Sleeping in the Light

by Wheller

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

It became clear as day that Rainbow Dash had no idea what to think of this. Applejack had died. Rainbow Dash had watched her die. She had checked her vitals, they weren’t there! Applejack had died, and yet, here she was standing before her, looking as if she was about ready to break down. Sparky frowned as she watched the scene unfold, she felt for Applejack. She knew what would become of her.

Applejack was still alive in the modern day, though she had stopped going by that name some time ago. Now, she was Señora Amarilla de la Manzana y de la Sidra. She was the lonely hispaña land owner whom they had met while sailing on the airship Madame LaSalle from Ponyville to Manzanares, in the Hispaña Third Republic. Sparky could only imagine how Applejack felt at this moment, she was lost, confused by what had just happened to her, and no matter how hard she tried to make sense of it, she would not be able to, because that’s how things were to go. Her friend, Amarilla de la Manzana would not be able to figure it out; not until their meeting with the enigmatic Hannibal in what, for her, would be a hundred years time.

‘Rainbow Dash... please, tell me ya know somethin’!’ Applejack said weakly, her voice trembling in fear, not really asking a question, but hoping for an answer nonetheless.

‘I... I...’ Rainbow Dash said, searching her brain for anything that she could use to explain the situation, she had nothing. She pondered the event as hard as she could, but she could come up with no answer for what she had seen happen. Her ear began to twitch and Rainbow Dash looked up and to the west as she heard an explosion off in the distance, quickly followed by another, and another. ‘That’s got to be the Sinsac! they’re bombarding the island!’ Rainbow Dash cried out as she turned back to Applejack, who was still more than a little confused about the situation and frowned at her. ‘I don’t know how either Applejack... but I promise, we’ll find out. We need to go!’

Applejack nodded her head slowly, she straightened her hat, and then a small smile formed on her face. ‘Race ya to the beach?’ she asked.

Rainbow Dash grinned back at her. ‘Last one there’s a rotten egg!’

Sparky smiled as they watched the two mares race off towards the beach. If anything, this memory had a very important lesson to tell. One must never go through hard times alone, as long as we have friends to support us in our time of need, anything can be accomplished. This message did not just apply to the memory they were viewing. Sparky knew that there would come a time when she and her friends would need to stand against what FutureTec was doing behind the scenes. She had gathered a group of friends of her own, good, faithful, reliable friends, and she knew that if they set their minds to something, they could get any job done.

This memory put Sparky’s mind at ease, she knew that as long as she had Dizzy, Hopely, Kelso, and Viola, that they didn’t need to worry. Come what may, they would be ready.

...

It wasn't long before the passive observers found themselves with Rarity, Fluttershy, and their new friend, Danielle Voltaire. Kelso and company took to a brisk pace to keep up with them.

'Anyone else feel like something is... off here?' Kelso asked with a frown.

'Yeah', Dizzy said with a nod as she looked at the cheval mare with suspicion. However, it wasn't long before their attention turned to something else.

Fluttershy had been walking with her head down, clearly lost in thought about the situation she found herself in, suddenly, Rarity and Danielle came to a stop. ‘What’s going on?’ Fluttershy asked, as she carefully stepped closer to Rarity.

‘I am not sure, stay here; I am going to take a look ahead’, Danielle said in a hushed voice before taking a step forward and disappearing deeper into the jungle.

‘Rarity?’ Fluttershy asked. ‘I’ve been thinking...’

‘Yes? Fluttershy?’ Rarity asked turning to her friend.

‘I’m not sure I trust Danielle...’ Fluttershy said with a frown.

'At least someone here has a head on their shoulders', Dizzy said with a sigh.

'Are you kidding? They have to be lucky that Fluttershy even spoke up at all, if my grandmother's stories about her are to be believed, which I most certainly do', Sparky said matter of factly, before being shushed by the rest of the group to listen in on the conversation.

‘Fluttershy! I am surprised at you! Danielle has done nothing but help us and wants nothing more than to get off this island, and can you blame her? All those uncouth ruffians running around?’ Rarity said, shuddering to herself.

‘That’s just it Rarity’, Fluttershy said with a frown. ‘I mean, let’s stop and think about it for a moment. This island is controlled by the Cheval Fourth Republic, as a prison for its’ most dangerous criminals’.

‘Yes...’ Rarity said nodded her head.

‘Well, the cheval are all pegasi right?’ Fluttershy said. ‘They can’t fly away because of that big cannon that’s keeping them all trapped here’.

'What big cannon?' Hopely asked, her eyes widening at the idea of it.

‘Yes...’ Rarity said, nodding her head again, unsure of where Fluttershy was going with this.

‘Well... Danielle is cheval... and she’s here, on the island’, Fluttershy said with a nervous squeak.

‘Yes...’ Rarity said as a look of horror began to form on the unicorn mare's face. She was starting to understand what Fluttershy was getting at.

‘So... what is she doing on the island?’ Fluttershy asked.

Rarity swallowed hard, they heard rustling in the bushes behind her, and Rarity slowly turned to see Danielle standing behind them, looking incredibly angry. ‘Couldn’t leave well enough alone could you?’ the mare asked, bringing her submachine guns to bear.

Rarity instinctively snapped the rifle to eye level and trained it on Danielle. ‘St... stay back!’ she cried out. Danielle took a step forward, undaunted by Rarity, who, as intimidating as she was trying to be, it was unfortunately not working out very well for the unicorn mare. Rarity pulled the trigger of the rifle with her telekinesis.

click!

‘Wha!?’ Rarity cried out, pulling the trigger again.

click!

'Work the bolt dumbarse! Work the bolt!' Hopely cried out to Rarity in frustration as her advisement fell upon deaf ears.

Danielle reared up and swung her hind legs, landing a blow into Rarity’s face and sending her toppling to the ground. ‘I would have taken you with me when I got off the island! I would have let you go! But you couldn’t just leave well enough alone!’ Danielle cried out in frustration.

Fluttershy's face filled with fear, and she instinctively backed away from the enraged cheval mare.

‘Mon Dieu! Five years! Five years of my life, wasted on this island! I will be free, and you will not stop me!’ Danielle sneered.

Fluttershy backed into a tree root, tripping over it and falling onto the ground. Danielle had seemed to have forgotten about her entirely, and moved in close, pointing her submachine guns at the fallen filly menacingly. ‘P... please don’t hurt me!’ Fluttershy cried out.

‘Hurt you?’ Danielle asked with an insane sneer. ‘You say that like I was not sent here for murder...’ she said adding a grin, she kicked her left leg outward, the storm harness’ levers went to work and slid a new magazine into her submachine guns. ‘Can’t exactly let you tell anyone who I am and what I did...’ Danielle took the storm harness’s control yoke in her teeth, cocking the weapon. Fluttershy covered her eyes, she couldn’t bear to watch.

The passive observers had been far too focused on Fluttershy to notice that Rarity had risen from the ground, she quietly walked up to Danielle Voltaire, rifle in her telekinetic grip, she turned it around and raised it over her head, bringing the butt stock down upon the prisoner as hard as she possibly could, knocking the cheval mare unconscious and tossing the otherwise useless rifle aside.

Rarity enveloped her telekinetic grip on one of the submachine guns that had been clipped into Danielle's storm harness, pulling it free with all her might. The submachine gun came free without much effort from the rage fuelled Rarity.

‘Fluttershy? We really should be leaving now’, Rarity said, resting the submachine gun on her shoulder.

Fluttershy nodded and got to her hooves and the two mares ran into the jungle, neither of them entirely sure where they were going, but it was a lot better than being here.

...

The passive observers quickly found themselves alongside Pinkie Pie, Princess Luna, and Spike as they took cover in the trees. They didn’t take their eyes off the beach for a single second and it wasn't long before they found what they were looking for. Large metal landing craft beached themselves, dropping the loading doors and allowing their cargo to roll out onto the beach.

'Mark IV Spencer Infantry tanks', Hopely said as she looked over to them, watching as the vaguely pickle shaped armoured vehicles rolled up to the tree line.

'How do you know what they're called?' Sparky asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend, who merely shook her head in disappointment.

'You need to get out more, Spark', Hopely said with a sigh. 'For your information, one of those tanks happens to be in the Republican history museum in down town Ponyville.'

Sparky jumped as she turned to watch a column of fire burst from the Spencer tank from a flame thrower attached to the front hull, spitting fire into the trees and burning itself a path through the thick foliage.

There was a loud crunch, as more of the boats hit the beach, dropping their loading ramps and dumping large swaths of kangaroo infantry and a couple more of the Spencer flame tanks.

‘Get those Spencer Crocodiles up and in front! First section, fall in behind me’, a kangaroo wearing a red beret and holding a submachine gun cried out as he hopped around from boat to boat, shouting out his orders. This was clearly the jack in charge, and Kelso was quick to notice that he was looking right in their direction. ‘All right you lot! Out of those trees and into the open where I can see you!’ He cried out, raising his weapon, and pointing it towards the tree line, at Pinkie Pie, Princess Luna, and Spike. They were hardly in a position to argue, and slowly stepped out of the trees, Spike went as far as raising his hands in the air in surrender. The kangaroo looked at them in confusion. ‘You’re not cheval...’ he said, and then looked down at Spike. ‘And I don’t even know what you are!’

‘I’m a dragon’, Spike said in a huff.

‘Yeah, sure, and I’m the bloody Queen of Welara’, the kangaroo said, rolling his eyes, and taking his attention back to Luna and Pinkie Pie. ‘So then, who are you lot? One of you the... oh... what was it? The “Rainbow Dash” we were told about?’ He asked.

‘Rainbow Dash? I... no, I’m Pinkie Pie!’ Pinkie Pie said, and then introduced Spike and Luna to the kangaroo. ‘We’re friends with Rainbow Dash though... how do you know her?’

‘I don’t, your friend called us, we didn’t call her’, he said with a shrug. ‘I’m Lef-tenant William Cutting, Royal South Island Regiment, now, how about you step aside and let my jacks do their bleeding jobs, eh what? You can wait on the boat’.

‘But... our friends...’ Pinkie Pie began to raise her voice in protest, only for Cutting to silence her.

‘We’ll bring them back, they shouldn’t be too hard to spot, assuming that they’re like you and are candy-coloured marshmallow horses’, Cutting said, and pointed to the boat he’d came on. ‘March. It’s for your own safety, we’re professionals’.

‘This guy must not know who he’s talking to’, Kelso said with a frown as she looked to Pinkie Pie. The pink party pony had been in a number of rough situations in the past and had come through alright.

Pinkie Pie was not going to argue further, and reluctantly took to a seat on one of the landing craft alongside Spike and Princess Luna. ‘Do you think Rainbow Dash and the others are okay?’ She asked, looking to Princess Luna for any words of comfort.

‘Knowing our friends? I am sure of it’, Princess Luna said with a reassuring smile.

‘Well, she’s been wrong before’, Hopely said with a frown.

The rest of the passive observers said nothing, merely nodding in agreement.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So Applejack coming back to life DID have a price for her to pay, in a hundred years she loses her identity and becomes somepony else.

[PieisGood4U]

1026589
Pardon me but it sounds like you didn't read "Parlament of Dreams" to me as I read your statement. Just an assumption mind you.
Nonetheless if it is correct I suggest going back to read that.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

1027606 Even if I did I doubt we knew until know what could cause Applejack to still be alive but forget her name and become an entirely different pony.

[The Midnight Stalker]

Yes a new chapter. Although a as yet to see the point of this story.

[PieisGood4U]

1028805
Actually we could
It is pretty much explained in that series at some point.

[Streamline]

1028805 You really need to read the prequel, dude. It's all explained there.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

1031105 I'll get around to it evantually but it is pretty long and I have several other fics I'm following, maybe once I find a lot of free time I'll do it.

[Wheller]

1031901

And yet you're reading this.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

1032098 I know I know but then you were the one is writing these flashbacks when everyone is suppose to already know these things, if you really wanted to make sure people would read the prequel first you should've left out the flashbacks. But um whatever you wanna do is fine.

[Spiffers]

1032141 You're missing the point. When they say prequel, they just mean Parliament of Dreams. IN Parliament of Dreams, Applejack, who is at that point Amarilla, explains that she consciously gave up her old life and moved to hispana. Also, the fact that she (bought out?) Sweet Apple Acres pretty much tells that she didn't forget anything

[Blik]

1032141 None of these flashbacks are from Parliament of Dreams; from what I've heard Wheller is basically summarizing a whole series of one-shots he did a while back in order to use them as backstory for this epic. I suppose I would feel more need to read all those one-shots if everything pertinent weren't being summarized here.

[kladdos]

1044613 I'd love to read those one-shots as well.

1032098 Could you please post your one shots as well? that would be amazing!
keep up the awesome work!

[The Midnight Stalker]

1061364

.1032141

The flash back are from the bonds of eternity series, the sequel series to All Go0d things. I should know i've read the first through twice and halfway through my second reading of the second.

Took time to read then the first time as i did it on FanFiction.net

[Qub3d]

Argh... OK, i've gotten over my anti-flashback angst... seeing some new points of view, not to mention the extra dialog of our real main characters, it adds a new flavor to the story. Still, I feel I should repeat myself:

[Reaper1oo]

dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_ooh.png
I've caught up!