Chapter 5 (Remastered)
Twilight lay down on the floor in the main room of the library. Six saddlebags sat in a pile in front of her, open and empty, and she closed her eyes. Her horn sparked to life and she lifted the bags off the floor in a glow of magic. They circled over her head as she grit her teeth, growing faster and faster as energy pulsed over them. She let out a hiss of breath and wiped her forehead as the bags settled back on the floor.
She stood up and grabbed the bag with her cutie mark stitched into the side. She smiled in satisfaction as she turned it over in her hooves. “Outward appearance is normal,” she mumbled. She flipped open the cover of one of the compartments and set the bag on the floor, then stepped her forelegs inside it and stretched it. “Functions normally with living tissue.” She lifted her legs out and snatched a teetering pile of books off her desk, floating them one by one into the bag, dropping them to the bottom with a distant, echoing thump. After the first stack vanished, she floated over a second. She stepped closer and looked through the opening. The bag was barely half full. “Extradimensional space functions properly …” She lowered herself to the floor, scooted under the straps, and stood up. “And so does the weight dampener.”
She grinned to herself and bounced on her hooves. “It worked!” She slipped the bag off and let it fall to the floor. A thundering crash echoed through the library.
Twilight jumped in surprise and let out a squeak. After a few steadying breaths, she shook her head to clear it, letting out a shaky laugh. “That, uh … was unexpected. Guess the weight dampening only works if somepony is touching the bag.” She gave herself a chagrined smile and opened the other compartment of the bag, then turned her attention to the gigantic collection of survival equipment and camping gear piled up by the door. She lifted half of it and filled up the compartment. She tried it on one more time, nodding at how comfortable it felt to carry, then floated it off. After a moment’s hesitation, she set it gently on the floor next to her desk, rather than on top of it.
She slung four of the empty bags over her back and headed for the door, stopping short just before going outside. She frowned and looked back on the one bag left on the floor. She turned around and walked back to it slowly. It was old and scuffed, its canvas worn soft and frayed at the edges. Its original color had been lost to time and the elements, leaving it a blotchy, uneven gray. A yellowing lightning bolt patch stayed in place thanks to luck and a few remaining stitches, and at the bottom corner of one side, she could still read the faded initials, “RD,” scrawled in ink.
As she stared at it in silence, she gave a resolute nod and filled one side of it with the other half of the camping supplies. A playful smile rose on her face. She lit up her horn and floated an entire shelf of Daring Do novels into the other side. She snapped it shut, and set it down next to her own. She headed back out the door and towards Sugarcube Corner.
The shop bell tinkled as she stepped inside. A loud crash from upstairs sent it chiming again.
Mrs. Cake looked up at the swinging chandelier. “Oh my!”
“Hi, Mrs. Cake. I’m guessing that was Pinkie Pie?” She gave Mrs. Cake a knowing smile.
Mrs. Cake returned it and giggled. “It’s nice to see you, Twilight, and who else would it be? Go on ahead upstairs.”
Twilight nodded, crossed through the dining area, and headed up the stairs. The door to Pinkie’s room was standing open. Or maybe the phrase she was looking for was wedged open. Twilight peered inside, and was reminded of exactly how the library looked whenever Rainbow crashed through a window. Toys, clothing, musical instruments, deflated balloons, streamers, paint bottles, banners, and a terrifying amount of candy littered the floor. She carefully stepped through the minefield. “Pinkie?”
A call of, “Hi, Twilight! I was just—” floated from the closet, followed by a grunt of effort, and then a cascading crash of ringing bangs. Twilight grimaced and flattened her ears to the sides of her head. “Whoopsie! Of course, it had to be cymbals. Oop! Here it is!” She flopped out of the closet, wearing a lime green snorkel and mask. “Jusht whurd Id neerd!” she said through the mouthpiece, bouncing in place.
“Uhh …” She raised an eyebrow, stepping back on a whoopie cushion and letting out an obscene noise. She grimaced, then shook her head. “Just what you need?”
She slipped the mask off and grinned. “You know, for the trip! Never know when somepony’s gotta go underwater.” She zipped across the room, somehow avoiding everything on the floor, and up the side of a bookshelf. She hung from the top two shelves and rifled inside, making the whole thing teeter dangerously. “Now where did I put my skis?”
Twilight slowly shook her head and pinched the bridge of her muzzle. “... Anyway, I brought you your saddlebag. It should be able to hold everything you need, and not weigh any more than normal. Word of warning on that, the magic that keeps it light only works for ponies, so be careful what you set the bag down on.” She floated the crisp, clean white bag with pastel balloon patches, and looked for a clean patch of floor, table, bed, or chair to place it. Sighing, she gave up and set it down on an upturned canoe. “Everything else going okay? Did the Cakes take the news well?”
Pinkie looked over her shoulder at Twilight, her forelegs hanging from the top shelf and back legs kicking little circles in the air. “Yeah, I don’t think anypony’s that surprised.”
Twilight tilted her head to the side and frowned. She took a step forward and knocked over a deck of cards. “What do you mean?”
“Well.” She leapt to the floor and hopped around to face Twilight, her hooves never touching anything but bare wood, making Twilight’s eye twitch. “This invasion thingie’s big news, and everypony thinks we’re a bunch of superheroes, anyway, so of course we’re the ones going off to do stuff about it.”
Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes, then scowled when her hoof wedged inside a flower pot. She kicked it off and sent a can of tennis balls flying. “I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I better go give everypony else their bags. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t put any of the other enchanted bags inside of each other.”
Pinkie zipped around the room, tossing random things into the saddlebag. “Why not?
She shuddered. “Well, uh, best case scenario is the bags implode into each other. Worst case scenario is the universe is torn to shreds.”
“To shreds you say?” She clucked her tongue and shook her head as she dropped a bowling ball into the bag. “Got it, no bags inside of bags inside of bags.”
Twilight lifted a hoof with a look of concern on her face, ready to interject, but froze as she watched Pinkie bounce up and down on the canoe, it sinking a few inches into a straining compartment with each bounce. The interjection died in her throat and she stepped backwards to the door. “Um … yeah … I’m … going to head to Rarity’s now. Remember to pack warm.”
“Okie dokie lokie! See ya later, Twilight!”
Twilight backed her way out of the room, shook her head to clear it, and slunk down the stairs, still shaking her head.
Mrs. Cake looked up from the display case as she loaded in a tray of cupcakes. “Everything okay up there, Twilight?”
Twilight chuckled. “It looks like somepony let an Ursa Major loose in her room, but yes, she’ll be fine. I’ll see you later, Mrs. Cake.” The bell chimed as she opened the door, but she stopped in her tracks when she heard Mrs. Cake sigh.
“I certainly hope she’ll be fine. That all of you will be fine.” She searched Twilight’s face, her expression a mask of worry, then she looked down and continued loading cupcakes.
Twilight stepped back from the door and gave Mrs. Cake an apologetic smile. “We’ll do our best to stay safe. Are … are you okay with Pinkie Pie going?”
She sighed again and clicked the display case shut. “Not really. I’m not okay with any of you going.” She ran a hoof through her mane and slowly stepped over to the counter, leaning against it. “Nopony in Ponyville wants you to go. But …” she breathed in deep, and let out a slow breath, giving Twilight a sad smile. “But we all know you have to go. Just come back to us in one piece.”
Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat and gave Mrs. Cake a solemn nod. “... I promise we’ll come back as soon as we can.” She smiled despite herself as she remembered the first dream conversation she had with Rainbow. “Ponyville can’t get rid of us that easily.”
Mrs. Cake laughed, breaking the haze of melancholy, and she shook her head. “Thank you for that, Twilight.” She sighed again, though a less anxious and more relaxed. “Well, I won’t keep you, I’m sure you have a lot left to do tonight. Though between you and me ...” She leaned over the counter and dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “Don’t let Pinkie throw the going away party. That’s my job this time.”
Twilight grinned and nodded, then turned and left the shop. As the bell jingled and the door clicked shut, the smile vanished. A weight of uneasiness settled on her chest. Mrs. Cake had spoken for all of Ponyville when she said she didn’t want them to go. They had a lot of ponies thinking of them. Twilight shuffled her hooves on the ground, then set off for Carousel Boutique, three saddlebags in tow.
“But it ain’t fair!” Apple Bloom slapped the floor, glaring at Applejack. She stood in the middle of Carousel Boutique’s showroom. Sweetie Belle sat next to her, hooves crossed over her chest, sticking out her lip at Rarity. Applejack and Rarity sat next to each other on a couch, both rubbing their temples. “Ya gotta let us come, too! This’d be the perfect way for us to get our cutie marks!”
“Eeee!” squeaked Scootaloo, who bounced around the room, wings fluttering, not paying any attention to the others.
Applejack grumbled. “Listen, AB. This ain’t like a visit to Zecora’s or nothin’, we’re goin’ really far away and ain’t comin’ back for a long while.” Apple Bloom’s glare deepened, and Sweetie turned her pout towards Applejack. Applejack chewed her lip as her train of thought derailed, and she cast a look at Rarity, pleading support.
“Applejack is quite right, a dangerous trip for Celestia knows how long is no place for you girls. I’m afraid the matter is already settled.” The pouts turned their ire on Rarity. “And further—”
“Rainbow Dash is coming back! Rainbow Dash is coming back!” Scootaloo sang, running up and roughly shaking Sweetie and Apple Bloom before prancing away.
Applejack rolled her eyes and grinned, shaking her head. “All right, Scootaloo, quit your hollerin’ and plant your rump down over here. This last bit’s important.”
“Aww …” Scootaloo joined with the pouts of her friends in a united front against Applejack.
Applejack nodded and started to talk, but couldn’t find the right way to start. “Ya see, girls, we, uh … we … when we go, we might, uh ...” She grimaced as she stammered over herself. She took off her hat and rung it in her hooves until it nearly tore in half. Rarity put her hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, and Applejack looked over. Rarity gave her a small nod, and she let out a long breath of relief, sinking back on the couch.
“You see, girls,” Rarity said delicately, speaking slowly and picking her words with care, “we don’t know how far we have to go or how long it will take us. There’s a possibility …” Her expression wavered and she dropped her gaze from the group of fillies down to the floor in front of them. “There’s a possibility that we won’t be able to come back before the bulls come.”
The pouts changed to looks of shock. They looked at each other, then back at Rarity. “But you have to come back!” said Sweetie.
“You can’t go at all, then!” Apple Bloom jumped up and hugged Applejack around the middle in a death grip. “What’ll we do if you ain’t back yet?”
Applejack swallowed the lump in her throat and returned the hug, stroking Apple Bloom’s mane. “I’m sorry, sugarcube. If I got anythin’ to say about it, we’ll be back months before that, I promise.” She sniffled and shut her eyes. “I promise we’ll be back if we can.”
Sweetie snagged Rarity around her middle. “Mom and dad are gonna be so worried if you’re gone that long! I’m gonna be so worried if you’re gone that long!”
Rarity sighed and lowered her tone to a soothing murmur. “I know, dear.”
Scootaloo looked between her friends and their sisters and fidgeted in place, her wings drooping toward the floor.
Rarity closed her eyes, then stood from the couch and walked over to Scootaloo, sweeping her into the hug with Sweetie Belle. She raised her voice to a normal level and said, “Listen. We told you about this, and about what’s happening, because you’re old enough now to know the truth. As hard as the truth is to know, it wouldn’t have been fair to keep it from you. You know what’s happened to Rainbow Dash, and you know what’s coming.”
Rarity closed her eyes and held them for a few moments, her breaths controlled and even. When she spoke again, her voice came with more strength. “We have to try and stop it. We might not do it in time, and we might not be the only ponies who could do it, but we have to try. Whether it’s fate, or simply stubbornness, we must do this. And you need to be strong.”
Apple Bloom stilled in Applejack hooves as Rarity spoke, and she pulled her head out of her sister’s chest to listen.
“Watch out for each other and keep each other safe. Applejack and I will be arriving home to happy sisters, right? And Rainbow Dash would be quite disappointed if she gets back to an honorary sister who is suffering from melancholy.”
The girls chuckled lightly. They pulled away from their hugs and wiped their eyes. Applejack swiped a hoof over her face, then cleared her throat. She took a deep breath and bit her lip, glancing around the room for something to focus on.
Rarity stood and brightened her tone to singsong. “Now run along, you three. We’re not setting out for a few more days, there will be plenty of time for proper goodbyes. I bet if you hurry, you could fit in some more crusading before lunch.”
The three perked up and exchanged looks. Scootaloo asked, “White water rafting?”
Rarity paled. “Erm, there may not be time for something like th—”
“Yeah! shouted Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in unison. They slapped their hooves together in a circle, then raced out of the boutique.
“Oh dear.” Rarity sighed and shook her head, then turned back to Applejack. “Well that went—darling, you’re shivering.” Rarity sept back to the couch and sat down, hugging Applejack around the shoulders.
Applejack sniffed and wiped her face again. “Thanks, Rares.” Her voice came out raw. She leaned into Rarity’s shoulder, then bolted upright. “Uh—erm, sorry, don’t wanna, uh … mess up your mane or nothin’.”
Rarity restrengthened the hug and pulled them back together. “Don’t be silly, Applejack. And you’re quite welcome. That certainly wasn’t the most pleasant conversation.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t know what to say, and was trippin’ all over myself. Probably would’a upset them worse. You’re a lot better with them touchy-feely words than me, Rarity. I’m all action, and the only action here’s turnin’ on the waterworks.”
Rarity leaned her cheek against Applejack’s mane. Applejack could smell Rarity’s lilac perfume. “Think nothing of it. You’re always there for me, I’m happy to be there for you, too.”
Applejack felt her face heat up and she stirred against Rarity’s embrace.
“Everything all right, Applejack?”
“Erm, yeah, I’m fine.” Applejack cleared her throat and took a deep breath, willing her heart to stop racing. “Thanks for bein’ there, sugarcube. It means the world to me.” Her heartbeat didn’t listen, and she felt the heat spread across her muzzle. “... Rarity, do you, uh ...?” Applejack didn’t know how to continue. She’d run through what she could say and how she could say it to Rarity dozens of times, but the words never came when she wanted them to come. She didn’t know if they would ever come.
“What was that, Applejack?”
Applejack winced. She always struggled with words, she was a pony of action. She grit her teeth and tried to convince herself to go ahead and act already. Her stomach somersaulted and kept her pinned in place, her mind bouncing back and forth between paralyzed and determined. She was about to mumble some excuse and get up, when a voice in the back of her head screamed, ‘Coward!’
That did it. Applejack took in a deep breath and lifted her head, guiding her face towards Rarity’s, letting her eyes drift closed as the lilac perfume thickened.
A knock on the door made her leap back a foot across the couch. Her eyes shot open and she forced a smile. “Oh, hey, the door! Welp, I better get goin’, gotta help Big Mac hire on some helpers for while I’m gone, see you later!” She snatched the twisted remains of her hat off the floor and slapped it on her head as she bolted across the room, flung open the door, and nearly barrelled over Twilight. “Oh, howdy, Twi, Rarity’s inside, I was just goin’, and—”
“Hi, Applejack! Before you go, I have your saddlebag ready, if you can stay a minute, it’ll save me the trip.”
Applejack danced on her hooves for a moment, then she forced another smile. “Uh, yeah, sure, Twi.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and slunk back towards the couch, her ears lowered. She shuffled in place in the middle of the room and tried to keep focused on Twilight, seeing Rarity stare at her in a mixture of surprise and confusion from the corner of her vision.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Uh, well, here are your bags.” She floated the tough, reinforced green one over to Applejack, and the gem-coated white one to Rarity. They each took their bags as unspoken tension sucked all the air out of the room. Applejack noticed even Twilight started to fidget from it. “They’re, uh … magically expanded on the inside, and aren’t heavy when filled, but only if you’re touching them, so, erm, careful where you set them down when you’re not touching them.”
Applejack nodded. She felt beads of sweat spring up on her forehead. She didn’t know that tension in a room could be itchy.
“And don’t put one of these bags inside another one. The world might end.” A beat of stuffy silence stretched out as Twilight pawed at the floor. “... That’s all, Applejack, if you need to—”
“Great, thanks, Twi, thanks, Rarity, see you later!” She flashed out the door, snapping it shut behind her.
Rarity raised her eyebrows as the door rattled in the jam.
Twilight stared after Applejack with a look of bewilderment, then turned to Rarity. “What the heck was all that about?”
“I’m...not sure myself.” Rarity smoothed her mane flat. “She was rather upset over telling Apple Bloom about our trip, she must have gotten embarrassed about it,” Rarity said with a frown, not entirely convinced as she said it. She shook her head and smiled at Twilight. “So how are you getting along?”
Twilight let out a breath, her nervous fidgeting disappearing. “It’s all going pretty well. Princess Celestia gave her blessing for the trip. She’s sent along six letters declaring us as official agents of Equestria in case we have to travel outside of the country.”
“Six?” Rarity said in a distracted tone as she fiddled with her saddlebag. “My goodness, this is a lot of space. And it won’t get heavier, you say? This would be marvelous for gem hunting.”
Twilight grinned. “The sixth letter is for Rainbow Dash. In case we end up needing it.” Rarity looked up from the bag and returned Twilight’s grin. “And Spike is all set up to manage the library and feed Fluttershy’s animals while we’re gone.”
Rarity frowned in concern. “Is Spikey-Wikey taking everything well? He was so distraught over Rainbow, and now we’re all gallivanting off, too.”
Twilight’s smile fell to a neutral line. “Well …” She sighed and looked out the window. “In … a lot of ways, he’s doing better. He was really hurting after Rainbow died. He never knew anypony that died before, and I wasn’t in any shape to help him process it, if you didn’t notice.” Twilight gave Rarity a half-smile and cut off her protests with the wave of a hoof. “Don’t deny it, I was a mess. Between the nightmares and insomnia, it’s a miracle I didn’t accidentally blow up Ponyville.” Twilight chuckled in amusement, like what she’d said was absurd.
Rarity bit her lip and looked away quickly.
“Anyway, when I told him about talking to Rainbow, and about what we’re leaving to try and do, he cheered up a lot. When I told him that we might not be back in time, well …” Twilight sighed and sat on her haunches, lowering her head. “He’s still so young, Rarity. I forget that sometimes, because he’s clever and has good common sense.”
A silence fell over the room as Rarity nodded and bowed her head as well.
After a moment, Twilight looked back out the window, her tone distant. “I hope we get back in time. I can’t stand the idea that we won’t be here to protect everypony. That we won’t be here to protect him.”
Rarity stood from the couch and walked over to Twilight, draping a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder. “We’ll do all that we can to return as quickly as possible, Twilight. We all have ponies we need to protect.”
Twilight’s half-smile returned. “I know we do.” She stood up and cleared her throat, stepping out of Rarity’s hug. “I should get to Fluttershy’s, though …” She frowned and rubbed her chin. “Maybe I ought to stop by Sweet Apple Acres and make sure Applejack’s all right. She might want somepony to talk to about the girls … then again, I wasn’t here for that. What do you think?”
Rarity waved a hoof in dismissal. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry right now, just go on to Fluttershy’s. I was going to go have a chat with Applejack later.” She walked Twilight to the door and held it open, then frowned and caught Twilight’s shoulder. “I almost forgot. Have you heard from Rainbow?”
Twilight’s expression turned troubled, and she shuffled her hooves on the ground. “... No. Not since we were interrupted last week.”
Rarity raised her eyebrows. “Goodness. You don’t think something happened, do you?”
Twilight put on a weak smile and waved Rarity away with a hoof. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably too busy kicking flank and taking names to talk.”
Rarity smiled and nodded, then waved and shut the door. She looked out through the window and watched Twilight trudge away, off in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight’s head looked awfully bowed, and her steps were rather heavy.
Rarity sighed and slipped back to the couch, sitting down and fiddling with her saddlebag. Despite trying to plan for the following few days, her mind kept returning to Applejack. She couldn’t shake the image from her head. Applejack leaning in close, her cheeks a deep red, her eyelids closing, her lips parted. Rarity shook her head. She must be imagining things.
“Listen, Angel,” Fluttershy said slowly and calmly, “I know it’s a surprise, and I didn’t give you a lot of notice, but I—” she ducked down as a carrot sailed at her head and bounced off the wall behind her, then kept talking like nothing happened, “—I have to go. You understand, don’t you?”
Angel’s face twisted into a mask of rage. He leapt off the couch and whipped around the living room, knocking over everything in sight.
Fluttershy followed along behind him, catching lamps and vases as Angel hit them, and slipping them back into place, her tone of voice still steady and soothing. “We’ll be back as soon as possible, sweetie, but we have to go. It’s too important.” She dodged another carrot. “It won’t be for very long, and the other critters are going to need their smart, brave rabbit to help take care of them.” She ducked again as Angel’s porcelain food dish flew at her head, shattering against the wall with a crash.
“Now, Angel, it won’t be that bad, you’ll have the cottage all to yourself!”
Angel leapt onto the wall and started yanking down pictures. As they clattered to the floor, Fluttershy pinned her ears back and covered her face from the noise. “You won’t have to do any of your chores!”
Angel’s gaze circled around the destroyed room, and he settled on the throw rug. He jumped down and grabbed it, tearing at it with his teeth, glaring straight at her the whole time.
Fluttershy’s mask of calm broke. “I’m sorry, okay!?” Fluttershy shrieked. She sunk down on her haunches, still covering her face. She breathed in deep, recollecting herself, then stamped her hoof on the ground, resolutely but quietly. “I’m sorry, Angel, I really am, but you have to let me go. Please let me go.” She met Angel’s gaze.
Angel glared and gnashed his teeth. He crossed his forelegs over his chest and tapped a back leg on the ground impatiently.
Fluttershy quaked under the glare and her hooves started shaking. She dropped all the way to the ground and covered her face. “Angel, please! If I don’t go, I can’t protect you! I couldn’t protect Harry, I couldn’t protect Rainbow Dash, I—I … Please let me go, or I won’t be able to protect you either!” She wrapped her hooves more tightly around her face, feeling tears in her eyes. “I can’t … I can’t let anypony else get hurt just because I’m too scared …”
A miserable moment of fear and dread clung to Fluttershy as she shivered on the floor, until she felt a tiny hug around her neck. She took in a steadying breath and raised her head. Angel pressed into her cheek, letting out a sad little squeaking noise. She patted his head and sniffled. “Thank you, Angel. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise. Please be nice to Spike when he comes to feed and clean all the other critters.”
Angel stepped back and gave her a look that said, ‘no promises,’ before hopping away.
Fluttershy wiped her face, then stood up. She moved through the living room slowly, picking up Angel’s mess in silence. A knock at the door interrupted her, and she hurried over, swinging it open. “Oh, hello, Twilight. Come in.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. Aches raced along her body, and her mouth felt like she’d been chugging ash. She let out a weak cough and curled onto her side. She opened her eyes and waited for the room to come into focus.
Smooth stone walls boxed her in. She got her shaky hooves underneath her and forced herself to stand, brushing her mane on the ceiling. She slowly turned in place, looking around the tiny prison cell.
The space was maybe six feet square, with three smooth, flat walls that bled into the floor and ceiling, like the room had been carved into solid stone. The last wall opened out to a larger room, blocked off by bars. She stood in the middle of the room on a military pallet, barely large enough to fit her. Next to the bars were two buckets and a hay trough.
Rainbow stepped off the pallet and approached the bars. The room outside her cell was large and plain, the same smooth rock as her cell, lit by orbs of light lining the walls. She touched one of the bars. It was also stone and fused with the floor and ceiling as a solid piece. She looked at the two buckets. One was full of water, and the other empty.
She slid the empty bucket to a back corner of the cell and bent over the water bucket. The water tasted old and stagnant, but somehow delicious on her sandpaper tongue. She took several gulps in her mouth and tried to swallow. She choked and spat all the water back into the bucket. She ran her tongue over her teeth and crinkled her muzzle in distaste. “Weird,” she muttered to herself. At least her mouth didn’t feel like a campfire anymore. She glanced at the hay trough and tried to picture eating, then shrugged. “Guess the leaf means I don’t have to eat or drink.”
Rainbow stretched out her wings, sending a cascade of aches and pains over her body. She hissed in a breath and winced. She sat on her haunches and looked over her injuries.
She was covered in nicks and scratches all over her legs and along her sides, but her right foreleg had the worst of it. Blood dried to flaky rust matted her coat from the cannon down. Rows of grizzled claw marks stood out in the brown as shiny, clotted black. Under the blood, a dark purple bruise rose all the way to her shoulder.
As she poked and prodded herself, she found the bruised rib and gash on her cheek were both gone. She grinned and nodded, then wrenched her neck to the side to pop a kink. She pinched herself on a collar. She frowned and touched it.
A ring ran around her neck, so thin it was almost weightless, and as she traced its length, she couldn’t find a clasp. She pushed it up, but it was just small enough she couldn’t get it around her head. She stepped back to the water bucket and looked down at her reflection.
The band was as smooth, dull, and gray as the stone walls of her cell. She spun it around, twisted, turned, and prodded at it, feeling like something that thin ought to shatter to pieces in her hooves, but it stayed in place. She went back to the bars and pressed up against them, trying to get a better view of the room beyond.
Two skeleton ponies stood on either side of her cell, stock still and staring forward, just far enough away she couldn’t reach them and had to strain to even see the sides of their skulls. She cleared her throat. “Uh, hey?” She banged her hoof back and forth against two bars. “What’s going on? Where am I?”
Neither guard moved.
Rainbow rolled her eyes, then turned and went back to her cot. She sat down on the thin pad, crossed her back legs, closed her eyes, and opened her senses. She flowed out … and found her mind shoved back into her body. A crease formed in her brow and she tried again, pushing to expand outward, and rebounding back. She moved her attention as best she could through her body, feeling her magic trying to flow outwards, then being sucked back in, like a diverted river. The ebb and flow circled around the collar, which thumped and pulsed against her aura with an icy coldness. Rainbow scowled and opened her eyes, tromping back to the cell window.
“Room service!” she shouted, running her hoof back and forth across all the bars. “Hey, waiter, go get me a daisy sandwich!”
The skeletons didn’t move.
“You guys suck. Come on, say something, or am I just gonna wait in here forever?”
As her words hung in the air and were swallowed up by the silence, a chill ran up her spine. She spun on the spot and bucked her hind legs against the bars with her full strength, launching herself forward in a heap. Her legs had gone numb from the vibrations of the kick, while the bars stood in place without a scratch.
Biting her lip, Rainbow tried to push her senses outward again and rebounded into her own head. The mental prison was even smaller than the physical one.
Pushing back the urge to panic, she carefully searched through what little space she could move her senses; until at last, she found a small crack in the blackout. A thin filament flowed out the top of her head and into the element of inaction. She moved up the connection and into the leaf, but the magic dampening of the collar kept it closed off, too, closed from the rest of the world everywhere except a thin, purple line of energy. It connected to the leaf, then passed up through the wall of blocked magic and grew fuzzy on the other side as it raced away from Rainbow’s body.
Rainbow pressed her mind against the barrier, narrowing her focus as tightly as she could, pressing at the point where her connection to Twilight passed through the wall. Bit by bit, almost too slowly to notice, she felt her senses move along the strand, pushing and stretching the barrier outwards.
She opened her eyes and repositioned herself on the pallet. She took a deep breath, held her back straight, and set to work, digging her way back to Twilight, gaining slow but steady ground as she went. She kept an eye half open and watched the bars for any signs of movement.
Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy stepped onto the platform of the train station, still rubbing the sleep from their eyes. They had their saddlebags on, with Twilight carrying both her’s and Rainbow’s.
“Goodness,” Fluttershy said around a yawn. “Mrs. Cake really went all out.”
Rarity nudged Pinkie and said, “It was quite the party, wasn’t it? I bet you’re proud.”
Pinkie grinned and nodded with enthusiasm, then let out a huge yawn and bowed her head. “Taught her … everything she knows …” Pinkie leaned against Fluttershy and started snoring loud enough for Fluttershy to flatten her ears.
They made their way over to the waiting area for the oncoming train, half dragging Pinkie, and swayed in place in the chilly morning light. They had the station to themselves. After a few moments, Fluttershy fell asleep leaning into Pinkie, and they wavered on their hooves, propping each other up. Applejack sat and slid her hat down to shield her eyes from the sun. Rarity came and sat next to her, the lingering tension between them having melted during the going away party. Twilight went over a checklist for the second time and started in on the third when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Twilight looked up. “Oh, hello, Mayor Mare! What brings you …?” Twilight’s gaze trailed away from Mayor Mare, behind her and off the platform. All of Ponyville crowded into the streets and alleys. She nudged Fluttershy, knocking her and Pinkie over into Rarity and Applejack.
They all turned and looked out over the sea of smiling friends, family, and familiar faces. As the rumbling chugs of the approaching train filled the air, a new rumbling joined it. Hooves thundered on the ground and a cheer swelled like a steam whistle, growing to an unchecked roar that drowned out the train itself.
Twilight looked back and forth from the crowd to Mayor Mare. “Wh—what’s this?” she shouted over the crowd.
“A send-off,” Mayor Mare shouted back, “from Ponyville to five of its most beloved citizens. Please come back to us soon!”
The roar swelled louder as the train pulled into the station. Twilight forced a smile and gave the crowd a little wave, glancing sidelong at the others. Pinkie seemed to weather the attention better than anypony else, giggling and throwing hooffuls of confetti in the air. Rarity mirrored Twilight, her smile coming off more natural than Twilight felt, but still colored with embarrassment. Applejack waved, too, with her hat pulled down over half her face. Fluttershy hid behind everypony else.
Twilight desperately wished Rainbow Dash was there to take the brunt of the cheer. She knew the others were thinking the same thing.
The conductor stepped off the train and looked over the platform with wide-eyed confusion. After a moment, he straightened his hat, then shouted “All aboard!” They nearly bowled him over rushing onto the train.
The doors snapping shut barely dulled the thundering hoof stomps as they made their way back through the train until they found a private car. They collapsed on the seats and sunk below the windows, which danced in their frames from the thunder. They let out a collective breath of air when the train lurched into motion, the cheers slowly fading away into the distance.
One by one they dropped off to sleep as the train rumbled across Equestria’s plains, out of Ponyville, past Canterlot, and off towards the frozen north.
The sound of hoofsteps echoed through the chamber outside her cell, and Rainbow pulled her senses inward. She got up and approached the bars.
A pegasus stallion glared at her from the other side. At first glance, Rainbow figured that he used to be handsome. He had fine, delicate features and cobalt blue eyes, a chestnut coat and short, sandy mane pulled back in a windswept mess. As a colt, he must have been quite the looker. That colt was buried, his coat and mane beaten to a dusty granite, and his features were crackled with scars, spiderwebbing across his cheek and brow, running down his neck, and turning to think blotches of pink, smooth skin across his flanks and down his legs. He wore nothing except a thin stone band around his right foreleg, just above the fetlock. His glare bore into her, his bright eyes dulled and haunted. Rainbow could just make out his cutie mark of a bronze scepter, as mottled and worn as the rest of him, as dulled as his eyes.
His voice was sharp and graveled as he spoke. “Where are your accomplices, thief?”
Rainbow glared. “Thief? Who are you calling a thie—” A red light shone from around her neck, and she felt her throat seize up. She flapped her mouth, hissing out a few silent breaths.
“Silence,” he growled. “You will only answer questions, thief.” He turned and flared his tattered wings, pacing back and forth in front of the cell. “Where are your accomplices?” he barked. The map of scars could have made him look grizzled and pathetic, but thick, powerful muscles rippled under his coat. He looked larger than life, his hooves booming on the stone floor.
Rainbow growled and dropped towards the ground, ready to pounce. “I don’t have any accomplices.”
“Liar.” His muzzle crinkled in a sneer, scar tissue bunching up in knots. “A living pegasus could not get here without the help of a unicorn, and furthermore wouldn’t be able to survive more than a week in meditation without food or water. That is, unless she were enchanted.” He slapped a foreleg down on the ground. “You have outside help.” His glare turned to a malicious smile. “Rest assured knowing that I have isolated you and broken any lingering magical connections you may have had. Soon the spell will fail, and you’ll be forced to eat and drink again.”
Rainbow grit her teeth as she realized she’d lost another week while meditating. She forced a steadying breath and kept her tone even. “I’m not alive.” She felt her vocal cords freeze in a red glow.
He stamped his hoof again, his voice turning to a lion’s roar. “Such insolent lies, denying a heartbeat to the face of His Majesty Agmundr Vilmar!” He shook his head and paced back and forth, like he was the one in a cage. “An ill-considered tactic to make for a living pegasus with no armor, no clothes, no magic items …”
Rainbow knit her brow and touched the leaf overhead, feeling its smooth contours with her hoof. As she watched him pace, he made no sign of recognition as she touched the leaf.
“It is a sign of true foolhardiness to invade my keep and make such outlandish claims.” He turned to one of the skeletal guards and hammered his foreleg down. “Take her to the gladiator pit. If she dies, we’ll have to hunt her help the old-fashioned way.” He turned his glare on her. “If she lives, perhaps she’ll gain a greater appreciation for the truth.” He turned and stomped out of the room, his head held high and forward.
Rainbow leapt back as the stone bars slid seamlessly along the floor and into the walls without a trace. She sprang forward, hooves ready to smash through the skeleton’s ribcage, and a red flash erupted around her neck, arcing out in bolts of electricity. She let out a hiss of pain as the energy coursed through her body. Muscles twitching, she slid sideways and fell to the floor. Through the spasms, she distantly felt the skeleton pony grab her leg and drag her out of the cell. The little air left in her lungs rushed out with a huff as she was tossed onto the skeleton’s back.
Twitching and shaking, Rainbow tried to keep her eyes open and her attention on the series of rooms they passed through, but it all blurred together into chamber after chamber, a slow descent down a spiral staircase, and a trek through a narrow passageway. She landed in a heap on the stone floor, and the crackles of electricity disappeared. She groaned and tried to get her legs underneath her, her vision finally coming back into focus.
She found herself caged, in a large dome of stone about forty feet across and twenty high. Outside of the cage, the room was circular, with walls rising ten feet up then sweeping back into a stadium that extended a hundred feet up to the roof. The sheer wall around the dome didn’t have any doorways, and as she turned, she didn’t see any signs of the skeleton that had brought her in. Orbs of light hung suspended in the air, dotting the coliseum and casting heavy shadows from the stone bars crisscrossing the dome. Skeletons filled every seat in the stands. Burning red eyes stared out at her in all directions. The only empty spot she could find was a large throne of granite seamlessly erupting from the rock of the first row.
The bars of the dome glowed red. Rainbow barely felt her collar fall off, clattering away from her. A hole widened in the middle of the floor.
The gaunt form of an ox rose to the surface. Scraps of leather and metal hung in strips around its cracked rib cage. It carried a war hammer over its shoulder, the handle a twisted tree bough and the head a pitted boulder as big as Rainbow’s body. The ox braced the hammer between a single hoof and the tip of a sharpened horn. Fractures ran across its skull, and dark gaps of missing teeth lined its jaw. It took a step forward.
Where the skeletons on the mountain moved in halting, creaky lurches, the ox lumbered as smoothly as oil, the only creaks and clatters coming from a gold hoop bouncing in its nasal cavity, and a small stone band around its left foreleg. The burning coals in its eye sockets stayed trained on Rainbow as it started to circle.
Rainbow lowered down and circled in the other direction. The room fell silent. Rainbow kept pace with the ox and extended her senses outward. She could get out as far as the dome and floor, and as she passed over the ox, he lit up in a pattern of bright magic, stitching together his body and pooling in his hooves and horns. The stone band on his foreleg flashed and pulsed, coating his entire body in a haze. She grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes as she focused. The ox’s hoofsteps froze in time. Her own body slowed, too, feeling like she was stepping through pudding, and she watched the ox’s limbs lift and descend in slow motion. He was studying her just as much as she was studying him, watching for signs of attack, the giveaway flexing of muscle, or sudden twitch of movement. The difference was, he was watching in real time. Rainbow could see everything, plan, react, change her mind, and do it all again before he could even move his eyes. She smirked.
As her back hoof touched down, Rainbow sprung forward with all her strength, sweeping her wings open and catching just enough air to pull her up and forward, closing the distance in a single flap. She saw the ox react in the instance she moved, squaring his legs and sweeping a horn in the direction of her approach. Any normal pony wouldn’t have had time to change their trajectory, at best twisting enough to blunt the seriousness of the damage, at worst ending up gored on the cruel point. Rainbow wasn’t a normal pony. She twitched a wing, her muscles screaming, and dodged past the horn, slamming her hooves into the ox’s jaw.
Rainbow jumped back and leveled above his right shoulder, twisting around to watch him. He recovered from the blow in an instant and turned with it, bringing the war hammer off his shoulder and upwards, ready to catch her and paste her against the floor. She twisted her body in a spiral, dodging above the hammer as it passed at a snail’s pace, but feeling the rush of air from the swing against her belly. She kept spinning, trying to gain height and get her legs out of the way. She hadn’t started to dodge fast enough.
The hammer slammed into her right foreleg, just above the hoof. Pain ran up to her knee as she spun through the air, her concentration breaking, the world moving faster around her. She opened her wings and hovered in place, clenching her jaw until the world froze again. The cuts on her leg had opened up again, oozing dark red. When she looked at the ox, she threw herself backwards. He had already swung at where she had righted herself. The swing played out in slow motion in front of her eyes, ending in a thundering crash against the floor.
She beat her wings and flew further away from the ox. The ache in her leg dulled to a distant throb from the adrenaline, and she heaved in deep breaths of air. Wherever she turned, no matter how much time she took or how much she slowed everything down, the hammer swung perfectly on target, ready to bash her ribcage in, smash her legs, crack her skull, plaster her against the ground.
At first, she couldn’t find the time to think at all as she wrung every bit of strength from her muscles, twisting and turning to stay in one piece, trapped in a loop of reacting, always off-balance and ready to fall out of the air. At first. As the fight dragged on, the rhythm and flow of the ox’s swings turned into a pattern she could follow, until at last, she found an opening where she could make a move. She twisted over a hammer swing, flung her wings wide, and flew directly up. Near the top of the dome, she twisted and dove sideways, feeling the air rush as the hammer barely missed, catching sight of the ox at the apex of a tremendous leap. She watched as he sailed past and started to fall, prisoner to the whims of gravity. She slammed her eyes shut, clenched her teeth until they hurt, and dove with all her strength downwards, hind legs pistoned out, ready to meet the ox halfway back to the ground, aiming for where the back of his skull met his neck.
The force rippled its way up her legs, driving them to numbness as she catapulted him into the floor. He crashed down with a dull roar that stretched out in the slowness, like rolling thunder. She shot back up to the top of the dome as he pulled himself upright. She barely noticed the hammer sailing through the air, clipping the feathers of a wing as she twisted aside just in time.
Her lungs burning and muscles aching, she took the spare moment of knowing exactly where the ox and his hammer were to think. She could plan and react before his eyes could move, but he didn’t need to move his eyes to follow her movements, didn’t need to slow down time to think and plan, he just came after her in a constant onslaught, and the damage she could manage to dish out wasn’t enough to slow him down. She, on the other hoof, had a cold layer of sweat covering her body, which was turning into a collection of aches and pains, and felt like she needed to throw up. If she could throw up. She needed to act fast and make it count.
Staying up near the roof of the dome with her eyes following the ox, she started to fly in circles, picking up speed as fast as she could, weaving between jumps and hammer strikes until she was going too fast for even the ox to follow. Electricity crackled around her as she pushed her hooves forward, bending the air, sharpening it to a cone of force, barreling around the stadium in faster and faster loops. The ox kept jumping and attacking, trying to judge where she would be, but never quite keeping up with her. On one of his jumps, Rainbow watched his arc and knew exactly where he was going to land. Somewhere she could meet him. She dove.
The explosion of color shook the cage as she tore through the cone of air. She could feel the burst of power and energy around her as she connected with the ox’s neck, sonic rainboom expanding behind her, and sailed through to the other side. She could feel the neck bones shatter to powder that rained around her, and the ox’s head leapt through the air overhead as she crashed past the skeleton. Time sped up as she rolled in a heap along the stone ground, banging and bruising every inch of her body, until she finally smashed against the stone bars of the dome. She let out a sharp gasp as she felt her ribs crack from the blow. She rolled away and forced her eyes open, wheezing in breaths of air, looking for any that the ox wasn’t finished.
The body of the skeleton stood stock still for a moment, war hammer still posed in its forelegs, then all at once seemed to realize its head was gone. A keening screech filled the room as the fallen head split in half, pouring red smoke from its eye sockets. The band around its foreleg shattered in a haze of the same energy. The skeleton toppled to the ground with a dusty clatter.
Rainbow tried to get her hooves under her, but couldn’t move. She could taste acid in her throat, and the orbs of light in the air grew dim and blurry. Her head swam, dipping and bobbing in different directions, unsure which direction was up or down.
“Who … who else wants some?” she forced out as a rough rasp, barely above a whisper. Her eyes rolled back and she floated away into inky darkness.
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why must you always leave us with a cliff hanger
MFW bats updates early and leaves me a "lol I was drunk" msg.
I humbly request you put your face against the screen so I can punch you through the internet.
1856024
By the end of this we're gonna have Stallone sweating.
Score one for the rainbow pegasus.
1861078
That's a damn good question, you lanky bastard!
Damn, Dash is in trouble now. Nothing she can't eventually get out of, but still - multiple broken ribs and mind/body controlling collars have got to suck. Luckily, this story's so good I can accept the added Rarijack, even if it is one of my least favorite pairings. You must be doing it well so far, because I don't even mind it
Looking forward to the journey on Twilight's end interspersing the shenanigans Rainbow gets up to in the land of the undead/spirits/living (I'm not really sure what it is. The in-between? Yeah, lets go with that). Well, anyway, glad you're keeping up the excellent writing, and the prompt updating schedule (I should really learn to follow that example, I procrastinate way too much). Until the next chapter!
1865606
The secret is I'm a month ahead and have been since the first chapter went up. If anything, it's hard to not post everything that's written immediately.
Each chapter takes me ABOUT three days to draft, so a weekly schedule works out pretty well for me. And if I have bad days (like this last week, where I was drunk instead of writing) I know my buffer will be there to catch me.
Glad the Rarijack isn't too bothersome for you. They are my second favorite pairing, right after Twidash. It's uh...actually an accident that that's in here. It was apparently impossible for me to write something that featured them in any depth WITHOUT shipping them.
i caught the DBZ reference (capsule in a capsule)
You were drunk? That explains why this is TEH best chapter I've read yet!!!!!
I have to say, EPIC RAINBOW DASH + EPIC FIGHT + EPIC BAD GUYS +
+ EPIC SONIC RAINBOOM + DRUNK + EPIC UNIVERSE TEARING SADDLEBAGS = s11.postimage.org/4slaxziwj/image.jpg
That was the United Sates of America.
[Finished Chapter 5]
I'm gonna say you got the saddlebag magical expansion idea from Harry Trotter (Book 7). Hermione filled her little bag with all sorts of books and supplies. Am I wrong?