Chapter Twenty-One
Applejack left the two rear Guards lying in a heap behind her as she raced to catch up to the rear of the line. It wasn’t long before she was trailing directly behind the convoy. She could now see the two squad leaders at the back of the line from where she was at. She felt a bit of relief when she recognized them, it would mean that she was right; they were traveling in rigid formation. It also meant she knew their fighting abilities.
One was a large, green earth pony. She knew him as Sergeant Lucky Clover. He was big, but slow. The other was a slim blue pegasus. She didn’t recognize him at first, but as he walked, she realized he was Blue Breeze, the young cadet that had first told her of the Starlight problem all that time ago. Apparently, judging by the stripes on his uniform, he had been promoted to Captain in her absence. Whoever had approved that was an idiot, she thought.
So, Clover is going to be my first target. Take him out and this will get easy. She readied herself; she just had to wait for Pinkie’s signal. Without a moment’s hesitation a large boom echoed around the forest. She knew it was Pinkie setting off her party cannon, both further disabling the scouts and letting Applejack and Starlight know that she and Fluttershy were in position.
The whole line faltered at the sound and all the Guards stopped, looking around. The front Guard on the left held up a hoof and every pony went silent and stood at a standstill. Applejack smiled. It was time.
She turned decisively and bucked the tree next to her, hard enough to send vibrations reverberating up and down its trunk. All the Guards turned to look at this new sound, so much closer than the cannon fire. In that second, while they were distracted Pinkie Pie attacked, landing hard on top of the front right Guard. He went down and didn’t get back up. Before any pony could even blink, Pinkie had kicked the other front Guard in the head and he too went down.
It was then that chaos erupted as the remaining eight Guards relied against the attack. By that time, though, they had already lost two members and any semblance of order or discipline was thrown out. They dove at Pinkie with a singular force. Of course, in true Pinkie fashion, she was long gone before they got there.
Applejack ran into the fray, straight at Clover. She rammed into his side with a head butt and he went sprawling onto his side, a huge whuff escaping him as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. He was a seasoned fighter, though and was back up in an instant, trading Applejack blow for blow.
Up above, Fluttershy was doing her best to dodge and maneuver around the two air Guards. She dove, ducked and weaved around in a deadly game that, if she was doing it right would bring them close enough to the ground to be attacked. Then again, it also would put her in a more vulnerable position. The first of the Guards dove at her and she pulled her wings in tight as she rolled to the side.
“Ohmygoodness!” She exclaimed as he whizzed by her, his downward momentum far too much to be able to stop. Before she could even catch her breath the other one was upon her. Fluttershy snapped her wings out with as much force as she could muster and hit the Guard right in the face, sending him spinning out of control. She took the opportunity to dive down as far as she could. She knew they would follow.
Starlight teleported from tree branch to tree branch above the battle, her horn blazing and ready for action. She fired another sleep spell at a Guard that was sneaking up behind Pinkie, who was a whirl of spinning pink fur as she used all four hooves, her tail and sometimes even her head to ram and disable her opponents. The spell misfired and hit that Guard in the flank instead of the head.
Starlight huffed, but despite the spell’s poor aim, the Guard was still down for the count. Apparently the spell had still worked… sort of; his leg had clearly fallen asleep and he was down on the ground trying to drag it along. Starlight resisted the urge to laugh and turned her attention back to the battle below her.
She noticed the prisoners in the line were trying to attack the Guards now too, but there was a problem. They were all tied together in their line with thick ropes connecting the hooves on one pony to the hooves of the next. Starlight realized that until the ropes came off, there was no way they could help. Well, she figured she could probably do something about that.
She scrunched her nose up and focused. Her first instinct was a levitation/manipulation spell, but once she tried to get just the first knots undone, she realized that would take way too much time. She needed a spell that would to it all at once. Her next thought was to use a disintegration spell to destroy the rope entirely, but she didn’t want to risk firing it and hitting some pony in the line. She growled in frustration.
Then an idea hit her like a light bulb going on in her head. If she wanted to untie something, why not just use an un-tying spell. She had no idea if such a thing existed, but if she could do what she did when she discovered the stop spell, maybe she could find it. She concentrated on the rope, letting it fill her vision. Untie She thought at it, feeling it respond to her magical aura. Untie, undo, unmake! She thought, not entirely sure where those words were coming from, but feeling they were right.
With a tingle she slipped into her spell vision, where the words stopped and she could see the spell matrices that would complete it. She directed her magic into those grooves and with a satisfying sound, the rope dropped to the ground. Starlight smiled and let the magic fade for a few seconds, as she caught her breath. A cheer rose up from the line of prisoners and they turned as one to attack the remaining Guards.
Applejack hit the ground hard. Clover loomed over her menacingly. With a snarl, he slammed his hoof down, aiming for her head. She braced herself, but, to her surprise no impact came. Some pony had rammed into Clover from the side, throwing him off of Applejack. A yellow pony jumped over her and continued fighting him.
Applejack was up in an instant. Not even stopping to look at the pony who had saved her, Applejack launched herself onto Clover’s back. He buckled underneath her and she swiftly kicked him in the back of the head. He went limp.
“AJ?” A startled voice from in front of her asked. She looked up at the pony who had helped her. Applejack’s heart froze.
“Apple Bloom?” She asked back. They just stared at each other. Suddenly their stare was broken as two Guards charged at Applejack, one was Blue Breeze, and the other was a line Guard. Applejack whirled around to take them on. She traded blows with both of them for a few seconds, but she was losing ground fast. Just as she was about to go down, Apple Bloom attacked the line Guard from behind. Applejack tried to help as he turned his attention towards her, but was swamped by Blue Breeze’s new flurry of attacks.
“I got it!” Apple Bloom yelled and delivered a swift kick to the Guard’s head. Applejack nodded and turned back towards Blue Breeze. They didn’t have time to do anything else but fight on. Both she and Apple Bloom continued to hold off the Guards, but they were both tired and were losing ground. Applejack landed a solid blow to Breeze’s face, but as she did, she felt herself push up against Apple Bloom.
As if the two Guards weren’t enough, two more found a way into the fray and in seconds the two were fighting off attacks from all sides.
“AJ!!!” Apple Bloom yelled.
“What?!”
“Grape Juice!!”
“Got it!”
Apple Bloom flipped backwards, her back hooves hitting the Guard in front of her hard in the face. She landed lightly on Applejack’s back, but was only there for a fraction of a second as Applejack catapulted her up into the air. She came down hard on the second Guard and as she did, Applejack used the distraction to buck the third Guard, hard, right in the chest. He went flying at the force of her kick. They both turned to the final Guard who cowered for a second and then turned tail and ran.
“Here!” Apple Bloom yelled, picking up a piece of rope and tossing it to Applejack and spun it a few times before throwing the lasso at the escaping Guard, who happened to be, of all ponies, Blue Breeze. The rope sailed through the air, quickly approaching its target… and then came down a few feet short of Blue Breeze’s rapidly fading form.
“AJ!”
“Sorry! I’m a bit rusty!” Applejack countered.
Suddenly, the rope was enveloped in a purple aura and it, seemingly by itself, floated up and whizzed towards the Guard. It wrapped itself around his hooves and drug him back towards the rest of the line. Another flash of purple light shot out of the trees, and hit him in the head. He slumped and began to snore.
As quickly as the battle had begun, it was over. The ten Guards were slumped all around, each in varying degrees of sleep and/or unconsciousness. Starlight took in a shuddering breath. They had done it. She teleported down out of the trees and reappeared next to Applejack and Apple Bloom, who were both still staring at each other like they’d seen a ghost.
“Do you two know each other?” She asked innocently. Starlight’s voice seemed to break Applejack out of her thoughts. She shook her head.
“Yeah, Starlight, she’s my sister.” Applejack responded.
“Really? That’s so cool!” Starlight said happily. She liked meeting other pony’s families. It was even funnier since she had already known both of them. Now that she knew they were siblings, it made a lot of sense.
“Yeah. Hey, Starlight how about you go and see if Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy need any help. We just need to finish things up here and the rest of the camp can meet up with those who escaped through the tunnel.” Apple Bloom said, looking down at Starlight.
“Okay!” Starlight said and went towards where Pinkie Pie was talking to some other camp members.
“What are you doing here?” Apple Bloom asked, turning back towards Applejack. “Not that I have a problem with it…You all really saved us.”
“Uh, that’s…ah’m…here because…” Applejack trailed off, at a loss for words. Then, suddenly thinking of something, she frowned, looked at Apple Bloom and said, “Well, for starters, how about you tell me what you’re doing in a resistance camp?”. She did not sound happy.
“Helping. Some pony has to stand up against the Guard.” Apple Bloom said defiantly. “And we both know it wasn’t going to be you.” She finished with venom.
“You know the reason I joined was to protect you! And the rest of the family! How am I supposed to do that when you’re off running around the Everfree with a bunch of resistors?!” Applejack scolded.
“Maybe I’m not okay with just waiting home at the farm either! Maybe I want to make a difference too! I just don’t understand why you couldn’t just protect the family another way! Why did it have to mean you going against everything you stood for before? Why did it have to mean leaving us?!” Apple Bloom hissed.
“Has it ever, ever, occurred to you that maybe I had no other choice? That not the Guard, but the actual Council, the real ponies behind the Uprising, were sniffing around us? That our family, our whole family, not just the four of us at Sweet Apple Acres, but the entire Apple family was under suspicion? That the whole reason for that was because of me?! Because I was on the unicorn side, but even more because I bore an Element of Harmony? If I hadn’t joined, hadn’t proven beyond a doubt that I was on their side, that they would have let any one of us live?! Have you ever considered that?!”
Apple Bloom sighed. “I guess not like that…” She murmured. “But couldn’t we have fought? Stood our ground? The resistance won today! Why couldn’t we have done that ten years ago?”
“Ten years ago was a very different time. The Guard and the Council were stronger, fueled by hate and open war. They were ruthless, they stopped at nothing. By the time I joined most of the unicorns were already gone. I had already seen two of my best friends die. I was not going to let that happen to my family.
“And, yes, the resistance won today, but at what cost? Have you considered all the ponies that died from both sides in the raid? When I was General, I tried my best to employ tactics that captured, not killed resistance, I used battle plans to make sure the fewest numbers died. I was making a difference. I know it doesn’t seem like that to you, or anybody else, but where better to try than at the top? I know I’ve made mistakes, I was harder than I should have been. I lied. I did what I had to do to survive and keep you alive sometimes. I’m not proud of that. But, I am trying to make up for it.” Applejack explained sadly.
Apple Bloom looked stunned.
“Wait, were? When you were General? Aren’t you still?” She asked, confused. Applejack smirked.
“Nope. I defected and escaped about a few days ago. Why do you think I helped the resistance get away?”
“I kinda thought you might have done it because you saw me…” Apple Bloom trailed off. She shrugged. “What made you leave?”
“They sent out a kill order on Rainbow Dash, and actually had the gal to try and get me to fill it when their first agent failed. I came here to stop it, but I didn’t get here fast enough.” Applejack frowned. Apple Bloom paled.
“Rainbow is…” She couldn’t even say it.
“No. Just captured, luckily. Since they didn’t get a hold of Starlight yet, I would have to assume they’ve taken Rainbow Dash alive for questioning” Apple Bloom let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“So, we’re going to save her right?”
“Yes. We as in Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Starlight and me. You are going back with the rest of the camp. Or better yet, back home.”
“What?! No! I’m coming with! You aren’t leaving me again while you go off into the fire! I’m coming to help! I mean, you’re taking Starlight! She’s just a filly!” Apple Bloom protested.
“Yes, a filly that can do magic, the only filly who can do magic, which we are going to need if want to have any shot of breaking into Guard headquarters. You are staying here and that is final.” Applejack said in a voice that brooked no argument.
“I’m not a kid anymore AJ! I’m a full-grown mare and I can do what I want!” Apple Bloom said with frustration. Applejack huffed and tried a different tactic.
“They need you back at camp. They’ll need to rebuild and fortify wherever they plan on staying. There is no pony better at that then you. Are you really going to leave them? They already lost Pinkie, who was leading them.” Applejack pointed out.
“Ponyfeathers!” Apple Bloom swore. “Why’dja have to bring that up?” She sighed, defeatedly. “Fine. I’ll go with the resistance. You just better promise me that you’ll come back.”
“I promise.”
“Pinkie Promise.”
“Why does everyone ask for that? Is a regular promise no good anymore?”
“You can’t break a Pinkie Promise.” Apple Bloom pointed out.
“EVER!!!” Pinkie yelled from where she was standing.
“Fine. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. There, happy?” Applejack complied, along with matching movements.
“Eeyep.” Apple Bloom said with a smile. They both walked back over to the rest of the group. Some of the resistance ponies had used the rest of the rope and had tied together the unconscious Guards. It would be awhile before they woke up, much less untie themselves. The camp ponies were reading themselves to leave, after getting instructions from Pinkie and Fluttershy as to where they could go and start rebuilding.
Starlight, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were waiting for Applejack so they could get back on the road towards the City. They had already lost most of the morning in travel time, so they had to get going. Applejack turned to Apple Bloom and hugged her.
“I’ll come back, okay?”
“You’d better.” Apple Bloom pulled away and went with the camp ponies, who were already leaving.
“Ready to go?” Starlight asked, coming up next to her.
“As I’ll ever be.” Applejack replied, with a look behind her.
“Well, let’s go then, slow-pokies!” Pinkie said, bouncing ahead. Apparently, she had been angry enough, and had decided to go back to her usual pink and buoyant self.
“Don’t think this doesn’t mean I’m not still watching you!” She called to Applejack. When Applejack snorted under her breath, Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks and before Applejack knew what was happening, Pinkie was right behind her.
“Always watching!” She said creepily, and then bounced back to the front of the group. Applejack shrugged and Starlight burst out in a fit of giggles.
Suddenly, Fluttershy stopped with a gasp and began digging through her saddle bags.
“What is it?” Pinkie asked, turning around.
“Something in here is burning!” She exclaimed. Finally, she pulled out a gold necklace and it fell to the ground. It was her Element of Harmony, and right now its usually pink jewel was pulsating an angry red.
“I wondered if that had started up again.” Applejack said. She flipped open her saddlebags, instantly seeing that hers was also flashing red. She frowned. She, Pinkie and Fluttershy were all quite aware what the pulsating meant. They looked at each other, dread written on each face.
“But why is it hot?!” Fluttershy asked, alarmed. Applejack didn’t know for sure, but she had an idea. Either way, it really only meant one thing. She looked up, meeting the shocked looks of the rest of the group.
“We have to hurry.” She said.
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Oh, man the cliffhanger.
Well written chapter, although I expected AB to be a bit more hostile like Pinkie was.
Meh, close enough.
2792581 Thanks! Yeah, I thought about AB's reaction a lot. However, in contrast to Pinkie, she had a clue as to the real reason behind AJ's joining of the Guard. She didn't know all the details, but she knew it wasn't just a blatant betrayal of all her moral values. Eh... Besides, it did come after she had just saved AB and half of the her camp friends, whereas Pinkie came across her in a very different situation....Yeah. Reasons. Anyway, thanks so much for reading and commenting so often!
What a pleasant 291 notifications to come back to.
2822678 Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying it!
2830171
Please tell me that more is on the way soon.
2883759 Oh yes! Most certainly! I am so sorry it's not up yet. I just have a lot of ideas for the next few chapters (which are written, but are now going through my proof-read process, plus changes, etc.). Since we are really gearing up for the ending, the next few chapters are going to be crucial. Also, (and I'm sorry about this too!) my workload this month is the highest of the year (I work everyday for 6 to 8 hours) because I work in agriculture research and it is the prime growing months for data collection. No days off! So I'm usually tired and not as creative during this time.
I just want the product I present to you and the rest of my readers to be as good as it can be, so I'm trying not skimp on quality to get a chapter out. Sorry again for the delay (and bringing in my personal stuff) I just want you to know more will be out soon and I promise it will be good! 
Thanks again so much for your interest in this! That's why I felt you deserved a full explanation 
"He was a season fighter, though and was back up in an instant, trading Applejack blow for blow."
I think you meant to say he was a seasoned fighter.
"Up above, Fluttershy was doing her best to doge and maneuver around the two air Guards."
You might want to change doge to dodge.
"Fluttershy snapped her wings out with as much forces as she could muster and hit the Guard right in the face, sending him spinning out of control."
I think it should be force, not forces.
"Untie She thought at it, feeling it respond to her magical aura."
It should be more like, "Untie, she thought at it, feeling it respond to her magical aura.
(Please don't take the grammar errors I'm noticing as a sign that I don't like your story. I love it and can't want to read more. It's just that, with grammatical errors, it ruins the flow of the story and draws the reader's focus away from the plot and toward the error. I know, reading your comment on this chapter, that you wrote this with a lot of work going on, so it's fine that you have a few errors. Otherwise, you do a great job of writing an error-free story!)
"She traded blows with both of them for a few seconds, but she was loosing ground fast."
You should change loosing to losing.
"Then, suddenly thinking of something, “Well, for starters, how about you tell me what you’re doing in a resistance camp?”"
"Then, suddenly thinking of something," is a sentence fragment. You might want to change that. Maybe, "Then, suddenly thinking of something, she said, "Well, for starters, how about you tell me what you're doing in a resistance camp?"
"“You know the reason I joined was to protect you! And the rest of the family! How am I supposed to do that when you’re off running around the Everfree with a bunch of resistors!” Applejack scolded."
"How am I supposed to do that when you're off running around the Everfree with a bunch of resistors!" should be a question. But, if you want to have Applejack yelling it you could do the ?! thing.
3703189 Ohmygosh I am so embarrassed. A million and one thank yous! Seriously I really appreciate you pointing this stuff out. I really put a lot of emphasis in my writing being relatively error-free
Apparently this chapter did not get sufficiently edited before it was posted. I am so sorry that this bothered you while you were reading! Thanks so so so much again! Please let me know if you see anything else and I can get it fixed right away. (Seriously I am super embarassed!)