimeter, there’s a very real danger he’ll know about our secret passage underground leading right to the city, and exploit it.”
“That’s why,” Shining Armor continued for her, hesitating as he turned his grim gaze to the two, “we want you two out of here.”
Applejack’s eyes were practically dry from her inability to blink. Five years, such a project had been under way?
She turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who stood firm and stoic, betraying no sense of surprise on her creased and angry brow. She knew, however, that the pegasus had never been as quick with her brain as she had been with her wings.
“Ah…” Applejack stammered, “Ah don’t… understand,” she said, eyes widening. “W-why would you want us to just up and leave y’all behind like that?”
“Because,” Cadence said, stepping forward and resting her hoof on her withers, “like it or not, Applejack, you two are the last surviving Elements of Harmony, and there must always be Harmony.”
She draped a wing over the earth pony.
“Harmony must always exist to counteract the chaos, just as there must always be light to shine in the darkness. You two are Harmony in its purest essence. You both embody all of the hopes and dreams of our way of life as a nation. If you two were to perish, all Equestrian dreams would be swallowed in obscurity forever. Nopony would ever know what we tried so hard to do and came so close to accomplishing. All of our history, all of our hopes and dreams, whether or not you two realize it… they all lie with you.”
Silence.
Rainbow’s frown deepened. “You two were planning on this the whole time… and you didn’t tell us?”
Shining Armor and Cadence shared a look. “Rainbow Dash,” the princess said, “we couldn’t risk--”
“Shove it, ‘Your Highness’,” the pegasus snorted, inflicting a pained expression on both the royals. “You just want me to run away and hide like some scared little filly? Well forget you! I have my fellow countryponies here to look out for! And if you think I’m just gonna run away and leave everypony else to die on their own while I’m sipping cider on a cruise ship across the ocean, then you’re a really lousy friend, and a really lousy princess!”
She turned to the door and trotted towards it, pausing at it only long enough to say, “I’m staying, and I’m fighting.”
“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Cadence tearfully shouted.
She was ignored. Rainbow Dash pulled open the door to the throne room and marched out without looking back.
The princess buried her face in her hooves and wept.
Shining Armor softly stroked his large hoof along his wife’s back, his dark eyes looking in despair to Applejack. “I’m guessing you’re staying too…?” he asked.
Applejack threw one look at husband and wife, then another back at the retreating figure of Rainbow Dash as she stomped through the main hall and diverted down a corridor.
“Ah got to,” she said, looking back at Shining Armor. “Ah can’t abandon mah only friend in the world…” she muttered.
With that, she marched out of the throne room, and after Rainbow Dash.
* * *
Applejack finally managed to find her way to catching up to Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow, wouldja slow down a bit?” she huffed and puffed, breathless from trying to find her way around the still-confusing palace.
“Can you believe her?” the pegasus snorted.
“Rainbow…”
“Can you believe that she’d ask me to do something like that?!” she bit, giving the earth pony pause as she continued stomping angrily up the hall.
“Sugarcube, where are ya goin’?”
“Orderly!” she snapped at a nurse pony trotting up the hall a short ways away. The white pony jumped and gasped, then timidly approached, her head held low. “Y-yes, Commander?”
“I wanna know where the stable patients are being kept.”
The nurse gulped. “Y-yes ma’am. This hallway right here,” she said, pointing.
Rainbow trotted away without so much as a thank you, her pace increasing again. She looked at the label beside each door.
“Rainbow, who’re you lookin’--”
The pegasus paused and smiled. “Here we go.”
Applejack got a look at the paper sign taped next to the doorway.
‘Golden Scabbard’.
Rainbow raised her hoof and knocked firmly.
“Yeah, yeah,” she heard the muffled voice, “just drop the slop and leave.”
The pegasus threw the door open.
“You’d do anything to get off wall monitor duty, wouldn’t you?” Rainbow said with a forced grin, marching into the room.
The injured mare looked up from the book in her hoof and blinked, then grinned a familiar, cocky grin. Neither her short, carrot-colored mane nor her tan coat looked like they’d seen a bath in days, but her gray eyes still glinted with their same enthusiasm as ever.
“Well, if it ain’t Commander Featherbrain!” the unicorn shouted happily, though her voice was laced with a bit of a wheeze. “What did I do that was so bad to deserve a visit from you?” She winked.
“If by ‘bad’ you mean ‘badflank’, then you’re way past due, Goldi-fetlocks!”
“Hoo boy, then I’m in trouble!” Golden Scabbard looked Applejack’s way and smirked. “How do you put up with her day after day, Applejack?”
The earth pony slipped into the room and smiled. “It ain’t always easy, believe me.”
“How’re you feelin’, Goldy?” the pegasus asked with a smile. “Any pain anywhere?”
Golden Scabbard grinned, her teeth outlined in red by her own blood.
“Oh, what pain? This?” she smirked, motioning to herself with her good leg. “I’ve had worse than this before… I just can’t think of when right now.” She reached up with her unbroken leg and tapped herself on the side of her head near her chipped horn. “Docs say I might have a concussion. That’s probably got something to do with it.” She laughed a moment, then entered a coughing-wheezing fit.
“Well, good! Maybe if you got knocked hard enough upside the horn, you’ll forget about rushing into stupid stuff and wait for the awesomeness wrecking crew to clear the way for ya!”
“Uhh, y’think? That’s why I was there in the first place!”
The three chuckled, and gradually the laughs subsided.
“So, what brings you girls here?” the tan pony asked, shifting uncomfortably under the two’s stares. “You come to check out the sexy scars I picked up?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and smiled. “Get over it, girl. Ain’t anything you can do to make that face of yours sexy!”
The unicorn smiled, but didn’t try to return the jab. “This ain’t just a conjugal visit, is it?”
Rainbow glimpsed sidelong at Applejack, who returned the look, then turned her green eyes back to the patient.
“No answer’s a bad answer…” Golden Scabbard’s expression mellowed. “It’s looking bad out there, isn’t it?”
“Ah, hay, can ya remember a time where it looked good?” Applejack said with a sad smile.
The guard captain nodded, her smile vanishing. “We got any plans or anything?”
Rainbow frowned and looked at the floor, scratching at some dried blood on the stonework, then back to injured warrior. “We’re working on one,” she lied. “We just need to buy some time.”
“Sounds like that’s something we’re running out of…” the guardspony said, sounding for the first time like her faith was beginning to waver. Then she grinned. “Ah, let ‘em come. Sombra won’t have an army left by the time we’re done with ‘em.”
Rainbow grinned and chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. You’d be on the front lines in your wheelchair if the doctors didn’t have you strapped down.”
“Hay, you know it! I’d probably take out his whole army myself if I could put all four legs on the ground right now!”
“Yeah. Is that why you let a bunch of rioters drop you?”
“They ambushed me! What do you want? Who do you think you are, anyway? Ms. Perfect Persnicketybitch?”
Applejack snorted a laugh.
Goldy looked up with her swimming gray eyes and smiled softly. “Come on, you two. Get outta here. I hate it when ponies see me like this…” she said, looking down at her bandaged self.
Applejack nodded. “We just… wanted to drop by and tell ya to get better soon.” Her false smile returned. “Gonna be plenty of rumps to kick in the next few days.”
The unicorn blinked and looked between the two.
“You guys wouldn’t even be here visiting me unless it was for a reason. You know I don’t like guests around when I’m hurt…” She stared at them with her steely gray eyes. “What’s really goin’ on?”
Rainbow turned her sour expression to Applejack, and slowly softened her gaze into a sad sigh.
“Cadence asked me to… to do something I can’t do…”
Applejack shifted.
Goldy looked between them again. “So, you guys gonna give me the low-down or what?” she asked. “Don’t tease a filly; she’s not liable to play your game forever, y’know.”
Rainbow sighed.
“It was just something I couldn’t do… wouldn’t be right, y’know?”
The unicorn scowled. “Well, that’s about as clear as mud…”
Applejack frowned. “Sorry, darlin’. It’s… kind of a secret.”
“Hey, I’m the mare that’s following His Princeliness around all over the city and yelling at ponies for him, y’know.” She shrugged. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets.”
The pair were silent for a moment.
“C’mon… let me in on it.”
Rainbow sucked in a breath and frowned.
“Cadence wants me to leave the Empire with Applejack.”
Golden Scabbard blinked. “Well, has she looked outside lately? Sombra’s kinda knockin’ on our front door, and he’s a pretty crummy house guest.”
“She’s been diggin’ a tunnel in secret since five years ago,” Applejack explained. “She was hopin’ she could start evacuating everypony a bit at a time and get everypony to safety, but…”
“But it hasn’t worked out,” the unicorn finished, closing her eyes.
“It’s a stupid idea…” Rainbow huffed.
“How come?” Applejack and Rainbow Dash both looked at the wounded pony. “I mean, you guys are the last Elements of Harmony, right? That’s… kind of a big deal, isn’t it?”
The pegasus glared. “Goldy, don’t tell me you agree with this!”
“Well, why not?”
“Why not?! You can’t be serious!” the pegasus shouted, sitting in a chair with a huff.
“Yeah, why not?”
“Last time I checked, Goldy, I wasn’t a coward who ran the first time things started looking bad, okay? I know ponies here, and I’ve got no business abandoning them,” she said, crossing her forelegs. “I’ve never run from anything before…”
“Nothing?”
Applejack frowned. “Goldy, look, Ah know you ain’t been around us as much as we have each other, but you know Rainbow ain’t one to run from anything.”
“I dunno, AJ,” the wounded unicorn said, eyes scanning the pegasus. “Sounds like she’s running away from something right now, to me.”
Rainbow’s eyes sparked with anger. “Oh yeah? And what would that be?”
The wounded soldier shifted in the bed, wincing, and stared back. “A chance.”
Silence.
“You girls have a chance to do something for a change.” Golden Scabbard shrugged. “I mean, sure, you could just run if you wanted to—hay, I don’t think anypony would blame you for wanting to get out while you could.” She paused. “Or what if you could make things better? What if you could fix it all?”
Applejack watched Rainbow Dash look down at the floor, and turned back to their friend. “Sugarcube… we ain’t got a dang clue what we could do even if we did wanna try. Twilight was the one workin’ on a fix, and…” She trailed off.
“She was the only who could have figured it out,” the pegasus said for her.
The bed-bound unicorn stared up at the two with analytical eyes, studying their features carefully.
“Well… ya gotta do what’s right, right?” she finally said.
Rainbow Dash nodded softly. “Yeah…” She took a deep breath and blew it out.
Golden Scabbard stared at her, then looked to Applejack for help. She turned away in response, scratching her leg.
“Sure would be nice if that princess of yours had left a clue for you…”
Applejack nodded in agreement. Rainbow remained stoically silent.
The wounded unicorn finally adopted her cocksure grin again. “Well… if ya see Sombra in the neighborhood, let him know my rapier’s got a bone to pick with him. And a heart. And a lung. And a liver...”
The pegasus managed a chuckle. “Sure thing, Goldy…” she said, leaning in to bump hooves with the unicorn.
“Take care of yourself, darlin’.” Applejack leaned in and hugged her, before following Rainbow to the door.
“And stay out until I’m all patched up! I’ll show ya the war wounds later!” the brash pony called.
“Yeah, yeah! Get some sleep ya wuss! And for pete’s sake, somepony get this mare in here a sponge bath!”
“Eat my horn, slo-mo!”
“Hey,” Applejack interrupted with a smirk, turning back to the patient, “y’all save the brow-beatin’ fer the battlefield. And you focus on gettin’ all healed up, okay?”
Goldy rolled her eyes and grinned. “Yeah, sure. Go hug a tree for me or something!”
Applejack chuckled and the door shut behind them.
There was a pause. The two looked at each other, then walked away together in silence.
* * *
Applejack had slipped out of the house in the middle of the night. Sleep had overlooked her that evening, and none of her usual techniques for passing the time were having any effect. Dishwashing had yielded nothing, cleaning up Rainbow’s mess from dinner had yielded nothing, and her midnight walk had brought her farther from home than she had meant. The streets had been empty; only soldiers were allowed out past curfew, and even then, only those of rank.
As she stalked up the quiet hallways of the Crystal Palace, guards nodded at her in passing, their horns glowing to illuminate their way.
She made her way to the highest floor where the royal observatory was. Reaching up with her hoof, she tried the door, receiving a satisfying click as a result, and shoved it open.
The smell was the first thing to hit her nostrils, and caused her to wretch and hesitate proceeding further.
Taking another lungful of the repugnant, stale air, Applejack quickly acclimated and stepped into Twilight’s old parlor. The mana crystal in the center of the room flickered and crackled to life for the first time in years, and mountains of books materialized all around her.
“That girl really had a problem…” she said, unable to contain her smile. Her eyes adjusted to the pinkish light that faded into an off-white as the crystal filled with energy further.
Stepping around book piles, Applejack came across a wide study desk in the center of the chamber. Across it were spread out—surprise, surprise—more books, plus a map of Equestria, and what appeared to be old food crumbs. Several books were marked with various colors of tabs and points of interest. She hoofed open a few of them and gave up when she couldn’t recognize half the words in the texts.
Sighing, Applejack slumped over the desk.
“Really wish you were here right now, girls…” she murmured, eyes burning as she buried her muzzle between her front legs.
The room was quiet, except for the faint hum of the light crystal embedded in the ceiling.
“Applejack?” called a familiar voice.
Applejack jerked to attention and quickly wiped her puffy eyes. “Umm… over here, sugarcube.”
Rainbow Dash peeked over a mountain of books mid-hover and landed on the other side of the desk. “There you are,” she said with a frown. “I heard the front door shut, and when I went to check out your room you were gone. One of the guards said he saw you headed this way…”
Applejack was silent and looked down at another book in her hooves.
Rainbow looked around, a solemn smile adorning her lips. “Nopony’s been here in years…” she muttered.
Again, she didn’t reply.
The pegasus turned back to face her, her expression evolving into one of sadness and worry. “Are you okay?”
She nudged the book in her grasp open. It was another indecipherable tome filled with arcane words and symbols that would take her years to learn and use. Some were marked, some weren’t, though none seemed particularly special to her eyes.
“Just… thinkin’ Ah guess. Not much else Ah can do…” She sighed. “Can’t sleep, can’t hardly close mah eyes, can’t eat, can’t see with the lights turned down for the evenin’, so Ah can forget readin’...”
Rainbow walked around the desk and sat next to her, her magenta eyes scanning the different book titles.
The pegasus sighed at last, her wings deflating. “Applejack, what’re you doing?” she asked solemnly. “Get out of here! Save yourself! Start a family and a farm someplace else!”
Applejack’s smile was a solemn one and wasn’t convincing in the least. “And where would Ah go?”
Rainbow frowned. “I dunno… anywhere. Anywhere but here…” she muttered. “You don’t deserve to die here, AJ.”
“Ah reckon nopony does,” she said. “But Fate’s fixin’ to disagree, it looks like.”
“You don’t have to let Fate win, though,” the pegasus insisted softly, setting her cyan hoof on her withers. “You still have a chance to get out of here. You can still make something out of your life,” she said insistently.
Applejack looked at her with blurry eyes. “And what’s a life worth if yer best friends ain’t around to share it with ya no more?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to have an answer for that. Her ears wilted as she scooted closer and engulfed the earth pony in the hug to end all hugs. She wrapped her wings around her in a warm and secure blanket, and for the first time in years, Applejack didn’t feel like she was slowly freezing to death.
She barely contained the urge to cry, and sniffed back her tears instead.
“She had to’ve left somethin’...” Applejack murmured, looking around. It was more to convince herself than her friend stroking her hoof through her mane.
“Maybe… who knows?” Rainbow said. “All the guards ever said they found that was worth anything was that journal she kept…”
“But she seemed so sure!” Applejack said. She slowly, reluctantly pulled out of the downy hug. “The way she wrote it… the way she wrote that journal… it was like she knew what would fix everything! Like she just… needed one more piece of the puzzle or somethin’...” she said, approaching the bookcase and skimming through the different spines. Biting her lip, she stomped her hoof in frustration. “What was she lookin’ at before she died…?” she asked, mostly to herself.
Rainbow trotted along another row of shelves, mostly emptied. Whatever the contents of the shelves had originally been, most of those contents were splayed out upon the floor in no particular arrangement, at least to Applejack’s eyes.
The few books left on the shelves Applejack stood at didn’t even have markings left in them. She flipped through them page by page, but couldn’t make out anything worthwhile.
“Consarnit, Twilight…” she growled, ready for tears again.
A chuckle from behind her by Rainbow Dash drew her attention.
“Hey, AJ, check this out,” the pegasus called out to her. “Twilight misshelved one of her own books.” She held up a familiar Daring Do tome. Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue.
She rolled her eyes. Only Rainbow Dash could be distracted from the fate of the world lying in their hooves with something so silly.
“C’mon, Rainbow. Ah thought ya already read all of them books like five times.”
“Yeah, but come on! What exactly am I gonna do when I can’t sleep?” she asked with a chuckle, flopping onto a floor pillow and shuffling to page one with her hoof.
Applejack let out an exasperated sigh and trotted up to another shelf.
“Huh… that’s weird.”
“Hmm?” mumbled Applejack as she took a particularly old scroll into her hooves. She slid it open, and it was faded beyond recognition.
“This book… some of the words are underlined.”
The farmpony looked over her withers and quirked her eyebrow. “Whaddya mean? Are they not supposed to be?”
“No,” Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes. “It’s like Twilight just took out a pen and started marking errors on a bad report some student wrote or something,” she said, flipping a few pages.
Applejack turned back to the shelf and shook her head.
“...it’s…” Rainbow said behind her as she flipped through a partially-full shelf.
“...me…”
Blinking, Applejack grabbed another book from the shelf. The cover was written, however, in a language she didn’t recognize, and she put it back.
“...t-twilight…” Rainbow stammered.
That caught Applejack’s attention. Ears twitching, heart pounding, adrenaline surging, she turned to Rainbow Dash as the pegasus blanched on the floor cushion.
“Say that again?” she said, trotting briskly over.
“‘it’s... me... twilight’,” her friend repeated, slowly raising her eyes to meet hers.
The two looked at each other.
“Well, don’t just quit readin’ there, ya goof!” she shrieked, voice breaking. She flew to the desk and grabbed an unopened ink well and scroll as well as a quill before she made her way back over to the pegasus. “Keep goin’!” she muffled around the feather as she dipped it in the ink.
“If…” Flip flip. “reading… i… ‘m…” Flip. “dead... Traitorous… no, ‘traitor...s’... among… us…”
It was Applejack’s turn to pale as she nearly dropped the quill from her teeth.
“AJ, come on! Keep writing!”
“Oh, right…” Shaking her head, Applejack haphazardly continued to jot down the words read to her.
“...little… time left.” Flip flip flip. “...see… elements… harmony… guide.”
Applejack scribbled the last word in such a way it was almost unreadable. “She’s talkin’ about the Elements of Harmony reference guide she had!”
“Reference! Reference!” the pegasus said, dropping Daring Do and zipping around the makeshift library. “Where the hoof does she keep the reference books in this place?”
Applejack took a quick look around. The book had seemed meant to grab Rainbow Dash’s attention in particular. It gave her a pretty good idea of where she’d hid it, and she looked up.
“Rainbow…?”
“I’m looking! I’m looking!” the pegasus squeaked, bouncing from one bookshelf to the next.
“Rainbow…!”
“I know! I KNOW!” squeaked her friend, tearing untouched bookshelves apart and pitching their contents to the floor.
“RAINBOW!”
Rainbow Dash knocked her head against a bookshelf and glared at Applejack. “I’m looking already! What do you-!”
She blinked and looked towards where the earth pony was pointing.
There, up on top of one of the shelves, its corner just barely peeking out over the edge of the shelf, was the familiar-looking gem-encrusted reference guide of the Elements of Harmony.
“Oh…” Rainbow blushed.
“Now wouldja mind gettin’ yer kiester up there and grabbin’ it so we can find out what she wants to say?”
In spite of her tone, Applejack felt invigorated. Rainbow was up and down from the top of the shelf in the blink of an eye and dropped the book to the floor, opening to the very first page.
Then they read, for what she prayed were the answers.
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A little less depressive than the last two.
Aaaah, Twilight, clever girl!! You knew that only Dashie could give a serious look in there!
Damn, how much I miss you
Traitors?? Oh lawd, what hell awaits them now... :(
4846116
One of them is closer to them than they could ever imagine.
4847406
*thinks on it...*
*puts on wizard hat*
Cadance is the traitor, both to Twi, and to the coming battle
/not sure if I want to be right, lol
4847463
I was thinking about the guard that they just let a State secret out with. Cadence wouldn't have let the tunnel be completed or just have a bunch of helpless ponies get slaughtered in the tunnels if she were the traitor, methinks.
Changelings wouldn't be very hard with all the strain the couple have been under.
However, said guard has been gravely injured and while that wouldn't make her one, she could be under their influence.
4847474
Hmm, that is also a possibility for sure. Definitely a few X factors out there. The only reason I suggested heart-butt was under the idea that in desperate times, even the most virtuous can make a deal with the devil.
I suppose we'll see soon enough.
4847551
Well, the references they make about "She" as in the one leading the forces makes me think Chrysalis.
This is a good series I can't wait for more chapters the prologue nearly made me cry.
You two are awesome at this keep going
Just... wow! You two will kill me with the feels and suspense. Very well written all around. Amazing story.
My only complaint, and it is super tiny: it's Cadance, not cadence.
Good job guys! and of course you knew that twilie would give em a hint for her plan. Moar is needed for a full review, i demand the rest of this story to be made. Good job and have so mustaches
THIS. This is perfection. Simple sentence, but it really makes me feel something. And I started to read this story mostly because I was looking for the feels (and I just love AppleDash too much to ignore any fanfic about them XD).
Anyway, I really love where this is going. At first I wasn't sure if I like the idea of "5 years later", but now I see that you two know exactly what you're doing. This story is getting better and better and I admire your writing skills and creativity.
OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!!!!
Just reading the desc gave me a case of sad feels
I really hope this story will get more popular. It definitely deserves it. You're amazing writers and it's clear that you spent a lot of time thinking about this story and writing it. And I like your taste in music
Clever, Twi, very clever. Good girl.
I don't know if this was intentional or not but Applejack's stutter seems like a small important note of the story. Before the war she could speak pretty concisely and clear because she was confident, had faith, and wasn't afraid. Now though, she's depressed, lonely, and scared. Her stutter fits in beautiful with her character development and whether or not that is intentional, it's still really well done.
I'm excited for more!
img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140827062140/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/8/85/544.png
Well, let's see what Twilight left for Rainbow Dash and Applejack
.