Ultimate Equestria

by Leo Pachino

Chapter 019: Night on a Raft

The dark night sky above glistened with stars as a lone wooden platform drifted across the midnight ocean. Gentle waves lightly brushed against the rigged rim of the raft as it floated along, creating a hypnotical ambience in the otherwise deathly silence. On the damp raft, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Applebloom, and Scootaloo were all huddled together in the center, keeping each other warm as they slept in the dark of the new moon.

The soft strokes of the breeze weaved through their fur.

“Hey,” a recently awoken Applejack whispered among the motionless bodies. “Is anypony still awake?”

“Now I am…” Twilight groaned in the center of the pileup.

She made her presence known right below her orange friend before releasing a loud yawn.

“What is it this time, Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“I’m just having a little trouble sleeping, that’s all.” She replied.

“For three days straight?”

“Somethin’s just constantly popping in my mind, and I can’t get it out.”

“What?”

“…What Korsan was boasting about back at Thieves’ Hold, about how me and other folks just aren’t as good as, ya know, unicorns and alicorns.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re way better than any of those criminals. You don’t run around and commit crimes.” Twilight said, still half-asleep

“Not that, I mean how I wasn’t able to put up much of a fight once they started using magic. Me, Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Spike, all of us that can’t use magic,”

“Oh, yeah, I guess you do need magic to cancel out other’s spells. But that doesn’t matter all that much. They weren’t being just with their fighting style. No honour...”

“What if… what if it does matter, Twilight. I might be starting to realize that I may not be able to protect my family as well as I used to, especially with my little sister with us.”

“We’ll be there to help you something happens that’s beyond your power Applejack.”

“And what if you’re not? And what does that say about me, my sisters, and the others, that we’re weak when you’re not around? You and Korsan, the stallion that could take on three alicorns at once, were at each other’s throats while we were stuck in the sidelines. You and Rarity can create and launch fireballs at will with enough education. Me and the others on the other hoof would never be able to do that in a hundred years.”

“…”

Applejack was returned with a the faint yawns of the princess.

“Twilight!” She quietly barked.

“Huh?! Oh, yeah, don’t think like that Applejack. You’re special in your own way.” Twilight muttered.

“How?”

“…You have great strength.”

“You can lift something twice my maximum height into the sky.”

“…You have a powerful kick.”

“You can use magic to grab a large rock and cause even more damage than one of my stronger kicks.”

At this point, Twilight had fully awoken from her sleep and was growing agitated at the mare’s retorts.

“You can run fast.” Twilight said.

“You can teleport.” Applejack returned.

“You…”

The purple alicorn hesitated before continuing, hitting a rut in her freshly-awoken mind.

“What about Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo? They can fly, manipulate weather, and a bunch of other cool things.” Twilight said, internally praying for this late-night debate to end.

“Unicorns can do the same thing as well. Heck, you can make your own wings. Remember when you gave wings to Rarity when we went to Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash?”

“Well, they weren’t legitimate pegasi wings,”

“Still, you as a unicorn did it.”

“Are you seriously saying that Korsan has a point to his madness?” Twilight angrily barked, causing the pony pile to shutter a bit.

“Maybe I am,” Applejack snaps back, even louder.

“You want him to murder every non-unicorn he finds, just because he has a point?”

“No!”

“Then why are you siding with him?!”

“I’m not siding with him. I’m just saying he has a point.”

“What’s the point of the point then?”

“Maybe I want to be a unicorn now that Korsan has proven a point.”

“…?!” Twilight was taken back a bit.

An Earth pony becoming a unicorn? That was one of the most absurd things Twilight has heard of. And to see Applejack completely change in character, to despise her race, all because of some pirate, it infuriated Twilight. For how could see allowed this to become of one of her close friends?

“He hasn’t proven a point. There is no point! Alicorns, pegasi, unicorns, and Earth ponies are all equal. It’s been that way for hundreds of years. Equality is the symbol of Equestria, our home. Forgotten that?” Twilight asked.

“Why is that?” Applejack asked, now turned cold.

“It just is. Great minds of unknown knowledge have agreed upon the idea to this day.”

“So why can’t I just want to be a unicorn if they’re so equal?”

“You don’t have to change yourself since we’re equal. You’re basically rejecting what Equestria stands for with this nonsense about being a unicorn. If I didn’t know you better, I would’ve considered that you were the bad pony.”

Something then snapped within Applejack. To see Twilight being so condescending towards her, putting aside the possible safety of others just because somepony has an idea she agrees with. Applejack was mad.

The two silently stared at each other for a short moment. They contemplated to themselves before talking, deciding whether this was merely a petty argument between sleepy friends, or a war in the works.

“Me, the bad pony? Just for considering a point?” Applejack asked.

Twilight nodded, “Korsan’s point, yes,”

“Just because of that?”

“Well if you’re so insistent on being a unicorn and proving the villain’s point, how about you join him on his killing crusade?”

“You know something? Sometimes you can be real stuck-up with your fancy schmancy readings of yours and not see what I’m seeing!”

“You know what? Sometimes you are just an inconsiderate mare who thinks she above all of the intellectuals based on her own stubborn logic!”

“Big nosed,”

“Half witted,”

“Thick skulled,”

“Even thicker skulled,”

“Why I-”

“Hey!” Rainbow’s voice yelled over Applejack’s response.

The two bickering ponies stopped arguing and looked to Dash, her wedged between a sleeping Fluttershy and Scootaloo. Dash’s eyes were half open.

“I don’t know what happened, but what I do know is that you two need to stop arguing and let us sleep in peace.” Rainbow Dash groaned.

“But she was thinking that Korsan has a-” Twilight tried to reply, only to get her muffled by Dash’s outstretched wing.

“I don’t care.” The pegasus told her. “No pony here really cares about what Korsan’s thinking. We all know that he’s the villain and what he is doing is wrong. Right?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said.

“Applejack?”

“It’s true. Killin’ innocent ponies is just plain wrong,” Applejack answered in defeat, as if she has lost the argument somehow.

“Good, now let me get some sleep!”

Quickly, Dash’s head slumped back down to the cold floor, immediately dozing off into slumber.

“Twilight,” Applejack muttered in a tone with a hint of sarcasm. “I’m sorry if insulting you.”

“I am as well.” Twilight replied, though also showing a taste of dishonesty in her voice. “Have a good night.”

Clouds started to appear in the sky above once more as the two mares snuggled back into the heated heap, attempting to fall asleep. However, as hard as they tried, they can’t force themselves asleep after their brutal bickering just a few seconds ago. Minutes upon minutes passed as the two roused ponies tried to calm themselves down.

But subconsciously, they held a wrath against the other that surpassed sleep. As much as the two hated fighting each other mentally, their minds would not stop. Finally, after an hour of tossing and turning after closing their eyes, Twilight’s and Applejack’s minds disconnected from their physical bodies and entered the world of dreams.

---

After falling asleep, Applejack soon found herself in an empty void of darkness, standing on what seemed to be an invisible ground. Oblivious that this was all a dream as most ponies are when they sleep, Applejack searched through the darkness for any sign of anything in this unknown location.

After curiously looking around at her surroundings for what felt like hours, the orange Earth pony started to become paranoid, sensing a malicious presence in the empty void.

“Help me!” A familiar voice echoed from behind the lone mare.

Applejack responded quickly, instantly recognizing the voice, “Applebloom?!”

Turning around, she saw the small yellow Earth pony, frantically galloping towards her with her eyes tightly sealed and tears pouring out.

“Applebloom? What is it?” Applejack asked.

“It’s that villain!” Applebloom exclaimed.

Applejack watched in horror as a black set of sharp claws emerged from the darkness behind Applebloom. They grabbed her by her red tail and yanked her back. The small filly screamed, dragged back into the darkness with her voice ringing in Applejack’s ears. Horrified, the orange mare pursued the evil figure, seemingly zipping throughout the black space surrounding her.

Applebloom’s voice cried out again, “Help me Applejack!”

“I’m coming!”

After a few minutes of chasing, Applejack was hit by a burst of red light, temporarily blinding her. She hobbled to a stop. Recovering from the blinding strobe, Applejack now saw that she was on the edge of a large unseen spotlight’s red shine. On the other end of the lit circle was Applebloom, being tightly held onto by a dark bipedal figure.

Applejack saw the figure’s black metal claws covering her little sister’s face. She recognized the figure’s shape in the partial dark.

“Korsan!” She roared.

The villainous shadow cackled in response to Applejack’s shout. The mare bolted forward across the red light and towards her target. However, halfway across the room, a black metal bar wall suddenly dropped from above and fell right in front of Applejack, blocking her from Applebloom. The cage wall reached all the way up to the bright, red light in the black sky.

“Bahahaha!” The figure laughed in a demonic tone. “What are you waiting for? Lift the wall, and save your family.”

Seeing no other option, Applejack obeyed the bipedal pony’s orders, reaching her hooves in between the bars of the cage. She attempted to lift it up, only to find it too heavy. Heaving and huffing, the orange mare tried with all of her might, but to no avail. The mysterious shadow chuckled once more, its claws pressing into Applebloom’s body.

“Let her go!” Applejack demanded.”

“If I can lift that wall, then so can you.” The being replied, its voice sounding identical to Korsan’s.

“I can’t! It’s too heavy! Please, I’ll do anything, just let my sister be!” Applejack pleaded.

The shadow slowly moved forward with Applebloom and spoke again, this time in a surprisingly feminine voice.

“What are you talking about?” It asked.

As the red light hovered towards the face of the unknown pony, Applejack’s jaw dropped, her pupils shrunk to pinpoint, and her body froze in shock.

“Twilight?!”

There, standing on the other side of the wall, was Twilight Sparkle, but not. She was wearing Korsan’s mechanical suit and standing on her hind legs like if she was him. Her inflections were not those Twilight had, but of something deranged.

“We’re all equal!” The Twilight and Korsan hybrid barked in Twilight’s voice.

“What are you doing?”

“The world isn’t all black and white you know!” The hybrid being then spoke in Korsan’s voice. “It just requires a point!”

Throwing Applebloom to the ground with a magic shove, the nightmarish pony drew one of the cutlasses from its spine. The cutlass was then positioned right above Applebloom’s laying body.

“No!”

“Lift the gate!” Twilight’s voice shouted.

“I can’t!”

“Help me!” Applebloom screamed as the sharp edge of the blade caressed her tiny neck.

“I can’t!” Applejack cried.

“End the suffering!” Korsan’s voice roared throughout the bleak universe.

“I can’t!” Applejack proclaimed.

“You can!”

Applebloom violently screamed in pain as the sword enters her flesh.

“AHHH-”

---

Twilight suddenly found herself inside the throne room of the castle of Canterlot, with no sound to be heard and all signs of life absent. Surprised by her new bearings and with no memory or even the awareness of her actually dreaming, Twilight examined the long chamber in search of answers to what was going on. Without even her hooves making a sound, the purple alicorn found herself becoming paranoid as she looked out the large windows.

Only the white void was outside. It stared back at her with an eerie silence.

The red fluffy carpet felt flat on her hooves. The length of the corridor seemed to expand and shrink randomly. Upon reaching the other end of the room, Twilight saw four thrones, standing side by side. Each looked similar to the royal thrones used by herself, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence. A brief wave a relief washed over the lone pony as now something familiar was in her presence.

However, the relief was brought to a crushing halt as the wall behind the thrones blasted apart into an explosion of flame and stone, sending Twilight back several metres and grinding against the floor. Pain pulsated through the mare’s body as she got back up. Looking back, she saw an enormous hole where the wall once was and Korsan’s airship floating outside it, with a raging storm above.

“Hey! Stop!” Twilight yelled at the attacking ship.

The operator of the ship appeared to not listen and fired another explosive cannonball into the throne room, this time destroying the four thrones. Furious of this terrorist attack, Twilight took off into the air and soared over to the pirate ship parked right next to the chamber. The alicorn princess then landed onto the deck and was greeted by a shadowy figure behind her. It kicked her in the behind, launching her into a nearby mast and smashing her head into the thick wood. Twilight groaned as her brain liquefied and the insides of her head swirled from the impact.

“Well, well, well.” The mysterious pony chuckled in a ghastly voice. “It looks like we require a new order.”

“You won’t get away with this, Korsan,” Twilight grumbled, the shaded bipedal figure standing in the corner of her vision.

“Korsan, what a wise pony,” the being replied in an oddly feminine and accented voice. “All he needs is a point, and the world bends to his law. Even genocide is warranted by his singular wisdom.”

Slowly, the shadowy villain walked closer to Twilight, revealing its true form.

“Applejack?!”

There, standing over her, was Applejack in Korsan’s metal armour and cape, smiling down to her. A callous smile showed on the hybrid’s face.

“Bahahaha!” The nightmarish fusion cackled in Korsan’s voice. “Your friend shall be your undoing.”

“Not if I-”

Before Twilight could retort, her face is smashed and squished into the mast by a kick by the Korsan and Applejack hybrid. Gently, Applejack picked up the paralyzed Twilight by the throat and carried her over to the edge of the deck.

Below her, Twilight was that an ocean of molten lava awaited her. Its intense heat already begun to fry her behind.

“No! Wait! Applejack! Come to your senses!” Twilight begged.

“Why?” Applejack replied in her own voice. “What’s the point?”

“We’re friends! Remember! Let me go!”

“…”

“Please!”

“…You know,” Korsan’s voice echoed from the burning pit below. “Very poor choice of words.”

The mechanically enhanced Earth pony released its grip on Twilight, dropping her into the abyss below.

“NOOO!”

“Gah!” Applejack and Twilight gasped, catapulting themselves from their resting positions and their nightmares.

After a minute of blanking out and recollecting their thoughts, the two realized it was a dream, and came to their senses. It was daylight now in the sky above, with the sun shining its light and warmth through the few clouds and down onto the two ponies. Brushing off the haunting images of the nightmares, the two mares stretched and looked about to see how the others were doing.

However, as Twilight looks about, the raft was abandoned, save for her and Applejack.

“Wait, what?” Twilight stammered in confusion. “Where are they?”

“Uh, Twilight,” Applejack replied, looking the opposite direction in which her friend was.

“We were sleeping in a giant huddle and now they’re gone.”

“Twilight,”

“How did we not notice?”

“Twilight,”

“Where would they have even gone without us?”

“Twilight!”

“What?”

“Looked behind you?”

“What?”

Twilight turned and was shocked at what she saw. Where their raft had stopped was on the shoreline of a large island. With thick forests of tall trees, a large beach area stretching around the entire land, and a monstrous volcano emerging from the center of it all, Twilight and Applejack were awestruck.

They wondered if this was a paradise.

“What?” Twilight gasped.

“Where are we?” Applejack asked.

“Are we dead?” Twilight asked back.

“Good morning!” Pinkie’s voice called out from the forest a hundred metres away from the broken deck and ocean.

The pink mare soon emerged from the thick of the trees, with two halves of a coconut balanced in her mane. She hopped towards Twilight and Applejack.

“What happened? Where are the others?” The two confused ponies asked Pinkie.

Pinkie explained, “Our raft drifted onto this island while we were asleep. When we woke up a few hours earlier, we decided to explore this island and settle down by a small river Rainbow Dash found. We decided not to disturb you. You both looked exhausted.”

“Huh.”

“So what do you think?”

“Thanks for setting up a place for us to recover, Pinkie.” Twilight said. “But we shouldn’t spend too much time here, we still have to stop Korsan and save Rarity. Right, AJ?”

Applejack answered, “Yes.”

The aftertaste of hesitation lingered on the Earth pony’s tongue.

Comments

[Mr-Astounding]

I'm calling it now: Applejack is going to end up doing something to cripple Korsan later on...