Nightmare Rising: Applejack

Author's Note:

side story to a Dark Alternate Universe where Celestia disappeared after banishing her sister to the moon, and the two princesses became myths as Equestria did its best to keep going without the princesses.

Applejack has recently graduated from the Canterlot Police academy and is struggling to adjust to nightshifts and still take care of her younger sister. Tonight's shift is going to be a real doozy.

Heavily inspired by Batman but not enough to classify as a Fusion/Crossover. Yet. The final product would probably have that tag to be safe.

The steady buzzing of her alarm clock slowly summoned Applejack from her slumbers. For a while she stared at the dark bedroom ceiling as the clock continued to buzz on the nightstand. Finally she rolled out of bed and gave the little clock a swat. With the clock suitably subdued she trotted out of her room and into the apartment’s tiny kitchen. She sighed as she set a pot of oats on the stove and turned up the heat. It was hardly a kitchen at all really, not like what she’d had back in Ponyville. Then again, that dream had died with Ma and Pa.

While waiting for the oats to boil, Applejack wandered around the house picking up after her sister. The filly had left a mess this morning, but Applejack hadn’t gotten around to cleaning it up before she went to bed. This new nocturnal schedule was an ornery beast, and it was dragging her through the mud something awful.

Picking Apple Bloom’s raincoat off the floor near the front door she noticed a well stuffed white envelope with Applejack’s name scrawled across it. After hanging the coat on the peg by the door Applejack picked up the envelope. Tearing it open, she dumped the contents onto the table: a folded piece of paper and a small stack of fifty bit bills.

“Congratulations on graduating from the Canterlot Police Academy! It will be good to have family on the inside for once. We couldn’t help but notice that you seemed to be struggling to make ends meet; we hope that this helps and we look forwards to working with you soon. Love, Braeburn and the family.” Applejack read before balling the paper up and turning to fix the pile of money with a dour look. Picking the money up from the table she gingerly carried it over to the stove and after a quick check on the pot of oatmeal she dipped the end of the cash into the blue flames.

Almost immediately the cash caught fire and Applejack hastily tossed it in the sink. Throwing open the window over the sink, Applejack returned to the oatmeal and stirred it carefully, turning the thickening glop over and over. Satisfied with the consistency, Applejack grabbed a small bag of sliced apples from the fridge and mixed them into the oatmeal.

Applejack turned down the heat of the stove and placed a lid on the pot before returning to the sink and rinsing the ashes and surviving specks of money down the drain. She had thought that maybe if they moved to a primarily unicorn population center that maybe they could escape from the family’s reach, but… “Damn Apples, they really are everywhere.”

The sound of the door unlocking caused Applejack to jump. She scrambled to the table and grabbed the crumpled letter off the table. As the door opened, Applejack tossed the letter into the waste bin. With the evidence out of sight, she turned to smile warmly at the yellow filly as she closed the door behind her. Her smile vanished at the sight of Apple Bloom’s downcast face. “What’s wrong, sugarcube?

“Just the usual. A bunch of glow sticks being glow sticks. They only get worse when I go to the civic center.” Apple Bloom grumbled without looking up as she dropped her saddlebags on the floor next to the table and took a seat. Applejack scowled and tapped her hoof on the table. Apple Bloom looked up and grimaced when she saw the scowl on her older sister’s face.

“What have I told ya about slurs?”

“Don’t.” Apple Bloom gave an exaggerated sigh before shaking her head. “But it’s not fair! The other kids are always calling me names like ‘mud’ and ‘dirt pony’, and even in front of a few of the teachers! I’m the only earth pony in my class. I feel like a seed bar in a chicken coop!”

Applejack smiled briefly at her sister’s countryism, though they’d never even had chickens so how she had come up with that little morsel was a mystery, but it quickly vanished as what her sister had said before that sank in. “You’re right.”

Apple Bloom looked up in surprise, clearly having expected a different response. “I am?”

“Ya are, but that does not excuse stooping to their level, even if it is in the privacy of our home.” Applejack replied sternly, “But if yer teachers aren’t doing anything about it, then they aren’t doing their job. I’ll schedule a meeting with the principal and write a letter to the superintendant tomorrow.”

“You mean we aren’t moving again?” Apple Bloom asked quietly.

“Why would we be moving?”

“It smells like something was burning. The past few times I came home to that smell we moved again within the next few days.” Apple Bloom answered with her eyes locked on the tabletop. “Braeburn found us again, didn’t he?”

Applejack sighed heavily. She had always tried to keep her sister ignorant of their family drama. Hay, she’d never even mentioned Braeburn before. “Who told you about Braeburn?”

“I overheard one of the unicorn parents telling their daughter to not be around me because I was one of ‘Braeburn’s ilk’ and that Apples are always trouble. I also found the first letter when I was taking out the trash.” Apple Bloom admitted.

“I… we’re not running this time.” Applejack said as she put an arm around her little sister’s shoulders. Kissing her on the forehead she said, “You deserve better than this, and I’ve finally got a chance to make that happen. We’ll get through this, right where we are, I promise.”

Applejack lifted Apple Bloom’s chin so that she was looking into Applejack’s eyes. With a smile she said, “Just promise me that you’ll keep being the bigger pony, okay?”

Apple Bloom nodded slowly, “Okay. Just stay safe out there. You need to be there to wake me up tomorrow.”

“Deal. I’ll even try to work my way into a desk job if it makes you feel better.” Applejack said as she grabbed a pair of bowls with spoons from a cabinet and nimbly filled them with oatmeal and apple slices. Setting both bowls on the table she took a seat “But for now, tuck in and then I’d like to hear about what that fancy school is actually supposed to be teaching you.”

Applejack grumbled as she struggled with the slug thrower harness on her right forearm. It was always the last part of the uniform that she put on because it was always the most frustrating part of gearing up even after weeks of training. She’d tried putting it on first, but that had left her with no patience for the blue button up shirt and televox and she’d ended up getting chewed out for looking like she felt, scrambled and out of place.

She blinked in surprise as the harness began to glow and the straps all pulled into place. She looked up to see the navy blue unicorn she had been teamed up with, Officer Flat Hoof. The unicorn smiled, “That thing’s quite the bugger, isn’t it Bad Apple?”

Applejack nodded with a small smirk. She had been lucky to end up with Flat Hoof, he was the only unicorn that didn’t give her crap for her lack of horn. No, he just gave her crap for her lineage, but as best she could tell it was good natured. “Thanks Flat. Same beat as last night?”

“As if they’d put us anywhere other than the Adobo.” Flat chuckled as he checked his own slug thrower, carefully latched into its holster at his barrel.

The Adobo was a handful of city blocks where the majority of Canterlot’s earth pony population lived. In a city where racial tensions ran pretty high on a regular basis, it was a trouble spot for the primarily unicorn police force. Even without the racial aspect it was a rough beat that was known to get physical quick. So naturally any earth ponies that actually joined the force were automatically placed on that beat.

“You ready?” Flat asked with his usual cheer. Applejack nodded and the two police officers headed out. It was a short walk to the Adobo and it happened to take Flat and Applejack right past the Bitter Bean, a delightfully quaint coffee shop run by an elderly interracial couple by the names of Dark Brew and Light Foam, a brown unicorn stallion and a cream colored pegasus mare respectively. They both smiled at Flat and Applejack as they walked through the door.

It was getting close to closing time, but the couple always had a cup for any district officer heading into their shift. Flat grabbed his cup with a nod of gratitude and Applejack merely smiled before they both headed back out. Flat shook his head. “It would be a lot easier to adjust to the new schedule if you’d take a cup, Jack”

“Well I can’t exactly drink on the go like you can,” Applejack rolled her eyes and pointed to Flat’s horn, before adding, “Besides, coffee feels like cheating and I’m not particularly fond of the taste.”

Before Flat could reply, a scratchy voice came from the officer’s televox, “All officers in the immediate vicinity of Withers Road and Steeple Street, report to Sergeant Chaser at that location ASAP.”

The two broke into a sprint towards the Adobo, Flat’s coffee flying into a trashcan as they galloped past. Applejack chuckled, “And then there is stuff like this.”

Flat rolled his eyes but didn’t otherwise respond. It was only a couple minutes before they arrived where the dispatcher had directed, there they found a number of officers gathered around an old apartment building. Flat walked straight up to a tall red unicorn with triple chevron on his shoulder. “Sergeant Chaser? Officers Flat Hoof and Applejack reporting. What is the situation?”

“A couple of officers were answering a call about a disturbance in one of the top floor apartments.” Chaser shook his head, “Turns out the disturbance was stim crystal lab. The crooks panicked. The officers managed to call it in before they were overpowered. One’s dead and the other is injured and being held hostage along with the rest of the floor. We’re aiming to contain the situation until the hostage specialist and SWAT team arrive. You two join Officer Withers at the rear of the building and keep an eye on the fire escapes there.”

Flat and Applejack trotted into the back alley behind the apartment where three other officers were waiting with their eyes turned upwards. No sooner did they arrive however before screams and gunshots shattered the night. In the blink of an eye, Applejack was storming the apartment, much to her partner’s dismay. “Damn it, Jack!”

Applejack barely heard him as she thundered up the stairs, only barely stopping herself from rushing out of the stairwell. She moved into the hall slowly, her slug thrower held out in front of her as she inched down the hall. There were no more gunshots, but ponies were still shouting at the end of the hall.

She was just realizing just how stupid rushing in like this had been when a pony blasted through the wall towards the end of the hall. Applejack froze and stared at the unicorn that was struggling to get their hooves underneath them as more screams and gunshots rang out. The screams came to a disturbingly abrupt end and the injured unicorn gave up on standing and started crawling towards Applejack. His eyes were wide as he struggled to breath, barely gasping out, “Help me.”

Applejack began to move slowly down the hall towards the unicorn, her slug arm shaking. She was about halfway down the hall when something big and blacker than sin reached through the hole in the wall and dragged the unicorn back through. The thunder of hooves climbing the stairs letting her now that back up was on the way, Applejack rushed down the hall and through the door to the right of the hole.

The bodies were everywhere. A pile of earth ponies in one corner, an officer laid out in another, and six unicorns scattered about the room the majority sporting limbs bent the wrong way or in the wrong place. In the center of the room was a black pony, Applejack thought it was a unicorn at first based on the long horn growing from its forehead, but then it turned its eyes to her and she knew this was something else entirely. The creature’s eyes were a bright, luminescent violet with slit pupils like a cat’s.

It dropped the unicorn it had been holding up in its magic and it seemed to grow a mane of purple smoke. “They are asleep.” Her, and there was no doubt in Applejack’s mind that it was a her now, had a strange double tone to it as though two ponies were talking from the same mouth. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips before she spoke again, “The hostages are asleep.”

“And the others?” Applejack nodded to the limp body at the thing’s feet.

“Unconscious, but alive. I have no quarrel with you officer.”

“Like Tart you don’t.” Applejack hissed, lifting her other forehoof to steady her slug arm. Suddenly the creature seemed to sprout a set of wings, larger than any Applejack had seen before on a pony. The slug thrower on her forearm barked once but the black thing just dissolved into mist and the bullet passed clean through her to embed itself in the cinderblock outer wall.

Applejack watched in awe as the mist sank to the floor and down a heat duct.

“What the Tart was that?!” Flat exclaimed from behind Applejack as the mare struggled to keep from shaking.

“I d-don’t know, Flat.” Applejack shakily replied, “But it got away.”

Apple Bloom was already up when Applejack got home. Between the chewing out she got for her recklessness and the paperwork, she’d been held up for a while after her shift ended. “Sorry I’m late, things got crazy last night.”

Apple Bloom smiled from the table where she was finishing off last night’s oatmeal. “I know.”

“Ya do?” Applejack frown as she walked into the kitchen, “How?”

“She told me.”

Applejack’s heart skipped a beat and the earth pony whirled on her sister, “That thing came here!?”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom grinned, then tilted her head to the side as she thought about it, “Well, not really.”

Applejack put her forehooves on her sister’s shoulders. “That thing put six unicorns in the hospital last night with multiple broken bones. I need to know, was she here or not and how did she talk to you?”

“In my dream.” Apple Bloom frowned, “So, I guess she wasn’t actually here, but she told me that you were really brave and would probably be late getting home. She didn’t mention the broken bones though.”

Taking a couple steps back from her sister, Applejack gave her sister ‘the look’, that one with the sky high eyebrow that said, “You’re kidding.”

“She’s black pony, but big with a long unicorn horn and huge wings! Her eyes and mane are both purple and glowy, and the mane is kinda wooooo.” Apple Bloom waved her hooves to illustrate what she meant by that last part. Applejack groaned and took a seat across from her sister and let her head lay on the table.

“Great. Just great.”

“It’s going to be okay.” Apple Bloom said as she picked up her bowl and carried it to the sink. “She says the princess of the night is back, but she needs to clean house before she can take the throne again. Whatever that means.”

Applejack sat up and tapped her chin thoughtfully. After a moment her eyes went wide and she groaned. This mare was going to make Applejack’s job an absolute nightmare.

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