Applejack and Bon Bon were the slowest of the three groups to properly leave the vicinity of the castle. Applejack knew that they would have the slowest mission of the three, needing to wait until the bells were rung to make any real progress. The train station was on the opposite side of town, right through Town Hall with no real way around it.
They were also well prepared compared to the other two, AJ carrying her trusty lasso and Bon Bon having a metal sheet that Spike had helped her conform to one of her hooves as a line of defense. They were the two most experienced ponies that were still up and about, and they had thought about their own defense and prepared for something like what they were up against now.
They stalked through the town, not speaking a word and focused on their surroundings. The ghosts of the dead kept them company as they walked. The sun overhead still beat down on them, each day seemingly becoming hotter than the last and taking its toll on the ponies who ventured outside.
Careful hooves and watchful eyes kept them quiet and safe, dodging a few roaming ferals that they came across. As Applejack had seen over the past month, the closer they got the heart of the town the more common it was to see those things.
Bon Bon tapped on Applejack’s shoulder and motioned towards Sugarcube Corner. The top floor, Pinkie’s old room, would give them a good view of Town Hall and let them plan out further.
They cut across the street as quick as they could, ducking through the shattered door of the bakery and into the dimly lit interior. Booths were clawed and destroyed, glass shattered and the walls marked with the telltale signs of magic discharge. Applejack wasn’t sure if this was from Pinkie and Pumpkin Cake’s brawl, or if it was from some more of those things just trashing the place because it could. Once this place had smelled of warm ovens and sugar, homey and sweet. Now it just reeked of death.
Bon Bon cut in front of the farmpony, raising her armored hoof as they crept towards the stairs. It seemed quiet, which Applejack had learned was when she was in the most danger. Getting Bon Bon back to the castle had taught her patience, Thunderlane and Rumble had taught her that these things liked to lay in wait.
The stairs made noise, far more than any mare was comfortable with. If anything was in the building, it knew they were in there too now. They both sighed at almost the same time, Applejack taking the rope from around her shoulder and looping one end around her hoof and taking part of it in her mouth.
At the top of the stairs was a hallway, four doors on either side and one at the far end. Applejack had been up here only a couple of times, but she knew Pinkie’s room was the door at the far end. Nothing was ever easy out here.
Applejack jerked her head to the right, signaling she would take the doors on that side. She raised a hoof and pointed to the mare next to her, then the two doors on the left. She received a nod in agreement and the two got to work.
The leader of the castle colony put a hoof on the first door, giving it a slight push. It seemed to be the Cake’s room, a large queen sized bed dominating the space. The two bodies on the floor and the smell they gave didn’t escape her notice, but it was something that she had grown more used to. Her eyes just passed over the corpses of the two pillars of the community, searching for anything more sinister.
Thankfully, nothing with a horn seemed to be lurking in the bedroom. The only thing inside was death and shadows.
Applejack shut the door slowly, keeping the knob turned until it was closed all the way and letting the knob turn back slowly. Any building she went in, she always shut any door of a room she had made sure was clear. It was a good way to track what was safe if she had to go back through them as the unicorns couldn’t really open them, just break them down.
The next door was already shut, but Applejack opened it anyway. It was nothing special, just a storage room of sorts with boxes of clothes and pictures and even a spare dining room set, memories Pinkie might want someday but unimportant for now. She shut the door and left them and the dust that covered them alone for a little while longer.
As Applejack turned, her side of the hall cleared, she saw Bon Bon frozen in the open doorway directly across from her. Applejack crept over and peered over the other mare to see exactly what she had found.
It was the room of the Cake Twins, a sleeping unicorn mare curled up in the destroyed remnants of the crib. Usually Applejack would’ve acted swiftly, tossing her lasso and tying up the beast before knocking it out, but she was paralyzed.
The beast had an off-white coat and a long and wild mane of neon blue and navy. The remains of a pair of shades rested on the sharpened horn, further confirming just who was in the room.
But if Vinyl Scratch was here and turned...who was in the castle?
The shock wore off and Applejack’s sense of purpose returned. She bolted forward, jumping on the back of the once-DJ and slipping the loop of her lariat around the elongated muzzle of the creature. She yanked it tight, closing the loop and keeping the dangerous maw shut in the only surefire way she knew how.
Vinyl tried to stand, but Bon Bon closed the gap in a few seconds and added her weight to the unicorn’s back. That was enough to keep it down as the cream colored earth pony raised her metal-clad hoof and brought it down on the monster’s head with a heavy ‘clunk’, dropping the thing like a sack of potatoes.
It wasn’t dead, just out cold from what Applejack could tell. A hit like that would take longer than a few minutes to wear off, probably more like a few hours. It would hopefully be enough for the pair to get to the train and get out.
The two dismounted the beast, leaving the room and shutting the door behind them. AJ went back across the hall and into the storage room and grabbed a chair from the dining set and jammed the door shut with it. Just in case.
The two mares finally staggered into Pinkie’s room, which was clear of anything nasty, and flopped down next to the window. Applejack was sweating, the overhead sun not making any of this easy, even indoors.
“What was that?” Bon Bon spoke first, hissing through clenched teeth as she pointed a hoof towards the twins’ room.
“Ah don’t know.” AJ closed her eyes, thinking through the mental fog of panic and effort. She just needed to focus for a few minutes, she just needed to think about what they just saw.
“If that’s Vinyl, then who’s in the castle?”
“Ah don’t know.”
“Well, what do we do?”
“Ah. Don’t. Know.” For once, AJ had no answers ready. The thought that whatever had been in the castle with them for the past month wasn’t Vinyl Scratch only made her worry more. Right now whoever their Vinyl actually was only had Rarity between them and a group of helpless fillies and colts. She sighed. “Well...we finish this. Help whoever is in the train, get ‘em back to the castle then we deal with whatever our ‘Vinyl’ is.”
It was going to be tough to push this information out of her mind. Being lied to was one of the few things that Applejack just hated, despised. It was the quickest way to get to her bad side, and right now ‘Vinyl Scratch’ was on that bad side.
“Okay.” The trust that Bon Bon had in Applejack was reassuring, it strengthened the farmpony’s resolve. “Let’s see what we’re up against, I guess.” The two hopped up on the window sill and got their first view of the Town Hall from up close.
The circular building looked mostly untouched, a few windows busted but there were no dead bodies in sight. The place was swarming with unicorns, though. They crawled all over the place, skulking about with their muzzles to the dirt. The biggest group of them however were centered around a massive hole in the ground, probably more than thirty feet in diameter. The unicorns surrounding it shot bolts of magic into it from above.
“What in Celestia’s name?” Applejack leaned towards the window, searching for some reason to the actions of the monsters. She saw so many unicorns she knew, and more than a few that she had no clue who they were. “They ain’t from ‘round here.” She stated flatly, pointing her hoof at a cluster of unicorns around the far ridge of the hole. “Which means we’re gettin’ unicorns from outta town…”
“What are they digging for?” Bon Bon had the same question she did, one with no clear answer. “There’s nothing under Ponyville, not that I know of.”
“Me either.” Applejack chewed on her lip, taking her long blonde ponytail in her hooves and fiddling with it nervously. “Been here mah whole life and never heard of nothin’ underground, not under Town Hall anyhow.” There were crystal caverns out near the Everfree, she knew that much, stuff of real value.
“Digging to Tartarus maybe?” Bon Bon offered. “The main entrance isn’t anywhere close to Ponyville, but there are auxiliary ones all over Equestria.” The mare began to mumble, rubbing her chin and looking off. “It was how the bugbear got out, so there has to be one near…”
“And how do y’all know that?” Applejack tilted her head, curiosity getting the better of her. She didn’t know much about Bon Bon, other than the fact she was the candy maker and lived with Lyra. So how did someone who worked with sugary sweets all day know where Tartarus spat out its monsters?
“Lots of research.” Was the only answer she was given.
“Well Ah don’t care if they’re diggin’ to Tartarus or Zebrica, as long as they move when the bells ring.” All of this other stuff, Vinyl and this giant hole, were problems for later. For now they needed to focus on the problem at hoof.
“You mind me asking you a question, Applejack?” It was a bold question considering the curt answer that Bon Bon had given her own question, but AJ nodded. She would entertain her compatriot while they waited. “How do you do it? Fight these things, I mean. They’re our friends...and sometimes more.”
“Not anymore they ain’t.” Applejack narrowed her eyes as she watched the monsters below digging their hole into the dirt. “Maybe once upon a time they were ponies we knew, now they’re just things. Ah’ll feel sorry for ‘em until they attack me, then ah just do how Ah’ve always done.” She truly felt sorry for the unicorns that turned into these things, and she wanted to help them in some way. There was nothing she could do, though. She was a simple earth pony who understood magic about as much as she understood calculus, which basically meant she knew it existed and that was it. “Ah lived by the Everfree most of my life, Bon Bon. All kinds of things come outta there and you just gotta deal with ‘em. Tie ‘em up, break ‘em apart and just do what needs to be done. This ain’t no different.”
That’s why she had always gone out to help ponies when she knew they needed it since this all started. She knew what needed to be done and had the gumption to do it, which their group of survivors had been lacking. She acted when others hadn’t, and took charge when others wouldn’t.
Bon Bon nodded, taking in the Apple family matriarch’s words. They both turned back to watch the unicorns work, silently wondering what exactly they were working towards. Their voyeurism was interrupted by a large purple beast rising above the town from the direction of the train station, flying directly overhead and heading off in some unseen direction.
Applejack knew it meant trouble for one of the two groups. She had to have faith that they could deal with it, because there wasn’t much else she could do.
It was about five minutes later when they heard the first bell. It came from the direction of the schoolhouse, letting Applejack know that Pinkie and Cheerilee had done their job. Her thoughts went out to them, wishing they would make it back to the castle safe and one piece.
Below, the unicorns reacted to the noise and about a two dozen of them rushed off in that direction. It was less than a minute later that the second bell rang, this one drawing away the rest of the crowd from the Town Hall.
Once she was sure they wouldn’t encounter any other threats, AJ pushed open the window and stepped out onto the roof. Bon Bon was right on her tail as they both carefully hopped down from the roof and onto terra firma below.
A scream rang out, one that filled Applejack’s heart with nothing but dread. She hoped that it wasn’t one of her ponies, but deep down she knew it was.
The distraction let the two mares move quicker than they had before, still being careful but walking at a much quicker pace. They still skirted just around Town Hall, not wanting to risk anything being in that hole and coming out to get them.
The eerie silence of Ponyville settled in, the distant sounds of magic and howling being far away from them now. Flies buzzed around bodies and a light breeze rustled whatever plants had survived this long, but that was it. Even the low rumble of the train engine seemed to have died out at some point.
The decent trot turned into a dead gallop as they got closer and closer to the train station, the smokestack of the engine coming into view. There were growls and the sound of magic discharge coming from up ahead, the pop of spells hitting sturdy metal letting them know that the distraction hadn’t worked completely.
Sure enough, Flam and Doctor Horse were still around and trying to batter their way into the train. The con-pony was on the roof of one of the carriages and blasting away at it, while the doctor was inside of the engine and tearing away at anything that made a noise.
The worrying detail was there was no sign of any ponies anywhere around the train. There were no indications that anypony had left the train, no bodies or signs of fighting. There were no eager faces looking to their saviors through the windows either, it looked like an empty train.
Applejack could only hope that wasn’t the case.
“Y’all take the doc, Ah’ll handle Flam!” Applejack gave the order, Bon Bon nodded. Both narrowed their eyes and hopped up onto the platform, heading off to their respective targets.
She leapt up onto the roof of the train, her powerful hooves making it easy to hop up in a single bound. When her hooves made contact with the roof, Flam’s ugly yellow face turned to face her. She turned her head, hearing her neck crack as she narrowed her eyes.
She knew that she just told Bon Bon that she separated the pony from the monster, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t going to enjoy this.
Instead of firing any magic at her, Flam charged. That was okay with AJ, as the closer they got together the more of a chance she stood. At a distance she was at a clear disadvantage, but up close it was a fair fight.
Applejack readied her lasso again, just pulling it taut between a hoof and her mouth as before. If the same trick could work twice, she could get on his back and tie that muzzle shut and deal with him a lot easier.
She sidestepped at the last moment, letting the lanky monster run by her. Her hooves sent her skyward again, legs straddling as she prepared to mount the beast like an ornery bull. Instead of landing on her back, she felt two hooves plant firmly into her stomach and send her careening away from Flam and tumbling across the hot steel of the train car.
Applejack coughed and wheezed, struggling to properly catch her breath after the kick knocked the wind out of her. She got to her hooves slowly and saw that Flam was already advancing on her again, this time with his horn glowing a sickly green.
Instead of trying to meet him head on, she opted to roll to her left as a blast of acidic green magic slammed into the metal roof where she stood a moment ago. That’s when she charged, right when he was charging up another blast. She slammed into the much larger stallion at full force, her hooves wrapping around his barrel as she tackled him to the ground.
Flam’s very full mouth opened, looking to grab onto a part of Applejack and not let go. She didn’t let him as she slammed her right hoof into the side of his deformed muzzle as hard as she could, sending the monster’s eyes spinning. She cocked her left hoof back and sent it rocketing into the other side of his face, sending her old rival into the cold embrace of forced sleep.
The mare stood up, drenched in sweat and now with sore hooves. Usually her back legs did the talking, but she was okay with a little change in conversation for once. She grunted and slammed another leg into his side.
“That one’s for tryin’ to take the farm.”
She jumped back down to the train platform, seeing that Doctor Horse was out cold with his head against one of the metal poles. Bon Bon looked no worse for wear, a little scratch trailing down her face but nothing serious. Small miracles, that was all she could ask for.
“Are you alright, AJ?” Bon Bon patted her cohort on the back as the farmer wiped some of the sweat from her face. It seemed like this got harder and harder each day, the growing heat not helping at all.
“Could always be better nowadays.” She grunted as she turned and opened the door to the train. She didn’t want to focus on that little kerfuffle anymore, they had a job to get done. “Here’s to hopin’ that somepony is on this train…” Being rewarded for their efforts with an empty train might’ve broken Applejack, she was sure of it.
The two searched every car from top to bottom, finding nothing but luggage and tickets that were never punched. Each car only served to deepen the pit in both of their stomachs, increasingly worried that they had put their lives and the lives of their friends in danger for nothing.
It wasn’t until they made it to the caboose that they finally found what they were looking for.
Sitting in a seat, looking longingly out the window was a stallion. He had an unwashed vermillion mane and a scraggly beard to match that hung from his chin, cyan eyes stared out of the window from behind a cracked pair of round spectacles. His coat was amber and had cream colored hooves and a stripe of the same color on his nose. The most striking feature however was the horn on his head, snapped off at the base.
Beside him in the seat was a bundle of cloth, and the closer the two got the more they realized just what was inside. It was a sleeping foal, a pink horn poking out of a curly purple and blue mane. There was a glimpse of a metal ring clasped around the foal’s horn as well, which only raised more questions.
“We had to leave.” He spoke, his voice full of sadness and grief. “We had no other choice.
10827445
Ah, sweet paranoia, the easiest way to turn friends into enemies.
HOLY SHIT, When did this update? Hey Baero, I think you accidentally posted the latest chapter.
10827709
Wasn't an accident. I'm impatient lol
Hmmm Sunburst and Flurry heart.
Odds are good that the imposter vinyl is a changeling.
I hope spitfire cloudchaser, Flitter and lightning dust are ok
10827712
Ah okay. Well in that case.... Ahem....
I FUCKING CALLED IT! I said it held no water, I said it was a conspiracy, a dumb thought that randomly came to my head, BUT I CALLED IT! Where the fuck is that telephone, because it's ringing off the hook!
Oh, and you might want to make a blog post. People following this story will see that you updated, and since you already updated earlier, it won't appear again in the update feed for today, so some people will miss it.
That ending had me shook, although this chapter did leave me with more questions than answers (not a bad thing at all). Great work as always!
Great update!
10827721
Done. Thanks for the tip.
Well that is a lot of twists in a short space.
10827736
I feel like there's only 2 twists in there
10827741
2? I know you're the author but I think you miscounted.
1. Vinyl Scratch may be a changeling.
2. Broken unicorn horns or horns with rings prevent the mutation.
3. The Feral disease went as far as the Empire.
4. Unicorns outside of Ponyville are trying to dig under Town Hall. Meaning that there's something really important in Ponyville.
5. Those things actually do need sleep.
And my personal favorite.
6. Pinkie Pie did something with the other cake twin. She already said that she didn't kill them, (Something that may or may not be true) and since we didn't see a foal corpse there, then they might be locked up somewhere like Trixie was or they crawled out of the building sometime before or after Vinyl made it her napping spot.
Oh boy. Good news: we now know whatever happened is tied to a unicorn's and alicorn's ability to use magic. The bad news: Twilight is going to be a fucking bitch to cure/capture/kill in that case.
Calling it here: the Vinyl in the castle is Chrysalis.
10827751
You know what? Fair. I've been thinking of this plot for basically every waking moment for the last week so I'm taking some things for granted. I only counted Vinyl Scratch and Sunburst/Crystal Empire. I personally didn't count the hole as a twist, more as like another piece of the puzzle.
So, breaking or neutralizing the horn prevents the whatever from taking hold? How did Sunburst manage to stay unaffected that long and get a ring on Flurry's horn to block her? Maybe close proximity to the Crystal Heart bought them time with there not being many unicorns in the Crystal Empire, enough time for Sunburst to work out what the problem was and flee for it with Flurry?
10827757
That's also a fair way of looking at it. But now the Vinyl clue lives another question for me.
I might be misremembering, (it has been a while since I've seen the show,) but wasn't Thorax in the Empire as a citizen? This new changeling can't be them, unless he and Spike secretly agreed to keep his identity hush hush in Twilight's castle. So, unless Thorax is disguised as that bundle of felt keeping Flurry Heart warm, then he was either out of the Empire when this went down or... Yeah, that's a dark implication. Sunburst had to leave him behind, possibly to buy them time to escape.
I suppose that's one way to stop the... whatever this is from taking hold. Guess the horn is like a little magical receiver, then, which would indicate that it's not a genetic thing that's going on. It's some kind of curse or mind control. Probably the latter. I wonder if breaking their horns would revert the already turned.
Seems the empire is fucked, then. Which makes me wonder how it is that the castle is protecting them when, so far as I know, its magic is essentially the same as what powers the empire's dome. Probably has to do with whatever they're digging for. Whether they want it for some other reason or just to expose the refugees in the castle, who knows?
Also the idea of Flurry becoming one of those things is especially terrifying; the world could barely handle her as she is.
10824976
Well you called it.
Fuckin' unicorn-lycanthropy, man.
Baby Cake, still missing/unaccounted for, is unnerving as all hell. I'm more terrified of a were-foal skittling across the ceiling than big ol', open-mawed Twilight.
10827809
Gonna let ya in on a little hint of inspiration. I played through Resident Evil 8 like 4 times before I wrote the first chapter of this story...so unicorn-lycanthropy might be more apt than you know.
Was this essentially a cold open?
10827817
I would call it more the end of an arc, I suppose.
I was talking to my SO about this chapter and they said they could draw something for it and I happily accepted. So that's why the art exists.
10827816
So like all those AJ Werewoodwolf pics. Except with a horn. And without a dick in as many cases.
So what I’m getting here is the moment a unicorn (or alicorn) uses their magic outside of a protected area like the castle, they go feral. As we just found out, blocking magic like breaking your own horn and using a magic-canceling ring prevents it from happening. But now my question is, does it only prevent, or can it also cure?
10827823
That's pretty cool. I'm still going to look at it as a long cold open, which is one of my favorite things in the world.
So changelings, eh? One of them was in the castle or something?
I've been wondering how they were. If using magic makes you turn, ten putting on a disguise potentially corrupts a changeling...
And now we have Sunburst and Flurry! That's... something. They're going to tell us how the Crystal Heart was changing every pony within its radius or something. Or, the Crystal Kingdom went full on ethnic-cleansing like Europe during the Black Plague and was pretty much killing, mutilating, or exiling all the unicorns...
10827845
Holy crap, I think you're right. For some reason, the author put emphasis on Starlight trying to Teleport before she changed. It's an odd detail to include, and it would explain what happened with Sunburst. Flurry may have been sleeping when this all went down so she wouldn't be using her magic, Sunburst must have witnessed Shining or somepony else turn immediately after using a spell. Putting two and two together, the royal babysitter must have snapped off his own horn and secured hers with a nullstone ring.
I can imagine that there's a group of escaped convicts looting Canterlot with nullstone rings on their horns and Tempest is somewhere helping any way she can.
By the way, BR, are we including EQG in this world's canon? Cause if so, then was there anything that stopped them from going through the mirror or have you just cut that escape route out entirely?
10827940
EQG being canon is dubious at best. So let's just assume for all intents and purposes that the mirror does not exist here.
Agent Sweetie Drops [Bon Bon 007]
Is that a secret weapon?
No. It's her lunch
Where's me?
10827910
Taking one off, too, maybe?
10827763
Sunburst's magic is canonically extremely weak, and he spent a majority of his life seriously ashamed as a result. He probably doesn't use it instinctively like basically every other unicorn, and that protected him until he clued in.
So are changelings unaffected?
Absolutely Brilliant, never expected Sunburst to be alive, what a twist.
And he's also a great asset because he's knowledgeable.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt
Is Tempest gonna be here?!
Applejack could always suplex someone else.
Everyone is saying great twist, but no one is saying this...
I feel sorry for Flurry, because this means that she lost her parents at such a young age...
Of course, we can feel optimistic about them surviving, but seeing how the title of the chapter is literally "Last One Out", that's a big ouch...
10828140
A bit of a double meaning in the chapter title, both referring to Bon Bon and Applejack being the last group to get their job done and also Sunburst/Flurry being the last ones to leave the Empire.
10828147
Which I assumed meant the rest had been taken over, but I'll be optimistic and say that they were sent to get help reeeeeeee :)
But then again, Sunburst said
And if we assume the worst, they had no choice but to escape.
Oh no, it's not just Ponyville. And that means... Canterlot's probably fallen as well, Celestia and Luna along with it. (Possibly. Who knows, maybe one or both survived somehow.) Things just increased from bad to worse!
Gotta say, Thunderlane went down fighting. I respect that, and wish that he could of done more in this story before he bit the dust.
This story is flipp'n awesome!
i was getting some stefen king cell vibes tbh.
I mean, my first guess would be Ocellus but that just brings up questions as to why she'd think she'd need to hide.
10828218
This is also before the School of Friendship.
10828221
Ah. Missed that. Sorry I'm not great with context clues
10828022
I dont think so . Remeber how rainbow got slapped by the rainboom. I think that the only way she gets past that normaly is magic. Magic itself is poisoned. There was mention to starlight only turning once she teleported? Levitated? Outside of the castle. The changling hasnt changed since the castle as long as it changed before the event or in the castle it should be safe from magical zombieitus
Okay, so my theory that the Crystal Empire was safe sadly went out the window. However this chapter does give a bit more insight into how the unicorns changed.
Something (or someone) has completely altered the magic field in Equestria (maybe the world) and that is what is causing the monster transformation of unicorns. We know this because in chapter "Hero", when Dash tried to perform a Sonic Rainboom it didn't work (in fact she said it seemed to actively try to harm her for attempting to do so). The previous chapter and this chapter further reinforces this idea because a) All the unicorns/alicorns mentioned so far have intact horns, b) Rarity hasn't changed despite probably using magic even in the castle (which because it is part of the Tree of Harmony seems to maintain the old kind of magic field that used to be the norm), c) Sunburst appears to be fine other than a broken horn, and d) Flurry is perfectly fine and has a magic suppressing ring on her horn.
This means the new hostile magic field only wants unicorns, and 'infects' them like a virus if a) they have a fully intact horn and b) if they try to cast a spell. I thought a few chapters ago that unicorns would change the moment they left the 'regular' magic field the Castle Friendship still had by entering the corrupted one. However, Sunbursts and Flurry's appearances (and HOW they appeared) combined with what Pinkie told Cheerilee last chapter
So the trigger for the transformation is having a horn and purposefully casting magic.
Hello new story to follow, which chapters I just read in one sitting.
10828264
What'd you think?
Help isn't coming. If the Crystal Empire has fallen, then so has Canterlot. And if other unicorns are coming from out of town, from elsewhere in Equestria, then the whole continent is screwed. Nowhere is safe. Cloudsdale might be intact, but who knows?
Sunburst breaking off his horn and "locking" Flurry Heart's does raise some interesting questions, however.
The core aspects of Equestria's magic have changed. That much is obvious from what little snippets we've seen thus far. For whatever reason, it's changed. Now, as other comments have posited, it seems like the "change" in unicorns occurs if they try to use their magic. There's quite a bit of credence to that theory, as from what we've gathered from eyewitnesses like Pinkie Pie, this change in unicorns didn't happen all at once. Starlight turned when she tried to teleport. Merely being outside doesn't seem to be the trigger that causes the mutation, despite what I originally thought. Trying to tap into the changed magic seems to be what causes it. Unicorns are the most in tune with magic, so they feel the effects the worst.
Sunburst hasn't been on that train for well over a month, so the Crystal Empire must have fallen only during the last week or so. Whatever caused this seemed to have originally started in Ponyville with Twilight, before slowly spreading out across the rest of Equestria. Perhaps the Crystal Empire, being the most isolated kingdom in Equestria, had more forewarning of what was coming in some way. It seems like the crystals of Twilight's Castle and the magic they inherently possess are able to hold off the changed magic. Perhaps the same thing happened with the Crystal Heart, only on a temporary scale?
Sunburst has proven himself to be a pretty smart pony, so in the time leading up to the Empire's fall, perhaps he figured out that the change was linked to the horns? With that realization, he would likely try to find ways to nullify the effects or the changes. Unfortunately, with how rudimentary his work seems to have been, something tells me that Sunburst applied good ol' Occam's Razor to his horn. Either because that was the only way, or more likely, he ran out of time to find another, less invasive.
The fact that it's just him and Flurry Heart on the train, coupled with how ragged he looks, tells me that he left the Crystal Empire in a god damn hurry, either way. And that mommy and daddy are probably looking for their kid...
Look at me, author. L-look- Look at me. Okay? Look at me.
Do it.
Do it you coward.
If Joe Baker can get away with powerbombing a swamp monster in Resident Evil 7, and Baldur can German Suplex Kratos in God Of War, you can have a Suplex in your story!
Do it!
I WANT TO SEE SOMEPONY SUPLEX A UNICORN!
lh3.googleusercontent.com/dtkGoU5hrG0En_37hxNgrzwfG8kAzFX1_tdgeMyB7K5YFSCkAi2pujoRWtAw-XLqHGiev3fQqM_6_HjtB8Fbrgr0t2cVjg5cCRmndZ5nLTaG2JU9DrdxDDgg6XLEKEXn-8Exw-i7
If breaking your horn could protect you from the effects of this mysterious infection...
then could it be possible that Tempest Shadow may still be around?
I hope we find out where Discord is and why he hasn't fixed this
10828267
Intruiging enough that I want to see what caused it, Meteor radiation? Spell misshap? Something in the air?
10828424
If breaking youre horn can save you then I hope tempest shows up. I'd be awesome