Cutiemark Crusaders 10k: The fourth deity

by The Psychopath

Seeing Apples grow

Apple Bloom's machines were trudging through the free lands where neither chaos, darkness, nor crystals had yet to spread to. However, it was still considered territory own by chaos, and many demons were hiding around. Apple Bloom, her head poking out of one of the armored vehicle's hatches, scanned the surroundings with her bionic eye. The vehicle she rode in was very flat and moved about on two exposed tracks on its sides, and two protected tracks only visibly from beneath. Multiple gun ports, currently manned, jutted from the topmost of the hull, ready to gun down anything in a rain of bullets. The turret had a circular shape with sloped armor to its top, and a large, quad-barreled autocannon pointing far in front of it and read to destroy anything as well. A few others were following to the sides of the chief engineer's, each of them stocked with armed troops read to exit at a moment's notice.

Apple Bloom pressed against her earphones. "We're coming up on the village," she said. "Get ready ta kill any demons on sight 'n check for survivors, materials, 'n anythin' else of note. Blueprints, pictures, art. Anything you can find!"

Small, ruined building started growing larger and larger on the horizon the closer the vehicles got to the town. The place was in shambles, with crumbled houses and the larger buildings seeing their halves toppled over onto the ruined streets. The armored vehicles stopped in place with a loud screech and let the troops in them out via a large hatch on their backs. Once it had lowered, all the ponies, dressed in green kevlar armor and helmets and wielding rifles. A single pair of ponies in each vehicle brought out a massive cannon accommodated by a bullet shield out and followed the others.

"Watch the buildins'. There's demons in there. I can see them;" she announced with a threatening tone.

Searches went on for an hour, and the results actually proved to be very fruitful. Much furniture, old food recipes, and blueprints for some outdated machinery came to bare. Some had even gone rummaging through the debris of old houses and found several toys that could prove of interest to the young foals and children, provided they were cleaned and replicated. Some soldiers were caught playing with them silently and would get chewed out when their squad leader caught them.

"Good job everypony," Apple Bloom announced. "Looks like this is a big enough first haul for me ta call in the first transports."

A squad officer, distinguishable by the streak of vertical yellow on her cap, saluted Apple Bloom.

"Commander Bloom, I have a report to make."

"What is it?" Apple Bloom asked.

"We found a cache of mostly intact art, but it's blocked behind rubble. I request permission to use explosives."

The commander tapped the top of her vehicle. "Only breach charges. There's a risk of destroying the artwork behind."

"Yes, m'am."

A few dozen guards had established a protective perimeter around the vehicles, not that they were incapable of protecting themselves. It was just a precaution. One of the guards, however, noticed something strange and reported it to his commander.

"Commander," he started.

"What is it? Why are ya breakin' the perimeter?"

Apple Bloom's bionic eye lit up and hummed angrily upon looking at the pony. Immediately, she punched a button on her suit's breast, starting up a massive, blaring alarm.

"Ah don't know what ya want, but ah ain't gonna let ya git outta here alive!"

The turret of her vehicle and the guards around trained their weaponry on the single pony. Unfortunately, despite firing their bullets, the demon was missed completely. It warped and twisted and stretched into the orange serpent know as Applejack. Her long body and many arms grabbed and sliced at the guards around while the ponies in the city were ambushed by multicolored demons hiding out in the ruins. The close proximity and literal chaos the ambush created caused several of the soldiers to fall to the corrupted ponies, but the guard recovered quickly, and it was why Apple Bloom brought heavy weapons with her.

With a loud, deafening thumps, the massive cannons let forth their explosive charges into the demonic fray, shredding them and blowing them to pieces indiscriminately. The commander, however, was facing the one she hated the most in the world.

"Apple Bloom, ah've come ta git ye," Applejack said with a smile and outstretched hand.

The engineer furrowed her brow and pulled a pistol from her armor, shooting the demon's hook off.

"Ah told ya: Ah ain't no darn Apple no more. Ah'm just Bloom!"

Applejack clenched her teeth angrily. "Then maybe ah'll just wait behind 'n watch them tiny apples eat all of ya!"

"That won't happen!"

Apple Bloom another round at the serpent, missing her, and resumed her much needed duty of guiding everyone in this battle. Bullets were fired and sword blows were exchanged, but the demons were at an advantage and started off the fight with the element of surprise. The armored personnel carriers started their rounds through the city, demolishing any exposed demons in seconds, but even the ambushers had tricks up their sleeves. They had weapons made by Twilight herself, and they didn't shoot books. Large portions of the city and the vehicles found themselves ripped off and thrown randomly in any direction. The battle went on for two days, with casualties on both sides and the city itself turning into a literal war torn landscape moreso than it already did, and everypony was getting really exhausted, and most of the APV were either out-of-commission or heavily damaged. Apple Bloom was holed up with her guard under the rubble of a collapsed tower, listening in to the messages being sent along the radio lines connected to massive black boxes themselves covered in cables and wires.

"What do we do? We weren't expecting this kind of fight!" a wounded soldier said.

The commander paced in the make-shift camp and sighed. "Well, we can't fight 'em anymore without ammo, 'n we're plum dry." She walked over to one of the operators of the boxes relaying field orders and leaned in.

"Send a message to Vanhoover: We were ambushed by chaos. Can't extract. Chaos lord is here. Need reinforcement by the Empress and the Scoot Marines."

"Understood, Commander," the pony replied.

The wounded soldier limped towards one of the many tables littering the cover and leaned against it, sighing with relief. "Ooof. What do we do now?"

Apple Bloom huffed. "We wait."

Another day had passed, but Apple Bloom wasn't hiding under the protection of her makeshift base. She had climbed with her guardsponies into an incline created by the fallen rubble of a skyscraper. It created a bridge that had punched a hole into the side of said building where some ponies were holed up, fending off the demons. Several grenades and grueling moments in hoof-to-hoof combat saw through, with Bloom using her energy sword to slice through every demon that got close to her rescue squad. Their chaotic blood dripped and drizzled allover the place, painting the floors red with the mare's anger and determination.

The rescue team went several floors down to find the ponies in question that needed rescuing, and they were a sorry bunch. Bruised, beaten, and bloodied, and trapped in a room dark from the rubble it was buried in outside. The air was stale and the ponies had enough of this battle.

"What's the news?"

The squad leader stood forward saluted her commander. "We were trying to recover supplies lost by one of our teams here and got trapped. Of the twenty-five of us currently present, we eleven are the only ones still alive!"

Bloom cursed under her breath. "We're losing ponies by the hour. We're all going to be killed if Scootaloo doesn't get here soon."

The soldier's ears perked up. "E-Empress Scootaloo is coming here?"

"Yes, and with her scoot marines. I send the message yesterday. Provided the message was properly sent, then they should be arriving here quickly."

"This is great news! This is exactly what the soldiers needed for a morale boost."

"You three, secure the perimeter up front," Bloom ordered to her guard. They quickly rushed off. "You five, help the wounded 'n recover their weapons. We can't waste anything." She looked to the rest that remained. "As for the rest of ya, yer goin' ta help me get--"

"Ah see ya, Apple BLOOM!" a familiar voice yelled in rage.

A massive orange hand burst through the debris and grabbed Apple Bloom, pulling her out and flinging her across the street. The mare looked behind her and braced for impact, hitting a wall hard and bouncing off it while taking some cement with her. She also hit the ruined streets hard and grunted painfully, some blood coming out of her mouth. As for the serpent, she slithered down to her 'little sister' and sported a face of pure anger.

"Y'all 're gonna come with me, 'n y'all 'er gonna like yer home with Big Mac 'n Granny Smith."

The mare coughed and dragged herself across the street. "If ah told ya before, ah'm tellin' ya now again: Y'ain't mah sister! Ya killed 'er when you attacked Ponyville!"

Applejack's face reddened with anger, but she couldn't stay mad at her sister. That being said, her concern was untimely, as Scootaloo flew in by kicking her in the face and shooting her onto the street farther away. Her fully armored scoot marines poured into the streets, setting up an evacuation and treatment and communications hub.

"That takes me back," Scootaloo chuckled.

"Yeah, but this time you didn't have Sweetie to throw you." Apple Bloom shared the laughter while she was being helped up.

Applejack looked across her belly and moaned painfully while she rubbed her swollen cheek. She also tapped her head, realizing that her hat was missing.

"She kicked muh hat off," Applejack grumbled.

Scootaloo stepped in front of her wounded friend, golden spear in hoof. "Stand back, Bloom. I'll protect you."

"Ah don't need yer prote--" Apple Bloom was cut off by another, raspy cough.

"Sure you aren't."

Scootaloo made her warm, calm smile, aggravating her friend.

"Ah hate it when you make that smile. Really. Stop it," the mare glared.

Applejack rushed forward, intact on gutting Scootaloo who stood proudly with her marines slowly taking position behind the two mares and aiming their rifles at the incoming chaos lord.

"Why would SHE come at us head on?" Apple Bloom wondered.

"She isn't," Scootaloo answered.

The serpent's form faded like smoke, and everyone looked around, hoping to spot her before she could hurt someone. They didn't noticed one of the scoot marines slowly inching its way towards the wounded engineer.

"By the way," Scootaloo started. "Just in-case, I brought in some help to watch us in-case we miss something important."

A loud crash startled everypony. It was caused by a massive crystalline arm grabbing the sneaking marine that returned to its original for: Applejack. She struggled to be released from the grip, but it wasn't working. She was stuck in the grip of Abstract's chrysanthemium, and Iviesta was watching the event next to her father. Apple Bloom grinned and Scootaloo smiled.

"What should I do with her?" Abstract asked his daughter.

Iviesta wondered loudly. "Well, she looks like a worm."

"Thank you for your help, Abstract. After our discussion, I didn't think you would intervene. Trap her for us so we can--"

"BREAK HER BACK!" Iviesta shouted.

The Chrysanthemium used its other leg to grab Applejack by her head, extended its 'fingers' under her, back.

"NO!" Scootaloo shouted.

A horrifying snap resonated through the air, followed by Applejack's strenuous screams of pain. The beast dropped her on the ground where additional cracking could be heard. Bloom was unaffected by the screaming. In fact, to her, it was sort of a symphony.

"That's payback fer everythin' ya did to me," she thought.

"Haha! She's writhing and screaming at the same time!" Iviesta pointed and laughed. "Loud worm," she chuckled.

Abstract's eyes glowed more intensely when Scootaloo somehow too her eyes off the screaming, broken chaos lord. Her face was no longer composed, as it had always been. It was distraught. Even the scoot marines couldn't help but cringe at the sight and sound. Scootaloo received a reminder of just how cold and uncaring Abstract truly was, and his 'daughter' was enjoying the scene. It was...unthinkable.

Author's Note:

Sorry if this feels rushed. I've been forcing myself to write a chapter a day, and this is the point where my brain starts to shutdown, but I must persist.

Comments

[ChazMLPFIM]

What the heck?!, What did Abstract done to Applejack?!,

I hope Applejack is okay.

[Crazy the Clone]

Goddammit, here I was, hoping that they'd actually TALK to each other for once. That's literally the one ingenious issue I have with CC 40K. They've been broken apart, and there's never any sign of the two having a chance to even attempt to just talk, and see how they both changed. I call it ingenious in that I always end up keeping tabs in order to see if it ever happens, so I never abandon reading this or the comic.

[The Psychopath]

8295553
Oh. You want Apple Bloom and Applejack to talk? I could do that. Would take some working, though.

[Crazy the Clone]

8295559
You don't really need to. I'm just saying what's on my mind. You're the author of this fix, so the story itself is up to you.

[The Psychopath]

8295572
Perhaps, but I still like to listen to the requests of my readers, and then I see if it can be placed in the story. It tends to add some stuff to the plot anyways.

[Crazy the Clone]

8295575
Well, whatever works for you. The only reason I want to see the two just sit down and talk to each other is because no one bothers to do that. Enemies are just enemies, and they have to be defeated. Simple as that. No one tries to do anything, despite the fact that they were once friends and family. It just kind of irks me.

[The Psychopath]

8295581
Ooooooh. I did that for Scootaloo and Celestia, even if it was brief. The reason I haven't done that with Apple Bloom and Applejack is that Apple Bloom swore off her family and absolutely hates her former sister. Even though there are moments where Applejack tries to talk to her, the younger sister doesn't even want to try talking anymore.

[ChazMLPFIM]

8295591
Okay, what will happened that Apple Bloom will find out about how Applejack become a chaos demon in the first place.

[Crazy the Clone]

8295591
Yeah, that's what irks me so much. Anyway. Like I said before: you do you.