Out of the Woordwork
An apple, veiled in a purple glow, floated over bushels of other apples of varying sizes and colors until it was put down alongside others that appeared to match it.
Applejack came over to the bushel picked up the fruit that had just come to rest in it and placed it with some other apples that were large and red while it was small and yellow.
Twilight sighed, “That’s the fifth one so far.”
“Aw, don’t be too hard on yourself, Twi.” Applejack gave her a hearty pat on the back. “Even us Apples take a good few years to really figure out sorting.”
While the words were nice, Twilight could not help but feel a little insecure when Applejack sat back down across from her out the table and resumed her own sorting. With the same speed she used to gallop, Applejack sorted through the mountain of apples that sat at one end of the table.
Twilight went back to sorting her own apples. She tried to ignore Applejack and focused on the apple in front of her. She looked at its color, shape, and size before deciding to put it in bushel. Applejack did not correct her this time and she moved onto the next apple. This continued for some time with Twilight getting deeper and deeper into the task.
A gust of air from behind her mane pulled her out of her work. Applejack stood by her with a hoof stretched behind Twilight’s head. It grasped an apple.
Before Twilight could ask what she was doing, Applejack shouted up to the second floor of her family’s farmhouse, “Apple Bloom! Try that again and you’re in for it!”
Twilight caught a glimpse of a pink bow through a window on the second floor before yellow hooves slammed the window shut and closed the blinds.
Applejack stared up at the window for a few more seconds and shook her head. She went back to her seat and sighed, “Sorry about that. Figures I’m not the only Apple messed up by everything.”
Twilight glanced back up at the window and then at Applejack. She wanted to ask what Applejack was talking about, but hesitated.
The curiosity and concern were still clear on Twilight’s face, so Applejack, continued, “My little sister, Apple Bloom. She’s a good filly… when she’s not too obsessed with getting her cutie mark, but she just needs time to think about things.”
“I see…”
Applejack peered a little closer at Twilight. “Looks like you do too.”
Twilight stared back at Applejack and then lowered her gaze. Luna’s words from the other day filled her head, along with the warning that came after them. “I imagine Tirek’s escape won’t be broadcast to the public, so we’ll need to keep it under wraps for now. As to your friends, I would urge discretion.”
“There was something more than Equality controlling the Griffin,” Twilight chose to say. Her declaration to Applejack on honesty flashed through her mind.
“I figured.” Applejack gazed out at the orchard and beyond toward the horizon. A breeze blew through the farm and she shivered. “At the end, that thing was a whole lot worse than even Equality.”
“Yes.” Twilight kept her eyes down. “I… I’m worried about fighting it someday.”
It was quiet. When Twilight felt a leg wrap around her back, she finally looked up to see Applejack beside her. “I’m worried too. Equality and whatever is working with her are clearly out for me and you. I’m getting the feeling they might have plans for our friends as well.” Her grip on Twilight tightened. “But if they want a fight we’ll give it to them!”
Because of the way they were sitting Twilight felt a warmth flow off Applejack’s flanks and spotted a glimmer of color in her eyes. Drawing on Celestia’s words, she managed to smile.
“Now…” Applejack scootched away. “Let’s get our work done and then treat you to a proper Apple meal!”
~~~
Equality sipped some juice and scowled. With her horn recovering and her magic still unstable from Twilight’s attacks at both the WTF and through the Black Griffon, her recovery methods were limited. Thus, she sat in a chair bathed in ethereal light from multiple points around her, drinking a foul-smelling concoction. Bandages covered her head and crossed over one eye. A splint set her muzzle straight. She had to sit at a specific angle to avoid putting too much weight on her broken ribs.
Enigma read a tome nearby. “Hmm, is that how bone setting is done?”
“I swear if you messed up, I’ll…” Equality but stopped her threat at the sound of hoofbeats. She glared at Enigma. “I thought you had security handled.”
“Oh, sorry, sorry.” Enigma bowed his head. “Master told me a few minutes back about some new recruits but then you made demands for painkillers and food s—”
“Quiet.”
Equality then turned her piercing eyes into the sole entrance and exit from the cavern.
In stepped two ponies that appeared polar opposites. One was a young pinkish gray filly with a curly blue mane. Her bright colors and smile contrasted so much with her company and the dim cavern that it pushed passed unusual and into unnerving.
The other pony fit in much better with her black bodysuit over dark orchid fur, her rose mane styled into a sharp mohawk, and the scar running down her left eye. Equality’s attention was on the mare’s horn, or rather, the chunk missing from its upper half.
“Golly!” the filly exclaimed. She stared around with wide eyes that should have been reserved for an amusement park. “So, this is where all the fun happens! I’m so glad my BFF finally let me come here.”
“Personally, I’m a little dissatisfied,” said the mare. “The one behind the Black Griffon looks like she’s ready to croak.”
“I don’t have time for your crap,” Equality hissed.
“Now, now,” said the filly, “we all want to the same thing, don’t we?”
The filly’s grin sharpened into a sickle. She gave the ground a stomp. “To see Equestria crushed beneath our hooves! Right?”
“I fail to see what a foal like you can further offer.” Equality raised a hoof and made a shooing motion. “Do what you will with your little letters to Master, but leave Equestria to the adults.”
Animosity flared in the filly’s eyes and she spread her wings. “You want me to get my BFF involved?”
“This truly is sad,” the mare sighed. “I was led to believe you were a criminal mastermind, yet here you are squabbling with a filly. Your master just told us an alliance would be beneficial, but he never said anything about who would call the shots.”
Equality’s veins throbbed and her exposed eye bulged. “You want me to show you why I call the shots? My magic isn’t that stable right now, but I need to blow off some steam. A cripple and a foal shouldn’t be too much of a challenge!”
All three charged. Equality’s horn held the same sickly glow it had at the WTF when she had dissipated Tantabus. The mare’s horn sparked with magic. Something glinted off the filly’s wings.
Just as Equality brought her horn down on the mare and magic exploded out of the mare’s horn, Equality found her horn jabbing into the ground. The area it struck crumbled and cratered in on itself. There was a rumble from nearby but where exactly was lost amid darkness and echoes. It shook a few pebbles loose from the ceiling.
The filly lowered her wings when she sensed something enveloping them.
“Now this is not proper,” said Enigma with his horn aglow. “We could at least do introductions and our reasons for being here. Like the filly said, we all want the same thing.”
“Not exactly,” said the mare.
“Okay, well, if Master sent you, I’m sure we’d be willing to hear you out.” Enigma turned to Equality. Her eye was bloodshot and he could tell from her shaking legs that attacking had taken too much out of her. “Right?”
~~~
“Name’s Tempest Shadow.” She took a sip of a drink Enigma had put together. It was a bit too sugary for her and she pushed it away. “I don’t really care about conquering Equestria or the like, but I do desire power, especially one that transcends the way things are supposed to work. You gave a griffon a Talent and made it stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. I want that power, so I’m willing to work with you to get it.”
“And I guess I’ve just been a codename until now, but you can call me Cozy Glow! As for what I want…” Cozy pushed her hooves up against her blushing cheeks while her eyes rolled upwards in ecstasy. “I want to be like Tireky. I want to crush Equestria like he did. I want to be just like him.”
“Fanatics searching for power,” Equality grumbled.
“Oh?” Cozy snickered. “Last I checked, you’ve got some plans of your own but you need Tireky’s power to get what you want. So, what makes you so high and mighty?”
“More than you could possibly imagine.”
“Okay, okay, don’t want us fighting it out again,” said Enigma. “Now then, we’ve got Master free and some new recruits. So, what shall we do next?”
~~~
“Your mane is looking wonderful!” Rarity proclaimed and got close to Sunset.
Aloe bent down near Sunset. “And your hooves too.”
“I’m so jealous,” said Lotus. “Especially after Aloe and I had to deal with cleanup from a slu—”
“Shut. Up.” The air around Sunset grew hot. Aloe and Lotus blanched and fled to their seats in the classroom.
Rarity remained along with Fluttershy. “They were just paying some complements on how nice you look.”
“I’m not in this to lo—” Sunset paused and took a deep breath. “I should have been out stopping crime.”
Before Rarity or Fluttershy could respond, Sunset slogged over to her seat.
“So, then I picked up the rock!” Bulk declared a few desks away.
“Ah, coooool,” Tree Hugger mused. “Then what?”
“I threw it!” Both Tree Hugger and Maud stared at him for a moment. Maud blinked. “It was a big rock.”
“Between what I have heard from you and Pinkie, a new geological survey may be needed,” Maud droned.
“Yeah, surveys are awesome, especially when they say you can win free stuff if you do them,” said Tree Hugger. She looked to Maud. “So, like, how was your internship?”
“I thought it went well, and Mt. Mare provided important instruction on how to avoid collateral damage…” Maud paused. “She did seem a little annoyed at my insistence on making sure our reports to insurance agencies accurately detailed the exact composition of any buildings damaged while on patrol though…”
Lyra and BonBon sat facing each other. Somehow, over the internship, BonBon had gotten her right ear pierced while Lyra had gotten a tattoo of sticky bun near her left foreleg’s join.
“You won’t say anything?” BonBon asked.
“I think that’s for the best,” said Lyra.
“So…” Lyra glanced over at Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. “What do you think they’re hiding?”
“Drop it,” BonBon ordered. “They said what they said about the fight with the Black Griffin and that’s enough. Don’t go pestering them about it. Even Pinkie isn’t bringing it up.”
“I know, it’s just…” Lyra looked down. “It feels like there was something even scarier about it we’re not talking about…”
Nearby, Spike looked up at Derpy from his seat, “So did you ever hear back from the guard on the investigation?”
“Yep!” Derpy grinned. “Thanks to Mr. Time Turner’s Talent, we gave the guard a huge lead. They managed to trace everything back to a really big embezzlement scheme. I even got to stop one of the bad businessponies from making a run for it!”
Derpy raised a leg in victory but did so a bit too fast and lost her footing. She managed to catch herself on a desk and righted herself.
“Sounds like you had a really good time,” said Spike. He glanced out the window. “Wish I could say the same.”
“Aw, don’t be too mad about that mean dragon lady!” Pinkie chirped in.
“Yeah!” Derpy added. She then glanced out the widow as well. “Plus, I only helped Mr. Time Turner a little. I couldn’t really do much for his big project.”
Spike raised an eyebrow. “What’s that about?”
Derpy stuck a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. “I still don’t really get it, but he said it was super important because there were things he had observed that didn’t make se—”
A loud ring went off nearby. Everyone looked at Pinkie and then at the massive watch vibrating around her right foreleg.
“Time to get seated!” she proclaimed.
“You won’t be in them for long though,” came Tantabus’s voice from the head of the class. He materialized by the front desk as everyone took their seats. “We’ll be heading to Field Gamma after a brief overview of today’s schedule.” Twilight could feel Tantabus’s attention on her for a second. “It’s time to see the fruits of your internships.”
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Reference to "Almost got him" from Batman: the Animated Series, if I'm correct.
Great chapter. Happy to see it back once more, I always enjoy reading your works.
gifimage.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/its-alive-gif-20.gif
Oh dear.
Heh. You do that.
Cozy Glow.
Tempest Shadow.
Oh wow, she has better temper control than Bakugou.
Well, if it works,
Very ncie.
10888059
It’s a fair cop.
With the twist at the end of “Almost Got ‘Im”, though, one now has to wonder a bit about Bulk…
IT'S ALLLIIVVEEE!!
Liking Cozy and Tempest's entrance. Already reminds me of the time I marathoned the manga years ago.
That Batman reference