The Green Angel

by LordOfCringe

Chapter 6 - Apple Bloom

Sweat rolls down my face. My breath comes out in heavy breaths as I pause for a quick rest. Soon the frustration I feel takes over once again and I propel my bare fists forward into the punching bag in front of me. It hardly moves despite my effort. I might be determined, but I am still a thirteen-year-old girl recovering from a load of physical trauma.
It has been a couple of days since my confrontation with Diamond Tiara. My brother had found me soon after weeping my eyes out again. He was mad at me for running, but not for long. He was the forgiving sort. Nurse Sarah was far more cross and had given me a stinging lecture about it.

But soon after she had no choice but to give me a clean bill of health and discharge me. My recovery was ahead of schedule by months apparently, but for some reason, the medical staff didn’t seem to think it was odd. Or if they did they didn’t say anything. They probably had other patients to worry about.

In any case, I moved to the Habitation area with my brother. It’s...not a place I want to spend much time in. Too many people in too small a space. Too much concentrated depression for me.

Fortunately for me, the Navigator was quite a massive ship and had many other areas that I could explore. I was in one of these right now, the ship’s Gym. Or the Recreation area as the Crew called it.

It was a large room, with about the same square footage as the Habitation area. But instead of beds, there was an assortment of exercise equipment that circled most of the room’s walls. In the middle were exercise mats and other equipment I don’t recognize. And off to one end of the room, there was a very small soccer field. Weird, I would have thought it would be a basketball court.

I’m on the other end of the room right now beating the snot out of a punching bag suspended from the ceiling. It is one of five in a row near the back wall.

I am alone in the room. I seem to be the only one among my people willing to leave the Habitation area for something other than food. They’re probably waiting for that big announcement from some high ranking Crew member tonight.

I wash the thought out of my mind and concentrate on the task at hand. I launch another salvo of punches at the bag, my fists once again bouncing harmlessly off its black surface. I thought doing this would help ease my frustration. But it wasn’t having the effect I wanted.

On the farm, I had an endless well of chores to lose myself in when I was feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes it was annoying having to do that many tasks, but honestly, it helped a lot. But that option was gone forever. The mere thought of it sending a new snap of anger through me and into my fist. I lash it out once again at the bag. It feels that one and it buckles a slight bit before becoming still once again. The damn thing is mocking me.

I pull back to readjust. I fix the ponytail that holds back my scarlet hair and gets back in a reasonable fighting stance. Applejack abhorred violence, but she had taught me how to fight a bit just in case.

There I go again...thinking about my family. I can’t help it. It’s like second nature to me. My family had once been everything to me, and with half of it gone I felt like I lost part of myself too.

I pull on something deep within myself. The same something I felt after I woke up and was faced with this new reality. I tug at my very soul in a way I couldn’t before. Something slithers its way through my body, a familiar warm feeling courses its way through me. And then after a moment, it is gone as fast as it came. I hardly notice my fatigue drain away as I continue pounding the bag. Over and over again.

The bag takes the blows in stride, buckling and waving in defiance of my assault. For some reason, this pisses me off. I imagine Diamond Tiara’s face on the bag. How dare she survive and not Applejack. How many times had she tormented me? How many times did she and her demon spawn of a friend harass and make fun of me and mine? How dare she live.

I tug harder. The punches move faster from me. How dare she be awake and fine while my friend lies with her life on the edge. It’s not fair. None of this was fair. This entire situation was utterly insane. How does a planet get destroyed anyway? This wasn’t Star Wars.

I tug harder. The bag sways more violently, the chain keeping it tethered to the ceiling rattles with the kinetics. My fists howl in pain from the friction between them and the fabric. I ignore it and keep going. Letting it all out. All my anger. All my sorrow. All the horrible emotions I have been feeling since my awakening. Since the Ash fell from the sky.

I tug harder and harder. I don’t even know why. I don’t even care to know. My fists flicker like fire. The bag is not getting rest between blows as I hammer against it. The heat inside me grows the more I pull at whatever it is inside me. As if it demanded to be released. To be let out into the world to further my wrath.

I keep tugging, keep pulling, keep releasing, keep purging myself. Keep moving forward in this new world. The heat inside me rises, and internal pressure along with it. The bag keeps taking more and more punishment. I can’t believe I can keep going, I should have tired out ages ago. But the more I tug the more powerful I feel.

The heat and pressure now feel like a pot of boiling water inside my body. As if I was a microwave cooking metal. I can feel the energy rushing to my fist as I attempt to channel it outward.

Time seems to freeze as I notice sparks begin to shoot out of me all over my body, colourless and empirical they slither and slash around me. Before I can process this my last punch connects with the punching bag.

All at once the heat and pressure vanish at the connection point, resulting in a blinding flash of light. The chain above shatters sending the bag free from its restraints and flying away at the wall. It hits the exercising equipment there with some force and comes to rest upon it, a huge tear in its side.

I stare at my still closed fist in utter shock. I slump to the ground and look at the mess I have created.

“Did I...just use magic?” I ask myself aloud, still too stunned to stand back up. I know my sister and her friends also did extraordinary things and had their own powers. But they had to use a magical Geode. Or be around Princess Twilight for them to work. What I had just done came from within, and was nothing like the Equestrian Magic I had seen before.

“I think I just did magic,” I say with self-satisfaction, the shock of the moment wearing off. I get up and dust myself off. I look around to make sure I am still alone, and sure enough, I am.

I realize with a flash of worry and panic that someone will have to clean up the mess I just made. I move over to the fallen punching bag and attempt to pick it up. It is far too heavy to pick up right now. Whatever burst of strength had allowed me to send it flying was long gone with the flash of light and the sparks.

It takes a minute of dragging, but I am able to move the thing back to its former position beside the other punching bags. But with the chain broken and my strength gone, there is no way for me to put it back to its former state.

I try tugging again but feel nothing but a slim slither of power come. So I guess that’s out for now. I suppose I will just have to leave the bag on the floor and hope no one notices.

On that note, I gather my few things and quickly head for the showers. I let the warm waters flow over me and I let myself think about what just happened. I had lost myself. My emotions got the better of me and it caused something possibly dangerous to happen. Whatever this power was within me, I needed to figure control it before it hurt anyone.

But at the same time, it felt pretty good. Sending that much power into that punching bag felt exhilarating and cathartic. It also really did help. A small burden felt lifted from my shoulders.

It is with these thoughts that I turn the water off. I put my clothes back on and slowly make my way back to the Habitation area still thinking about the day’s events. I had a lot to think about.