Tales from Mystika: A My Little Mages Book

by Yondy

Chapter 2: Apple Bloom's Escape

Chapter 2

Apple Bloom’s Escape

Apple Acres – The night of the attack

Apple Bloom woke up to a silent house. Well, she didn’t really wake up; she had just pretended to be asleep again. Besides, her bedtime was way too early and she did her best tinkering at night.

She was still fully dressed in her dark blue overalls and yellow undershirt. In order to trick her sister Apple Jack, she’d un-clipped the straps to make it look like she was in her sleepwear under the covers. She slowly rolled out of her twin bed with cat-like precision, dropping to the carpeted floor on all fours, bending her joints to absorb the sound and not to wake her cousins. Apple Bloom had made the carpet herself after Apple Jack had heard her sneaking out one night. Apple Bloom had rolled out of bed like normal but ended up stubbing her toe on her bedroom floor and taking a dive face-first onto the ground. The resulting crash ended up knocking over a lamp, shattering it on the floor, and scaring the ever-loving life out of the dog, Winona, who was sleeping at the foot of Apple Bloom’s bed. When her sister flung open the door to Apple Bloom’s room to find her fully clothed with a length of rope in her hand, Apple Jack made sure that Bloom’s bedtime was two hours earlier for a month and took the time to install a lock on the outside of her bedroom door. In favor of letting the dog out, Winona was subsequently moved to Big Mac's room.

Since then Apple Bloom had this ‘sneaking out’ thing to a science. Bloom rolled off the small mattress-like rug and tiptoed to her tiny dresser in between her two sleeping cousins, Fritter and Gala. Without a sound she picked up what looked like an ancient, ornate music box made of oak with a hallowed out apple on the front and a keyhole in the middle. It was given to her as a child by her grandmother, Granny Smith.

Even though Apple Bloom was only ten, she had a knack for looking at a machine and understanding just how all of the tiny parts fit together and how she could still make it work even if she moved a few around. Last spring she’d built a catapult out of an old clock and a few rubber bands to knock squirrels out of the apple trees after getting sick of finding tiny bite marks in her golden delicious’.

She used this same ingenuity to break apart this priceless heirloom and rearrange the gears on the inside. Now it no longer played the generations-old family lullaby. Instead, winding it popped open a false back, revealing the nearly twenty feet of thin rope Apple Bloom had managed to fit inside. The box’s rope, when tied to a hook and strapped onto Apple Bloom’s personal harness, had more than enough stability and torque to hold her as she lowered herself to the ground, or yank her from the ground back up to her room. This was a necessity when rappelling down the temple’s stone walls from the second floor.

Apple Bloom was very content with herself that she’d made an ancient relic into a grappling hook. If anyone noticed the false back or the handles she'd put on the sides, she’d simply say, “wanna watch me put it back together?!” And she’d love doing that too. Her re-purposed Grappling Box in hand, Apple Bloom silently slinked across the floor in between the two mattresses Fritter and Gala were sleeping on. She started to rush a little because she was pulling this off so well and sliding on the floor in socks is REALLY fun.

Apple Bloom unscrewed the curved sconce lamp from the side of the window, as she’d done almost a hundred times before, and screwed it back in under the window sill. She screwed it in upside down so that it made an underhanded loop, which was a perfect hook to tie her Grappling Box to. She tied a tight bowline knot and the long screws in re-enforced tile plating on the wall would make her safer on that rope than a safety net would below.

She reached down under her bed to grab her work boots with one hand. Apple Bloom reasoned she couldn’t risk operating heavy machinery without her work boots. Strangely enough, the danger of plummeting two stories feet-first in nothing but her socks didn’t cross her mind at all. Apple Bloom pulled her lifeline tight, tied her work boot laces in a knot, and threw them over her neck. She dropped herself over the edge of the window and caught herself on the sill, winding the Grappling Box with a key she’d made. This key extended the rope at a speed that she could control so she wouldn’t be free falling. Apple Bloom wound the key tightly, and then let it go slowly, controlling the torque in her right hand as her little feet walked down the side of the temple wall. Apple Bloom stopped for a spell to let her small nose and round amber eyes take in the orchard behind her, the ancient walls at her feet, and the infinite black sky above. A slight breeze played at her thin red hair. The only light in a hundred miles came from the barn that she had left on from the afternoon before.

Even though Apple Bloom had worn her thick wool socks, the cold still emanated through the ancient stone. She was actually not repelling down a house, but a temple. Some called it a monastery, others a church, but when it came down to it, it was a holy ancient structure that slumbered above an orchard since anyone in Magiville could remember; and it was protected by the Apple family even further back than that.

Apple Bloom touched her feet down to the cold dew on the grass and shut her amber colored eyes tight as she felt the wetness go straight through her socks. “Dang it!” She shouted, then quickly slapped her hands over her mouth which echoed against the ancient walls. She stopped dead with her eyes open as wide as they could get, still holding her hands over her mouth, her fast breathing from her nose warming her fingers. Apple Bloom waited for four minutes of silence, or maybe it was twenty four. She was too tense to know the time, plus she’d taken apart her watch to put a missing piece into her Grappling Box. Once she was sure she was clear, she slowly but surely slipped her work boots onto her damp feet and ran down the hill towards the barn, slowing down at a rune stone that seemed to stand ominously at the bottom of the hill. Apple Bloom put her hands on the rune stone, bowed her head and closed her eyes as she muttered under her breath:

"You cradle me in warmth

You shield me from the gloom

Leave the door open and keep the light on

We’ll see each other soon"

There was a rush of cold air as Apple Bloom felt the barrier spell part before her that blanketed the rest of the monastery. Passing through the barrier with ease now, she ran as fast as she could across the flat field towards her workshop in the attic of the barn.

Apple Bloom had left the barn door open the afternoon before to be able to slip by barely, scraping her buttons on it. Because if the door opened from a dead stop, the creek scared the heck out of the cows. Once in, Apple Bloom ducked under the cows in the stable trying not to rouse them. If they woke up, their moos would awaken the rest of the farm. She’d brought an arm full of hay just in case one of them got noisy. Luckily for her, they maintained their silence and Apple Bloom was free to climb the rickety stairs to the attic where she pulled back a curtain in the corner to reveal her very modest but cluttered workbench.

Apple Bloom pulled the blanket off of the prototype that she'd entered in Magiville’s Better Living Through Gadgetry, competition. It was a spring loaded daily paper launcher that she developed during her time as a paper delivery girl. Apple Bloom found her arms got tired after throwing papers at doors for two hours every morning.Then when she'd gotten sick of that, she tried walking to all the doors in Magiville, delivering the papers without throwing them. That added another thirty minutes of walking, which wasn’t much better. So she created the paper pusher, as she called it for short. It worked by loading a stack of papers into a backpack that was connected to a spring loaded tube that, when a lever was pulled, shot the paper clean through to the door in question at a rate of thirty miles per hour.

The only problem was it was too clunky and cumbersome for a small girl such as herself. The hose was way too heavy, the backpack needed constant readjustment, and there was only one setting for the machine to fire at. Hard. Misjudging the distance or aim ended up with a lot of broken flower pots and windows. This was the reason she lost the competition. The Mystika Daily however loved her product and bought it from her, flaws in all. Paper runs were done with plenty of time to spare, but there were still complaints of broken windows and terrified pets, though Apple Bloom reckoned some of them were intentional. Not to mention the loud thuds that woke people up in the morning because a new paperboy couldn’t gage the distance.

Apple Bloom tightened the last spring and the knob that changed the settings. Hard was now only the top setting so she could lob a nice pop fly onto a door step without scaring any cats. Then again she thought maybe she should make an even higher setting for the cats. There were some nasty ones on her old route.

Apple Bloom stood up, reaching for the second, more portable model of the Paper Pusher. She still laughed at the initials, "P.P." on the side. She was a brilliant and gifted architect but still a kid who liked toilet humor. This one had a nice little lever on the side that when cocked, slid a fully rolled paper into the barrel and then fired at a nice velocity depending on where the knob was set. The knob’s settings were lob, toss, throw, shoot, and yes, hard.

Very satisfied with her modifications, Apple Bloom climbed over the hay bales and looked out across the temple’s orchard. The orchard was sacred ground to her family as it had allowed the monastery to be self-sufficient and sell the surplus of their fruit in Magiville to keep up with repairs, clothes, and buy any sort of broken or unwanted machines that Apple Bloom could give new life to. Apple Jack joked that she was building her own personal robot assistant so she could sleep while he worked. Funny thing is if Apple Bloom led a twenty foot steam-powered golem out of the barn one day, Apple Jack wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. Probably still terrified, but not surprised.

The Apple family’s name came from an almost religious attachment to the orchard. Most people assumed Apple Jack and Apple Bloom just had uncreative parents, but the fact was quite the opposite. The Apple family has always believed that when it came to finding peace with yourself and others, you always put family first. And so even in their names, it was put first. But where the rest of the family saw the trees as sacred ground, Apple Bloom saw the top of one as a bulls-eye. Apple Bloom breathed in the night air and smiled, she wanted to see what her new baby could do. She flipped the switch to hard, tilted the barrel at a nice 45 degree angle, aimed at the big tree in the middle of the forest and SHOOMP!

As the thick roll of crisp paper spun through the air with a quiet whirring sound, Apple Bloom’s amber eyes widened in anticipation and her smile grew so wide she could have almost bitten her earlobes. She let out a few little squeaks as she had to clench her teeth down in her excitement and almost jumped up and down. The paper was flying far enough to swing straight into her target. She braced for the impact of leaves rustling and fruit falling, but instead what she got was the paper thunking against something solid and bouncing to the ground.

Apple Bloom cocked her eyebrow and tilted her head at this unpredicted anomaly. As far as everything was concerned, that thing should have gone right through the trees and taken a couple pieces of fruit with it. The paper just seemed to have reflected off of a clump of leaves, which was impossible. She couldn’t see very well in the slim moonlight, but with her eyes squinted tight, Apple Bloom knew one thing. The place where her paper had hit was moving.

Apple Bloom's blood froze as she saw a misty figure drop from the tree and melt into the ground. Her survival instincts kicked in as she threw the Paper Pusher across her back by its shoulder strap and dropped to her hands and feet. She she crouched on the attic’s wood floor, she heard the wind shaking the leaves but felt no wind on her face. She peered over the railing's edge to see what looked like tall, gangly figures, barely visible against the dark grass. It looked like they were crawling on all fours like lizards but as Apple Bloom looked closer; she could have sworn it was just shadows gliding, almost swimming through the short grass. Apple Bloom silently rose to her feet, but after hearing the clunk of her boots step backward, she hunkered down again, praying that the shadow monsters in the field couldn't hear her. Lying on her stomach, she slowly slipped her work boots from her feet one by one, then moving silently in her socks scurried over the hay bale faster than ever before, flying down the stairs using the railing to get down in just two bounds.

Still feeling the weight of the Paper Pusher’s barrel pressing on her shoulder, she peered out of the cracked barn door, eyes darting up the hill and spotted the shadows sniffing around the barrier that the rune stones surrounding the temple erected every night. Then Apple Bloom had to stifle a gasp as she realized that she’d left the door open and as soon as they found it, they could walk right in like they were invited for cake and ice cream. She aimed her Paper Pusher at the house and calculated the angle roughly before realizing there was no way she was going to be able to fire over the barrier and hit it; otherwise she could have hit her sister’s window and woken her up.

She was a split second away from going back up to the attic and readjusting the spring to launch it that high when she saw one of the shadow walkers sniffing around the nearest rune stone. Apple Bloom almost lost her lunch in terror when she saw the shadow pick itself up from the field, manifest into a three dimensional form and buzz a hauntingly deep and low sound that brought the rest of them to their spindley feet. She stood there frozen as the rest of the unit sprouted, seeming to develop loose arms, long fingers and haunched legs almost like dogs. Apple Bloom counted at least seven of them but it was so dark and they were nearly invisible against the black sky. Then, one by one they skulked forward into the hole in the barrier she’d made with her prayer.

Then Apple Bloom came to a horrifying realization. These were the dark things everyone was scared of. Tears began to well up in Apple Bloom’s eyes as she was completely paralyzed by the sight of these demons. If she ran up the hill they’d surely kill her, but if she didn’t get up there and warn everyone; her big sister, her big brother, and her nine cousins were all probably dead. She thought about that for a split second and her brain went into overtime working to think of something she could do. She was their only chance and there wasn’t a second option. She saw the shadows approach the temple doors, but then her eyes darted to her Grappling Box she'd left hanging off the window sill, which they seemed to have ignored. They were only occupied with trying to get into the temple through the front door, but Apple Bloom knew the wards on the doors would take some time to break through. They weren’t as powerful as the rune stone barrier was, but they were doing their job which was to keep bad stuff out just long enough for everyone to get suited up.

Apple Bloom’s plan was really bad, but it was the only thing she had. As soon as she could move her legs again, she ran past the hill around to the other side of the temple. Huffing through the cold air in her lungs, her little muscles were pushed to the brink by the newly found adrenaline putting them into overdrive. If she wasn’t completely terrified, she might have appreciated how well her own body performs like a machine under stress. Once she was in line with her sister’s bedroom window, she checked the grounds and saw the shadows were still trying to get in through the doors. "Good." she thought, "Have fun beating your heads against the wall."

She didn’t take her eyes off the shadows while she placed her hand on yet another rune stone and quickly recited the same incantation that put a pit in her stomach. She wasn’t going to be the one that doomed them all. A split second after the barrier opened she was already through and booked it straight up the hill until she was dead in line with Apple Jack’s window. She whipped around the Paper Pusher, saw that she only had one paper roll in the barrel, cranked the knob to full, cocked the lever and fired. The resounding thump was followed by a seemingly eternal silence. Apple Bloom ran forward to collect the paper, reloaded and fired, this time hitting the window glass dead on and shattering the pane with a thunderous crash. Her sister presumably jumped out of bed and a light went on as Apple Jack lit her lantern and leaned out her newly open window. Apple Bloom felt a quick smile cross her face as she saw her sister who was not at all pleased to see her in the yard when she was sure that her room was impenetrable.

“Bloomer, what in the hell are you doing out there in your socks?!” Apple Jack shouted at the top of her lungs.

Apple Bloom’s eyes got about three times wider than their normal size and she said in the loudest whisper she could stifle, “There’s bad stuff tryin’ to get in the house, sis!!” Apple Bloom looked to either side of her.

Apple Jack either didn’t get the hint or couldn’t see her little sister's terrified expression in the pitch black because she yelled at her again. “There’s gonna be a lot of bad stuff happenin’ to you if you don’t come in here right now!” Apple Jack was half asleep and livid and the whole orchard could hear it, including the shadows.

Apple Bloom tried to tell Apple Jack again what was happening, but she had already been seen. As the shadows wriggled through the grass around the hill, the leader swam directly toward Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom couldn’t help but scream and cry out for help as Apple Jack watched her run off in horror.

Apple Jack, finally realizing the gravity of the situation called down to her sister. “Keep runnin’ Sis! Don’t worry! I’m coming!” Apple Jack instantly left her perch at the window, presumably to arm herself and wake the others. Apple Jack was a master swordsman and the thought of her coming to arms would have made Apple Bloom feel completely at peace in any other circumstance, had it not been for the demon nipping at her heels.

Apple Bloom tore around the corner of the temple as she did being chased by her dog a hundred times before, but this time it was a thinner-than-paper shadow reaching out to swipe at her with its long and sharp claws. Apple Bloom weaved back and forth to attempt to confuse the monster, but it was too quick. As soon as Apple Bloom reached her Grappling Box, she jumped on top of it and kicked the lever on the side, consequently putting the gears into overdrive and rocketing her back up to her window sill as the shade jumped up and took a final swipe. Even as the rope was still winding back to its support hook, Apple Bloom felt something slice through a whisp of her hair with a subsequent thunk on the wall below. Looking down, she saw a thin black blade stuck in the wall of solid stone where her head had just been.

As soon as the box finished retracting, she swung into the window feet first, then whipped around and slammed it shut. She didn’t know if those things could climb walls and was not about to find out. She saw that Fritter and Gala’s beds were unmade and they were nowhere to be found. Had they been taken? Had they run? Were they outside? She saw a dim light down the hallway and thought that was as good of a direction to run as any.

Apple Bloom's eyes panned over the hallway, wide and anxious. Everything was still and deathly quiet. She held her breath for a moment, her heart beating in her ears. The coast seemed to be clear. She noticed a glint of something on the floor in front of Apple Jack's room. Her paper lay in a pool of broken glass several feet away. After a moment of hesitation, Apple Bloom moved to pick up her ammunition but then found herself falling back into a sitting position and scurrying backwards as a shade sprung out of the opposite wall, landing silently as it towered over her. It hummed in that same low frequency tone as it grew two weapons that resembled short swords out of its hands and raised them to Apple Bloom. As the shade brought the weapons down on her, the light she saw at the end of the hallway seemed to be swinging back and forth wall to wall and getting brighter until it fully back-lit the shade and a fiery, glowing, great-sword stuck out of the front of its chest.

The sword was pulled out of the monster as quickly as it entered, and now in it's solid form, collapsed to the floor below. Apple Bloom saw her sister, still in her light blue button-up pajamas with her great-sword's scabbard on her back, the thick blade in her hand coated in black blood. Apple Jack handed Apple Bloom the lantern. “They don’t like the light. Stick with me and if one of 'em shows up, shove it in their face and I’ll cut it off the rest of it.” Apple Jack said, starting off towards their sanctuary.

Apple Bloom snatched the paper off of the floor and clamored after her sister, doing her best to keep up with Apple Jack's strides from her much longer legs. “Where's Fritter and Gala?!” Apple Bloom panted, running alongside.

“They’re fine. I woke them up as soon as I saw that thing almost get you.” Apple Jack smiled a bit and looked down at her sister. “That was some quick thinkin’ there half-pint. We’d all probably be dead in bed if you hadn’t shown up.” Apple Jack rounded the corner and saw two shades slithering down the hallway. “Damn,” she whispered under her breath, gripping Apple Bloom's shoulder and looking her square in the eye. “Sis,” she said, reaching back. “gimmie that light and stay put.”

Apple Jack took the lantern, tossing it in between the shades. The full brunt of the light popped them into solid form, staggering as the one came off of the wall and the other from the ground. Apple Jack didn’t let the nearest one catch his balance and hurled the great-sword in a dead straight line. Before it could collapse, Apple Jack flung her hand out in the direction of the sword causing it to fly back to her, hilt first. The second shade got up from his crouch, flinging two small blades at Apple Jack which looked to be going directly into her eyes if they stayed their deadly course. Her sword in mid-flight parried one and Apple Jack threw her head to the side, dodging the other. The hilt of her sword met her grip as she ducked yet another of the shade’s monstrous blades that it produced seemingly out of its own body. Apple Jack threw herself forward, plunging her great-sword into the beast's shadowy body, right through where a person’s heart would be. She used her momentum to bring it down to the floor, pinning it dead as it slid down the blade like a rag doll, streaked with black blood. Panting, her shoulder length blonde hair sweaty and tangled in her eyes, Apple Jack used her still bare feet to push up and rip the great-sword from the demon’s chest. Even though ichor flew up in spurts getting on her clothes and face, Apple Jack remained undaunted.

“Wooho! Get 'em sis!” Apple Bloom yelled down the hallway, but she swallowed her next sentence as she watched a shape claw it's way down the legs of Apple Jack's shadow. Apple Jack's body blocked the lantern light as the demon swam up behind her through the floorboards unencumbered. Apple Bloom choked on a scream as the shadow's black, boney hands extended from the floor, grabbing onto Apple Jack and dragging her down hard. Apple Jack fell backward, slamming her head against the floor, knocking the sense out of her for a split second. That was enough for her sword to fly out of her hand, clinking across the floorboards.

The monster bloomed into its solid form above her, gaunt arms extending out to skeletal fingers spread wide and grabbing at the air for something to strangle. A point oozed out of it's ghastly palm, growing into a blade as the beast fingered it into a striking position, like a spider's legs weaving around its prey. On impulse, Apple Bloom whipped the Paper Pusher around from around her back, loading the rolled paper with automated precision, popped the lever and SHOOMP, last week’s Mystika Daily hit the shade straight in the back of the head. The shadow staggered and turned to see a terrified little girl frozen in her tracks. Apple Bloom couldn’t believe she’d hit anything; she hadn’t even set it to hard, and now she had nothing left to shoot. The shade scampered towards Apple Bloom on all fours, an almost growl-like sound resonating from its throat. With every fiber of consciousness left in her body, Apple Jack thrust out her palm and desperately commanded her great-sword to her trembling hands. Apple Jack’s shoulder felt like it was going to burst as she hurled the huge sword like a javelin, and the sword sliced the shade’s head as it was in mid-stride, pinning it into the splintered floor. The shadow finally stopped twisting and slumped down, going limp as the glowing sword staked its claim and the rune’s light slowly faded as its job had been done. Still dazed from the blow to the head, Apple Jack sauntered towards the fallen shade and wriggled the great sword out of the floorboards with her hands. She grinned and spat at the beast.

“Papers said you couldn’t die. Y'all just hadn't met me yet.” Apple Jack said, victorious. “Come on over, sugar. We’re good now.” Apple Jack motioned Bloom to her side.

Apple Bloom ran to her sister and the flicker of the lantern. Apple Bloom looked up at her sister, and buried her head into her chest, and sobbed. “I’m so sorry I went out!” She sniffed into Apple Jack’s sky blue pajama shirt. “It’s my fault you almost died! I’m so sorry, Sis.”

Apple Jack bent down to put her arms around her sister, stroking Apple Bloom’s red hair to do her best to calm her down. “Nothin’s your fault half-pint,” she said warmly, “we’re gonna get you to the sanctuary and you’ll take the tunnels out to the circle in the orchard. Then Mac and me are gonna clean up the house, alright?” Apple Bloom’s sobbing devolved into sniffs and she nodded her head into Apple Jack’s shoulder. “Good. Now let’s get, before they get us.”

The sisters navigated slowly by the flicker of the lantern, ready to deal with any more of these shadows, but unnervingly, the way to the sanctuary was clear. Apple Jack walked up to the giant double doors and knocked hard. Winona, their red island sheepdog was heard barking and scampering on the other-side. “It’s me, Mac. I’ve got Bloomer. Open up.” Big Mac’s huge boots clomped on the other side of the threshold as the door swung open to reveal a seven foot tall man who's chest and shoulders were almost as wide. He was still in his night shirt, massive hammer in hand which spanned taller than Apple Jack. The steely head of it was as bigger than her own, too. “Thanks Mac.” Mac let Bloom and Jack in, slamming the door behind them, dead bolted it and put the wards back up. Apple Jack went to her weapons chest on the far wall of the sanctuary and spoke without looking over her shoulder. “Rest of the youngins in the chute?”

“Yup,” said Mac.

“You tell ‘em the tunnel leads to a safe shed and they’ve gotta stay there till dawn, right?” Apple Jack said while opening a large war chest.

“Yup,” said Mac again in the exact same tone. Apple Jack pulled out two large leather gauntlets from the chest and softly put them together. She and spoke a few words and caused a soft gold light to blossom from her palms in response.

“Alright then, time for pest control. We’ve been takin’ care of this temple since before the town was built and I’m not gonna let a couple of boogey somethin's ruin my day.” Apple Jack said as she strapped an additional two short swords to her waist.

“Yup,” said Mac a third time, this time swinging his hammer over his shoulder and moving back towards the door. Mac wasn’t known for his extensive vocabulary, but when he did talk it meant that he had something to say, and people listened.

Apple Jack continued to adjust her equipment all the while still talking to Apple Bloom over her shoulder. “Bloomer, you know the fire drill. Make sure the other youngins do too, alright? We’ll be out there as soon as we’ve got stuff taken care of here.” Apple Jack and Mac took their positions behind two of the five trees growing in the temple, but not before Apple Jack cocked an eye-brow at Mac and asked, “are you seriously gonna kill demons with your sleepin' cap still on?” Mac didn’t say anything but slowly removed his red and green night cap and placed it into the pocket of his long red sleeping shirt.

Apple Bloom ran to her sister and gave her one last embrace before she left to join the rest of her cousins. “Be careful sis, ok? Even if you gotta run, I don’t mind, just be careful.” Apple Jack smiled, tussling her hair and stealing Apple Bloom's ribbon. “Hey! Whatdja do that for?!” Bloom said, pouting.

Jack smiled as she teased her sister. “Need somethin’ to get this stuff out of my eyes and I know you won’t forgive me if I don’t bring it back to ya, so this way you know I’m comin’ back, right?” Apple Jack nudged her sister's shoulder.

Bloom smiled weakly but muttered, “you coulda taken someone else’s ribbon.”

Apple Jack popped Bloom on the bottom of her overalls and hurried her towards the door. There was a large crash against the double doors behind her and Jack called over her shoulder. “Get in the tunnel, close the wall and don’t stop runnin’ until you see torches!” Jack said. She said something else at the end of that but it was drowned out with the next bang against the door.

Bloom ran towards the stone wall that was left open for her and pulled the lever from the inside, closing it and locking her older siblings inside a death box with the remainder of the shadow army. Apple Bloom had run down this tunnel hundreds of times before, practicing for situations just like this. But after running and putting her body under such unbelievable stress for what seemed like hours, her muscles felt like they were about to fall apart. She pushed through the fatigue and kept running for what felt like days but finally reached the end where a wooden door closed off the tunnel. Candlelight silently flickered through the cracks of the door until Bloom burst through it and the screams and grunts of all ten of her cousins greeted her, scaring the rest of whatever they had in them, out of them.

Most of the cousins stayed quiet as they huddled together in blankets that had been kept in the chest at the corner of the shed. They tried to sleep through the nightmare and Apple Bloom thought that was the best idea too. After such a long run through the tunnels and the fight-or-flight stress they’d all been put under, everyone was exhausted. So they were content to sleep, except for Apple Bloom’s twin cousins Ruby and Nugget, who were yakking up a storm in the corner.

"I heard that they can walk through walls, an' even turn invincible." Ruby said, her eyes wide and expressive.

"You mean invisible," her brother corrected her. Ruby huffed. Nugget was a larger, and dirtier, male version of his sister, matching her in frizzy red hair and emerald eyes.

Bloom walked over to the two of them and whispered crossly. “Would you shut your traps and lay down? Everyone’s tryin’ to sleep and we don’t know if those things can hear us!”

Nugget looked Bloom straight in the eye. “The circle around the temple didn’t help, it ain’t gonna help here and all the baddies are still up there anyhow. Ruby and me are gonna make a break for it.”

Apple Bloom grabbed Nugget’s tanned wrist. “That’s the stupidest idea I ever heard! You seen how fast those things are?!” Nugget took Ruby’s hand and pushed away from Bloom, heading for the door.

“I told mama it was a bad idea comin’ here. That it wouldn’t make no difference. Magiville’s only ten miles that way and their real magic can protect us more than some goddess mumjo jumbo in the orchard can.” Ruby replied matter-of-factly.

Apple Bloom ran past them to bar the door. “The reason why the circle didn’t work was…” Apple Bloom stopped in mid-sentence, unable to confess how she let the shades in by accident.

“Cuz what?” Nugget stared Apple Bloom down. Nugget was big and angry and she was scared of what he might do if he found out she was responsible for them huddling up like chickens in a coup. So she remained silent. “That’s what I thought.” Nugget, with a good four years and sixty pounds on Bloom, knocked her out of the way, placed his hand on the rune covered handle and spoke the incantation. Then he pushed the door open, took his sister Ruby’s hand and ran out into the dark.

Every bone in Bloom's body screamed not to go out, but the same voice that told her to run back to the temple before told her that her cousins were dead if she didn't do something. The door swung open as Apple Bloom bolted down the path after her cousins. She could just make out Nugget disappearing into the darkness, dragging Ruby along as they ran down the eastern path, but Magiville was south of here.

“You’re goin’ the wrong way!” Apple Bloom called out as she tried to catch them. But Nugget’s legs were too long and he was pulling Ruby too fast.

As they rounded the corner trail leaving the torchlight of the shed, Apple Bloom stopped in her tracks as she saw a shade bolt up from the dark path and knock down her fleeing cousins. Apple Bloom had no weapons, no armor, and there was no way the Paper Pusher could help her this time. She hesitated, stuck in the road halfway between the shed and the shadow. Nugget however, took Ruby’s hand and feinted right, slipping past the shade and further into the woods. They got maybe another ten feet until the second shadow melted out of the nearest tree and towered over them almost twice their height. Nugget knew that there was no way back, so in pure desperation he lunged at the shade. The thing caught Nugget’s low punch, extending a blade straight through Nugget's fist. He cried out before the shade produced another dagger, impaling him through the neck and pinning him to the tree. His last dying gurgles were cut off by Ruby's scream as she ran back towards the shed, only to be stopped by two small daggers flicked from the first shade’s swift hands. She dropped silently to the ground, a dark puddle growing around her head in the dim moonlight. The shades turned to Apple Bloom. Bloom was already running as fast as her little legs could carry her as the shadows melted into the path and swam after her.

The distance from the shed seemed like a thousand miles, and the shades were quickly closing in on her from both sides. But by the time Apple Bloom’s face was lit up by the flickering torches outside the shed, the beasts were slowed by the light, having to rise up from the ground as there was less shadow for them to slide through. Their slight lapse in speed gave Apple Bloom the time she needed to scamper onto the stoop and throw open the door of the shed.

As she bolted through and slammed the door behind her, she woke a couple of her cousins up from their already troubled sleep. After she’d finished moving a table against the door and quickly mumbling every prayer and incantation she knew, she shushed them back to sleep reminding them they were safe inside the shed. When Fritter asked her where Nugget and Ruby were, Bloom just told her that they’d be back soon. The shadows that chased Bloom back to the shed slowly stalked up to the border of the circle, standing at their full crooked height. Both of the twisted figures moved in a hypnotic tandem, pacing opposite to each other and sniffing about for a way inside. The rest of the cousins cowered in fear, wondering what they wanted, but Apple Bloom knew. It was looking for a break in the barrier, like she’d made into the temple. Unable to break the protective circle, they continued to stare with empty, hollow gazes through the windows at a distance, lusting after their untouchable prey. This was the first time Bloom saw them fully lit from the torches of the shed, and she finally saw the faces staring back at her.

Underneath its ethereal shroud, the shadow’s face was a blackened corpse with lidless eyes, wide, bright white, and sunken in. It's rotted mouth gaped open in what looked like a crooked scream, decaying teeth exposed down to the root. After seeing just a glimpse of it, poor Apple Bloom jumped under the blanket with Gala and Fritter and prayed to the goddess that was to keep them safe. Her prayers were answered, but the shadows didn’t leave. They circled the shed, back and forth and back and forth, pacing restlessly for hours on end. Everyone in the shed knew exactly where they were because of the hum, the demonic-sounding murmur, like a swarm of bees performing a monk’s chant. This hellish choir moved slowly from one corner of the shed to the other for the rest of the night.

Apple Bloom and her cousins stayed up all night listening to the demons hum, fearing for their lives until it faded at dawn. She drifted off sometime after dawn only to wake up in her sister’s arms, held sturdy by her thick leather gauntlets. As she carried Bloom through the orchard, Apple Jack was unharmed but her face was stoic and her eyes somber. Apple Bloom, very sleepily asked her sister, “didja get all of ‘em sis?”

Apple Jack’s expression didn't change as she said, “all of ‘em half-pint. Now let’s get you back to the house so we can all get some real sleep. We got work to do tomorrow.”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh good, you managed to get something coherent out of the mishmash we ended up with. Well, at least we know what not to do for next chapter.

As I noted before, it's a good blend of character establishment and good old-fashioned horror, complete with the biggest morons succumbing to natural selection. Looking forward to more.

Also: SHOOMP

[Yondy]

535921 lol yes to SHOOMP and yes to science Apple Bloom. Thanks again!

[Hoof of Approval]

This, so far? Epic. Gimme moar. When's the next one?

[Yondy]

535977 lol thank you hoof! we're doing our best to crank these suckers out every week, but don't hold me to that Chapter 3 is currently in the revision process and we're hoping to get it set if not the end of this week, the beginning of next. Thanks for reading!

[HellRyden]

Awww buck yeah flaming greatswords! Applejack is best paladin! I suppose the lack of epicness can be forgiven since we're only at the start of the story, but I can't wait for the next few chapters to show the rest of the Mane 6 at work!

P.S. Chapter 4 of The Order of Koaxia is almost halfway completed, and at a word count of 8k+ already, I have a feeling we either have a very huge upcoming chapter on our hands, or I'm going to have to split this into a two-parter

[Yondy]

536431 Thanks Ry! Yeah. It's gonna take a while to rev up. Keep in mind it took Tolkien 2.5 books before the epic of epic battles. Give it a couple more chapters. Hang in there on Koaxia! And chapters can be long just as long as they're well paced.

[flower.mage]

Well, you already knew I like this chapter, but you're right; it is more polished, and I think it flows better.

...And yes, I am partly biased about loving this chapter since AJ is my favorite, lol.

Three things that were my favorite in this chapter:
1) The new scene with Nugget and Ruby you added.
2) The ribbon scene between Bloom and Jack (yes, I know I told you that before).
3) The AJ quote, "Papers said you couldn't die. Y'all just hadn't met me yet."

Keep up the good work, and I'll try not to whine for you to write more, lol.

[HellRyden]

536544

Just wanted to say, I am SO looking forward to seeing Spike's interaction with Rarity - seeing a dragon familiar that's about the size of a pet lizard getting all affectionate with a human female just reminds me of how my friend's dog just loves jumping up on me while I'm sitting on the couch and licking me all up in the face >< Rarity's reaction would suuure be interesting to see

Oh yeah and just a heads up, Koaxia's chapter 4 is up, comments would be very much appreciated!

[CrimsonPhoenix]

I'll have to admit, this story made me register so I can comment and encourage you to do more.

I love the writing style you've put in this and I really cannot wait for more.

[Raindrop Glitz]

I was freaking out before this and until the very end of this chapter, mainly because i didn't want AJ to die and mainly because I would be scared out of my wits if that happened to me also new quote to go into my book o quotes is "Papers said you couldn't die, y'all just hadn't met me yet." AND poor AppleBloom!

[MellowMabari]

Wow, this shadow business is serious. Really loved this chapter - Applejack kicking ass was pretty sweet, and I love how you handled the tech-savvy portrayal of Applebloom. Awesome writing so far - very few errors that I even noticed (I can't remember them even if I did notice them) and I like how the Apple Family are like the stewards of the old temple thing. Keep it up

[musicluvr1974]

I thought it was going to be Mac you killed off. Glad it wasn't...

Onward!

[Cantwriteforshit]

This was crazy! AJ is a proper badass!
Can't wait to see the other heroes of Equestria Mystika in action!

Poor Apple bloom though...