There Are Always Alternatives

by thecyanidefairy

Heavy.

Heavy.

Everything was heavy, as if she were chained to the earth and each hoof was like moving an entire mountain. The heaviness pressed down upon her chest, an oppressive suffocation that threatened to smother her. Her chest felt wrong, the heaviness pressed upon an unsettling emptiness. Her heart wasn’t beating!

Panic ripped through her drowsy mind and she tried to push the weight off her chest, but found herself unable to move. Her eyes refused to open, her mouth refused to scream. She was bound in chains, powerless against the feeling of her own body’s silence.

She lay there in an unending, suffocating darkness.

Frantically, she combed her mind. What was the last thing she remembered? How did she get here, to this torturous limbo?

Flashed of incoherent babbling memories fought each other within her mind, and the mare found herself overwhelmed. An enormous red stallion laughing. A small yellow filly with a bright apple red mane with her mouth open, screaming at her with tears in her eyes. A purple wing covering her face. Voices whirled around her, and she could only make out snippets of them.

* * *

“Where are…?”

“Now wait a cotton-picking minute! I aint…”

“The timberwolves are a-howlin’!”

“Granny, I…”

“.....APPLEJACK!”

The last voice was a deafening roar, and with it the memories coalesced into a single image. Applejack began to understand.

Twilight had been monitoring the Zap Apple Harvest, something about preserving the magic of the Everfree in the face of the advancing urbanisation. The signs had all happened as normal, except one.

The timberwolves had not just been content with mere howling this year. They had left the forest, running through the apple grove in an enormous pack, teeth gnashing and deep growls echoing through the trees. A filly had screamed. Apple Bloom had friends staying in the treehouse for some kind of slumber party.

Applejack had run fast, faster than she had ever run in her life. Her mighty hooves had shredded the ground, her heart pounding and breath leaving foam upon her lips. There had been nothing but desperation. The timberwolf had stood over her baby sister, her tiny, precious sister , and she hadn’t even stopped to think. She had simply run towards the fetid stench of the beast, barrelling through it as another had leaped towards her, defending it’s starving mate.

Pain.

Shrill screaming.

A wing soft on her cheeks.

The finally, the voice of a grieving, rage filled Princess.

“I can fix this.”

* * *

Applejack felt a hum run through her body, a strange vibration that pulled her from the painful reverie. Lights flickered on, revealing a purple muzzle was pressed against the glass in front of her. Slowly, Applejack blinked, fighting down the nausea at the alien soundlessness of her body. She found she was able to move now, slow movements that were closer to pushing her heavy limbs. Whatever the humming noise was, it at least gave her that much.

The door to the glass cage opened, fog and steam gushing everywhere. Applejack found herself being lowered to the floor, and balanced steadily on the thick limbs that now made up her legs. She couldn’t feel the floor, nor could she feel the air in the room. There was only the suffocation, and the maddening hum.

“Applejack?” Twilight’s voice was soft.

Applejack wearily raised her head, and almost took a step backwards. Twilight was an old mare, barely any of the purple was left within her mane. Her face was ancient and wrinkled, her wings had barely any feathers.

Applejack couldn’t talk, so she blinked rapidly, trying to communicate that she was alive. What had happened to Twilight? How long had she been out?

“Calm down!” the ancient mare patted her head, and Applejack was disturbed to find that she couldn’t feel that either. “I gave you a voice box this time.”

Gave..? This time??

“Try focusing your thoughts really hard on where your throat used to be.”

Applejack quelled her trembling mind and instead followed her friends instructions, pushing her thoughts out through a magical speaker.

“Twilight? What happened? Where’s Applebloom? What have ya done t’ me?” her voice was garbled at first, but the last part came out clear as day, albeit monotone with a strange crackling sound.

“You died.” Twilight said sadly. “I’ve been trying to bring you back. Over and over and over, but you just never worked right.”

“Worked right? Twilight darnit, what have ya done to me?? What d’ ya mean ah died?”

Twilight ignored her, and was dragging a mirror over to them. Her frail body was so small in the enormous and gleaming lab. She placed the mirror in front of Applejack, who felt horror bubbling up inside her mind creating a great pressure that she couldn’t even scream to release. Where once rippling muscles and fleek fur would have greeted her, polished orange metal and machinery remained. Her face was a twisted mockery of what it used to be, expressionless with dead eyes that simply looked back placidly, with none of the dread that she felt reflected within them.

“How-How many times?” even her voice was empty and flat.

“Eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty three AJBOTs were created over my lifetime. Some worked, but were flawed. Some went mad. Some didn’t work at all.” Twilight bit her lip before opening her mouth to continue, but Applejack cut her off.

“Mah family?”

“AJ…”

“Mah family! How long have ya’ll been keeping me here performin’ these experiments?”

“Two hundred and seventy years. Alicorns live a long time. But I kept my promise! I fixed you!” her tone was pleading.

Applejack stopped hearing the mare who was wearing Twilight’s face, retreating inside her mind. This wasn’t her friend. Her family wasn’t gone. This was wrong. So wrong. This wasn’t happening. Her head hung low to the ground as her mind raced, refusing to accept the truth before her. Her eyes fluttered closed, seeing only her family in front of her.

Rage. Pure, white-hot rage.

Her head snapped towards the old mare. “You turned me into a monster! Put me back!” shoving all of her strength into the weighty body, she turned towards Twilight, anger and hatred burning within her. “Ah’d rather be dead!”

There was a beep, and her body froze mid stride towards the aged pony. She found herself encased in silent, suffocating darkness once more. Even the hum was gone - only her hearing remained. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

There was a sigh.

“I had hoped that this one would be more reasonable. Lab Report. AJBOT8764 has reacted the same way as AJBOT8720 through 63. Recommendations to remove the voice box. Modifications to eradicate the memory of expiry completely are needed.”

Applejack sensed the mare was near her, and she heard the soft tap of a hoof against metal.

“Don’t worry, my friend. I will fix you, and bring you back better than ever. I promised.” Twilight called out to someone. “Put this one in storage. I can still use the parts.”

Applejack felt herself moving, and then there was nothing.

Just the darkness, and the silence.