They'll Drag You Through the Mud As Long As You Let Them

When did someone stop being your friend? Where did that connection sever? When they died, were they still your friend, or had you lost even the connection with no one on the other side to pick up the slack?

Applejack hadn’t put much thought into it. She hadn’t had the luxury of putting too much thought into anything until recently.

Twilight had been her friend, and Twilight was her friend. From the Elements of Harmony to the parting of the ways at Ghastly Gorge, they had been friends. Once, what felt like a whole world ago, there had been six of them. Some she had seen since Ghastly Gorge. Rainbow she’d seen quite a bit. Rarity, from a distance. Rumors of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. But Twilight? Nothing. Nothing after that last heated conversation. It had been best that way.

“You’re alive,” Applejack said. “I mean, I think you’re alive. Gods, you alive in there?”

Twilight was suspended from a jungle of tubes and machines jutting from walls. Her limbs were splayed out with oozing holes bored into them for wires to gain passage to somewhere inside. Her face glowed, not naturally but as if lights were there right under the skin, and sometimes they flashed off. She smiled, and Applejack saw some occasional flashing down her throat.

“For a given value of alive. Yes.”

Her voice was… off. That was the best Applejack could do. It was off. It was like Twilight was talking through a soup can.

“You’re supposed to be dead. More ‘n that, part of the whole… the whole reason for all of this is on account of you dying. What the hell? What th’ actual hell, Twilight? Why couldn’ta you stayed dead like you were supposed to?”

The more-or-less crucified Twilight had no answer. Applejack wondered if she could even shrug.

“No,” Applejack said before she could think of something. “Lemme guess: this ain’t your idea.”

“It wasn’t my intention, but there are parts in here that I’m sure were originally mine,” Twilight said lightly. “I know the pumps keeping my lungs working were based around some of my designs, if that helps.”

“It don’t help,” Applejack growled.

“I didn’t think it would. How did you get caught, AJ?”

It was stupid, but hearing Twilight say “AJ” in that twisted, strange voice of hers--hearing her say it at all, with that tone of familiarity and exasperation, just sent her into a rage. She could feel her chest clenching and her pulse spike. She ground her teeth together.

“Tradin’,” she said, reining herself in. “Figured I could grab a few supplies, only settlement around happened to be a Cog-town. Does it matter? It already happened.”

“And now the Cogs have what they want. Do they know?”

Applejack spat. “You think they woulda let me stay in one piece if they knew? I’d be all cut up and dissected.”

Twilight frowned. “Vivisected, technically, as you would still be alive. And you know the whole, ah, spitting thing doesn’t work as well inside? It’s just going to stay there until it dries.”

“Why the hell are you alive? I liked it better with you dead, I think.”

Twilight recoiled as if stung. The machines, the tubes and wires, let out a groan as she moved. Guess that answered the question of how mobile she was. Something about the pain in that face, the way her brow furrowed and her mouth fell open and all the little lights inside, infuriated Applejack. She took one step towards the monstrosity, and then another.

“That’s right. When you were dead at least some of this made sense, Twi. Can I call you Twi? You got no problem callin’ me AJ, after all!” She pointed a hoof, and Twilight shrank from it. The machines stopped her from fleeing. “Don’t act all chummy with me, Sparkle. Don’t you dare. Not after what happened. Not after the Gorge, and your Gardens. Not after Bloom and them and what you did and what you didn’t do and--don’t you dare!”

“I…”

Applejack reared back, and then stopped. She let herself down and stepped away.

The room was circular, banded around the middle with a window that allowed a view of the world below. There wasn’t much worth seeing, but she saw it anyway as she walked over to and sat on her haunches. What was the point? Alive she may be, but Twilight was little more than a voice attached to a machine. Weren’t worth hurting herself kicking a ghost.

Around them was desolation. The Pinnacle towered above everything else, rivalling any other tower before or after the collapse. Whatever there had been here before, it was here no longer. No trees, no grass. Sickly yellow-red dirt and water the color of sewage cut into narrow channels that fed into cooling pools. Industry sprawled out from the tower, a hundred factory-temples full of twisted things building in darkness they knew not what. Beyond that the row houses, all of them identical and all of them brutal in their conception. Beyond that the shanty town of scavenged iron and some paltry attempts at irrigation in the mud-wastes. Everything was obscured by smog. She could see shapes, not definite places or even ponies, but mere suggestions. But she knew what sort of things the Cogs made and what sort of ponies they preferred.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t choose to be alive,” Twilight--or whatever this thing was--said behind her.

Applejack shrugged.

“What do you want?” she said. “Why am I in here with you?”

“Because She knows we were friends.”

“She just thinks we’ll go back at it, huh? Spill out all my secrets to you?”

“No.”

Applejack shrugged again. “Whatever. I’ll find my way out, and then it won’t matter.”

“I hadn’t ever expected to see you. Any of you.”

“Ain’t it hilarious that the one you see is me?” Applejack said. She smirked out the window. To be fair, it was darkly funny.

She pressed a hoof to the glass. A part of her wondered if she couldn’t just… break out. Keep kicking until it cracked. Fall. It would be less than a minute of falling. She’d be dashed to bits. Her secrets and Twilight’s secrets would die just like that. The Cogs wouldn’t get a thing from her. That final mistake would be corrected.

“It’s not funny at all.”

“I’m surprised that you’re surprised,” Applejack said as she turned and leaned on the glass. Twilight was watching her. “I mean, that you’re surprised I ain’t thrilled to see you.”

“I… My last memory of you is hugging you goodbye, so yes.”

She ignored the way that churned her insides and kept talking. “Physically yeah. But you made a mistake that day, Twilight. A big mistake. Hell, you made more than one. We’re all fucked because you couldn’t stop yourself and you couldn’t stop the others. Couldn’t stop her, and now she’s got you locked up. How is Glimmy doin’ these days?”

Twilight Sparkle looked away. “She visits sometimes.”

Being furious took a lot of work. She was starting to feel tired. “Well, good, ‘least thataway you two nutjobs can have some solidarity over, I dunno, fuckin’ with nature.”

“I tried!” Twilight cried out, and there was more groaning of machines. She stopped and hacked up… something for a moment, and then kept on. “I tried, Applejack. You were there. You know I did what I could. I didn’t know! I didn’t have enough information.”

“Your point? Why should I give a flying shit what you knew or why you did anything?” Applejack raised a weary eyebrow at her and then looked elsewhere.

They didn’t say anything for a long while. Applejack didn’t want to talk, and Twilight obviously didn’t know what to say. Maybe it was best that way.

Eventually, she didn’t know exactly how long it had been,

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Death of Mother Nature Suite - Cynewulf

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