When a mysterious unicorn starts bending reality, Applejack decides to dive deeper, and uncovers some rather shocking secrets.
Applejack was having quite an ordinary day, one of the more ordinary days in a while. Everything changed when that darned "chrono-wizard" appeared! Now she's having all sorts of strange adventures, traveling across different worlds while trying to figure out which is the real one. Why does life have to be so complicated?
This takes place during Season 3.
Author's Notes: There are a lot of Slice of Life elements in the story so far, but there may be action if the plot demands it.
“Hello! Excuse me!” Grandmaster Spoon said running up the hill. He couldn’t believe it, he had found her! He had found her!
Applejack was just putting apples into her apple cart up the hill when she turned her head in the direction of the noise. A strange grey stallion with a white beard and horn ran up to her before wheezing out of breath.
“Thank” breathe “goodness” breath “I…” cough-cough “found you here, Applejack. Whew, excuse me, I just need a minute."
“Well howdy there, I’ve never seen anypony like you strolling on up here before.”
“Yes whew, yes, I’ve been looking for you everywhere, Applejack! My name is Grandmaster Spoon, I'm a chrono-wizard! I have something gravely important I need to address. The shapes! They are lying. Lying to us all! I require your special powers of Honesty to pierce the truth of their essences. I heard about your deeds in the Elements. Your magical abilities in the place of Honesty should triumph here! Tell the shapes to stop their falsehoods at once!” he declared, his eyes twitching like a mad stallion.
“Shapes? Oh howdy….. Uh…. We-well I’m afraid you caught me at an awkward time, partner. For I-I was just heading back to the farm now, and I’m afraid I cannot get to your… shapes?”
“Ah, I see, I see. Don’t you worry your feathered head about it, for I see now that I had completely forgotten about the Element of Honesty’s training and transferences. I shall return… On the morrow!”
"What a weird pony." Applejack said shaking her head. She grabbed a wheelbarrow next to the cart and began wheeling it back into the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
The next day, Applejack was wheeling her apple cart in and spotted Grandmaster Spoon on a bench.
Applejack gulped and shot the fellow a shy smile. “Well, howdy there, uh... Spoon was it? Did'ja catch your masquerading shapes?”
“What! How did you know about… wait. Oh yes, you! You’re that other one, yes it’s you. Yes, no! I did not! Those conniving sons of cattle! They’re lying to us, they’re lying to us all! Please Applejack, please tell me you’ve come to talk some sense into them,” he said while holding up the screws, bolts, and pennies he was interrogating.
“Now w-w-wait just a goddarn minute! I just came up here to see how y’all are doin', and now you want me to interrogate these.. these household appliances? Jus’ how many hits on the noggin’ have you been given, boy?”
This was it, this was his one ticket out. Grandmaster Spoon glared his way out, he looked into the space being held to the perpendicular of Applejack’s eye-socket, seeing that which was not there.
Still glaring, with one half-lidded eye, he gave the screw to Applejack. “You think I’m insane, don’t you? That I’m just one apple short of an apple tree? ‘Oh, look at ol’ Spoony, glaring at his misbegotten cubes. Why I’ve never seen anything quite as funny in my good old life.’” He continued to glare at Applejack who had no good words for him.
“Look at the screw. Ask for it to cease its lies, and if truly, the Element of Harmony’s honesty ceases to work out, then I promise not to bother you again.” He got up and levitated his nuts, bolts, and screws away into a bag. He then closed the bag and gave it to her. "Here. I know it isn't much, but please investigate this further before you dismiss my claims as complete and utter tomfoolery." He then got up off of the bench and began to leave.
Applejack was stumped, looked for a way out, but couldn’t find one. She decided to accept the bag from the crazy pony and decided to get a second opinion.
A few hours later, she decided to visit Twilight and see what she thought of all this um, 'circumstance.' Applejack walked over to the library from the farm, and began knocking on the door.
"Twilight? You in? Ah need to talk to ya about somethin'."
Twilight answered the door. "Oh hi, Applejack, are you doing okay? I was just reading this book I received recently about illusions. Did you know that your emotional state can influence the ways that you can perceive things?"
Applejack just scratched her head in response. "Uh no, Twilight, I didn'. But that's not the reason why ah'm visiting..."
"Oh! Well, why didn't you say so!" Twilight said energetically. She closed the book she was levitating and looked at her friend. A thick layer of dust came out of the pages making Applejack sneeze. "Bless you."
"Thank you." Applejack said. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask you about somethin' strange. Ah—"
"Sure, what's on your mind?" Twilight said interrupting her.
"...Ah ran into this strange pony the other day, calling himself Spoon. He seems like an old-n-wiiise pony," Applejack said gathering her thoughts. "But I don't really know what to think. He says all these newfangled words, but he seems… well… like he's missing one apple from a bushel!” she exclaimed, practically screaming before taking a deep breath to relax. “D'ya know what Ah mean?"
"Uhh not really," Twilight said.
"Well, here's the doggone thing. He approached me the other day asking me about shapes. He had been 'interrogaten' some dimes, nickels, and pennies earlier, and he mentioned that they weren't listenin' to him. Ah swear, it just sounds weird talkin' about, but what he's mentioned won't get out of my mind!"
"Ohhhh Oooohhhh! That pony! Yeah, that pony!" Twilight said exclaiming. "That pony was an oddity. He was reading this book that I'm currently reading. It all makes sense now! Oooh!"
Applejack couldn't make sense of the nonsense that Twilight was exclaiming. She just looked at the cover, and it had all these weird fonts of moving magical energy about it. It was hurting her eyes just looking at it. Nonetheless, while Twilight was thinking to herself, Applejack decided to leave. It was already sunset. She wanted to get back to the farm before it got too late out.
Night came, then dusk, dawn, then dusk again. She tried to put Spoon’s warning out of her head, but it just kept streaming on back. After a full day's work, all she could think about was the strange pony with his even stranger message. Applejack tossed and turned in the night until she couldn't put up with it any longer.
Applejack removed herself from her sheets, then made up the bed out of general tidiness. She then opened up a drawer and removed the bag that Spoon had given her. “Ah can't believe Ah’m doing this…” she muttered to herself. She then undid the tie strings and opened the bag up. Inside were tiny objects.
She placed a screw onto the floor and hesitated to start. She welled up a tiny bit of courage, and maybe a bit of pride and exclaimed, “Now, jus’ stop it right there you screw! Now STOPPIT! Ah know you’re listenin', and Ah know y’all can hear me, and y’all better wisen up right this instant!”
She didn’t expect anything to happen. She was just hoping to get the voices out of her head. She wanted to fulfill the promise, Okay, maybe it wasn’t really a promise, but it wasn’t a denial of the promise that she would do something about it. Now she could just get some rest and tell that ol’ Spoon what’s for.
That was when the screw began to rattle around. While Applejack was climbing back into her bed, she saw it. The screw started moving, slowly at first, before going faster and faster. It seemed to have an orbit around itself until it was moving so fast that she could barely track it as anything more than a large vibrating sphere. Suddenly, with a tiny arcane explosion, the screw burst, releasing strange energy across the room.
“What in tarnation?” Applejack exclaimed before approaching the screw. She had never seen anything like it before. Well, that wouldn't be entirely correct. She had seen the weird and transformative experiences introduced by Twilight. Though, Twilight had never been malevolent. Every time she tried doing anything with her, she had never been harmed. Why should this be any different?
She lifted a hoof up to the strange vibrating object and something strange began to transpire. Suddenly, she saw a ton of lines begin to crisscross across her hoof, slowly moving upwards across her entire body. Before she even had the chance to react, she felt her body being sucked into the strange vortex. She heard an abrupt explosion, like the popping of a firecracker, before she had left the entire room, leaving no trace of her remains.
Applejack shook her head. She felt disoriented. She felt herself spinning in midair. Opening her eyes did nothing to alleviate the pain. All sorts of weird colors and visions approached her. It was enough that made her clench her eyes shut in discomfort. Eventually, she felt herself drift off into unconsciousness.
"Come on, Apples! Yee-haw!" Applejack heard herself say. She was just becoming apparent of the surroundings. She was back on the farm, buckin’ for apples. The tree relented, giving way to the delicious fruits that lay inside. The apples fell into the conveniently placed buckets below. She sighed, feeling content with her hard work. The tree slowly began releasing a fresh supply of apples, as she moved over to the next tree and did the same thing. She thought it initially weird that there were buckets across every apple tree in the orchard, but shook off those feelings before moving on the next tree, and the next tree and the next tree.
"Boy, howdy. There are a lot more trees than Ah remember in the East Orchard." Applejack said pessimistically. She looked back and saw that the trees she had just finished bucking had fresh new apples once again. The buckets at the bottom were empty once again. She felt herself stare at the impossibility as a pit grew in her stomach. She felt a nervous twitch at her neck before a familiar voice began to resurface itself.
“Now, jus’ stop it right there you screw! Now STOPPIT! I know you’re listenin', and Ah know y’all can hear me, and you better wisen up right this instant!” The voice came from nowhere, but slowly increased in volume until it was pervading her entire being. She clenched her eyes shut to deal with the immense volume, but after a while, the voice spread outward and began to echo somehow. The sound was still loud but became manageable. She opened her eyes and saw quite an oddity before her. The trees, the landscape... goddarn everything suddenly had an outline to it, and what's more, there were nowhere near enough lines going through everything to make it look strange.
"What was it that Twilight was telling me about? Strange, newfangled electronics? A hologram?" Applejack thought to herself. After listening to a bit to the echoes of her own voice, she tried something.
"Now STOPPIT!" She exclaimed. The image before her shook, until very carefully, the squares that made up the trees began to shatter. Soon, a big gaping hole began to fill in the simulation. The hole was spreading and quick. Applejack tried to run, but it seemed that her running just made things worse, as the entire landscape began to fall apart until she started to fall into it, apples and all.
Applejack awoke to a start. She found herself chained up to a wall, with electronic wires flowing through them. At nearly impossible speeds the wiring shifted and changed to bare ropes holding her down. All of a sudden, Applejack felt very self-conscious about herself.
"These are some measly ropes holdin' me down. I've been the rodeo champion of Ponyville three years runnin'. Ain't no ropes nor lassoes gonna tie me down!" And with that, she ripped the wires out of the sockets, and freed herself, leaving nothing but electrical threading behind.
Now that she was free from that strange situation, she took stock of the environment. She looked like she was in a tiny cubicle, and it looked like the walls were made of some kind of mix between cement and metal. It had a strange sheen to it as if it too had electricity running through it.
Applejack saw a strange glimmer and looked down at her own body. "Boy howdy, what in Tartarus happened to mah clothes?"
She had been wearing a strange blue jumpsuit that seemed to encase her entire body. All sorts of strange triangles and zigzags appeared on it. She noticed a ball moving on a pathway. like a... like a... Gosh-darn it, what was it that Twilight called it? A circuit! Like a circuit. The ball moved from low speeds to high-speeds, and she noticed it cycle everywhere. Her blue jumpsuit seemed to be filled with these circuits.
"Prisoner number 829B, please remove yourself from your cubicle," said a voice out of nowhere.
Applejack looked up and saw... well, she didn't know what she saw. The only way she could describe it was like looking into a beehive. Lots of colorful lights zooming past in the horizon. Blue, green, red, orange, purple, all sorts of strange colors and lights racing past in the sky. And in the closer distance, she saw she was in a boxed-in structure. What did Twilight call those again... a rhombus! A strange rhombus-like structure that had an open ceiling into the strange lights. She also noticed strange pony-like creatures with spears, wearing the same types of garments that she herself had been wearing. Unlike her, however, their eyes had been a solid gleaming red.
She removed herself from looking at the ceiling to notice that a portion of her wall was gone! She stepped outside and saw a thin hallway, with invisible, electronic doors to her right. Glancing over, she noticed that her holding pen had a sign on it '829B.'
"Ooooohhhh. So that's what that strange voice had been goin' on about," Applejack said quietly to herself.
She looked down on the ground and saw an arrow begin to light up on the floor, pointing to the end of the corridor, where a different arrow began to light up to go in a different direction. Applejack played along, for now. She began taking a few hesitant steps into that direction before glancing over to her side. Parallel to cell 829B was a different holding pen by the name of 829A. Inside was a strange green pony with a wacky blue mane. He looked confused and distressed. Applejack decided that she had enough of this and began to bang on his door.
"Hey, it's okay. Ah got outta here, and so can y'all!" Applejack yelled. Just as she began to place her hoof on the door, she felt a semi-painful zap. It wasn't incredibly painful, and after a look over, she couldn't find the place where she got hurt. It just felt like some external force was just telling her body to stop, but nothing more to it than that.
"That good-fer-nuthin' door! Keeping innocent ponies inside. Why it seemed like he didn' even hear me! He's still trapped in that weird prison, without a care in the world..." Applejack felt herself drone off, as she began looking inside of the other cells. Some had nothing inside, others had strange, otherworldly shapes and entities, including what looked like what Granny Smith called "Jell-o" mixed with what Twilight would call an "octopus."
Nonetheless, she walked, vowing to herself to regain freedom for both herself as well as the strange creatures within these pens. Even the most malevolent entities still had a chance at freedom, and it was just inhumane to keep anypony trapped inside.
The arrow dragged on until it opened up into a much bigger room. She saw other ponies, wearing the strange gitup that she was wearing. They were sitting at tables, talking, playing cards, drinking. At one point, she thought she saw herself a bar at one end of the room. Applejack was tempted to see what was there, but she continued following the arrow like it said. She glanced at some of the ponies, and they neither seemed surprised at her introduction, nor saw, or at least was surprised to see an arrow on the ground. Some moving across the corridor looked like they were following their own arrows. Yet despite this, she couldn't see anything on the ground guiding them... she suspected that each individual pony could only see the arrow guiding them.
At long last, she saw the arrow led her down another brief, narrow corridor until she came across a door. At first, the door was emotionless, showing nothing more than a metallic X going across it. That was when the arrow seemed to levitate itself upwards, onto the X itself. The X glowed a darkish green, before changing to a bright green, and opening up. Suddenly, a door dropped behind Applejack, leaving her nowhere to run, but forward. So that's what she did.
Before her was an immense room. On the far wall was a solid sheet of glass, looking hard enough that any ordinary pony couldn't break it without trouble. Kinda like a mix between glass and metal. It kinda looked like an aquarium, with a slanted view of the city below them. Aside from the big open space, there was a giant desk in front of her, to the side of the metal-glass. It looked quite genuine as if it belonged in some Griffon's chancellor office, rather than in... whatever this was.
As Applejack began to approach the desk, she saw that there was a pony behind that desk, looking outside the metal window. There was a massive, multicolored city below them, seemingly made up of concrete and circuits. She agreed with the mysterious pony before her: it was quite a sight to behold.
"Hello," The pony said to Applejack.
He seemed to have a gruff voice about him. He did an about-face away from the window and looked at Applejack. He seemed to have a black-metallic appearance, while simultaneously having the upper-body of what looked like a seapony. The white beard was masking most of his face, and he seemed to have a whitish-grey hat atop his head.
"So, you are Prisoner 829B," The gruff seapony said to her. "I don't know if you know why you're here, but I just want to make things clear, that I don't appreciate your destroying the program. As you can see before you, this city is sacred in its beauty. Every single thing that you have seen is beautiful just the way it is. And I'd appreciate if you did not wantonly destroy everything you came across."
Applejack was at a loss of words. "What in tarnation are y'all talking about? I haven't destroyed anything, yet. And where in the heck are we? This ain't no part of Ponyville Ah've ever seen before."
The seapony chuckled. "Girl, you're in a sanctuary. Home to the electric ponies. MY Domain. And as to your violation, prior to your holding cell, you were having a dream about picking apples before you broke everything. I'd advise you just go right back into there and stay put, otherwise we're gonna have some words."
"WHAT?!" Applejack said. "How in tarnation did you know about that???"
The seapony laughed, and harder than before. "My girl, you're in Sanctuary. I know all the happenings within and without of my domain. The moment you stepped foot within the geometrical realm, you fell right into my grasp." He then started walking closer to Applejack. "Now SLEEP, my little filly. All will be over soon."
Before she could react, she felt her eyes begin to droop. She didn't recall feeling sleepy, in fact, she couldn't recall much of anything. Her eyes felt heavy. She felt herself begin to fight back against it, but there was a nagging part of her which was wondering about why she was doing anything. Slowly that part of her began to empower and overwhelm her until he fell back in a daze. She began to fall asleep.
Applejack awoke with a start. She was back in her own bed again. She sighed to herself. It was all just a dream. A really weird, confusing dream. Shaking her head, she chuckled. "Ah must've listened to Twi' an' Rainbow talk about them 'space aliens' too much," Applejack muttered to herself. While it seemed like such an impossibility, she could have sworn that there was a new book in the library about the whole thing.
Sighing, she got out of her bed, made the sheets and blankets, and slowly started to get ready for the day. Time passed. Within a few hours, she was back to her old schedule once again. Let's see. She bucked for more apples, fixed the water shoot to the barn, washed the pigs, and baked a few pies with Granny. Applejack thought, going through a quick mental checklist. All that was left was delivering some pies to her friends in town.
Hauling a cart back into town, she approached Rarity's home of Carousel Boutique and swiftly knocked on the door. The door opened revealing Rarity's face.
"Why hello darling! It's a pleasure to see you today."
"Hello, Rarity. How are Y'all doin' today?"
"Oh, I'm doing well thank you for asking. How are you doing?"
"Ah'm doing mighty fine, thanks for askin'. Say, I was on mah way over to Twilight's place tah ask her some complicated questions, but ah made some pies earlier. Would ya like one?" Applejack asked.
"Mmmm. Those pies do smell delicious, unfortunately, I just finished eating my red bean casserole for lunch. May I have one for later though? I have a place in the refrigerator that I could use for later. How much should I pay you for it?" Rarity asked levitating out her checkbook before Applejack chuckled.
"Why, Rarity. We've been friends for how many years? It's free of charge." Rarity's checkbook closed with a quick snap.
"Oh. Well, that's very generous of you Applejack. Thank you." She then levitated a pie off of Applejack's cart.
"No problem, Rarity. Ah'll see y'all later!" She said leaving Rarity's door.
She then visited most of her other friends without incident. All except for Fluttershy who didn't answer the door, and took quite a bit of prodding before being let inside. All that left was Twilight. Fortunately, her house was on the way from Fluttershy's cottage. She started knocking on the door until the door came loose. She looked slightly confused and also a bit alarmed.
"Twi'? Are ya home?" She pushed open the door a bit. The library looked as it usually did. After a bit of snooping, she found Twilight in a back room, reading a book. Applejack rolled her eyes, what a surprise. She went up to Twilight and tapped her on the shoulder. "Twi'?"
"Aaaugh!" Twilight said screaming. She seemed to literally jump up off of the floor when doing it. Applejack took a step back. "Where did you come from!?" Twilight asked.
"From the front door." Applejack responded, honestly. "The door was open and unlocked. Ah was concerned that somethin' happened to y'all, until Ah found y'all back here reading that book."
"Oh," Twilight said sheepishly. "Ever since Spike went on that retreat for dragons, I haven't known how to juggle the needs of the library with the needs of my own studying. And this book! Ooooh... The book is just fascinating!"
"Uh-huh. Are ya sure you're feeling alright sugarcube? Ah know Ah've felt under the weather before, but you look like you haven't done much else than reading. Say, that book looks kinda familiar..." Applejack wondered. It kind of looked similar to the one she thought she saw in that strange dream of hers.
"Oh yeah. Well, it should! Remember yesterday when you came to see me about that Spoon guy? This was the book that he was reading! Really fascinating book..." Twilight said as her voice trailed off.
"You mean that was real?" Applejack asked in a daze. "Ah thought Ah just dreamt through all that strange stuff with that strange Spoon feller."
"Nope. It was real." Twilight then closed the book and looked at Applejack. "Okay, now it's my turn to be concerned. Are you feeling alright Applejack?"
"Oh yeah, yeah. Ah'm feeling great, better than ever actually." She paused before remembering something. "By the way Twi', the other day Ah might've left before we finished that conversation with that Spoon feller. You seemed to be overly enthusiastic but ah felt ah should just leave until you calmed back down."
"Oh," Twilight said blushing, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's fine. Ah just feel like this is more than a chance incident with a total stranger. Last night, ah dreamt of... somethin'. Ah, have no idea how to describe it. I somehow entered some sorta world with all these colorful ponies. Ah ran into this captain guy who said he was master of some realm of electric ponies. Gosh, ah feel embarrassed just talkin' about the whole thing."
Twilight put a foreleg around Applejack. "It's okay Applejack. I've had strange dreams and hallucinations before. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
"That's just it, Twilight. It felt so real. Ah've never had felt anythin' like it before."
"Well, I don't know what to tell you AJ, other than that I wish you luck in finding out what it means to you."
"Thanks, Twi'. Anyways, Ah gotta get going." She glanced back at her apple cart and remembered something. "Oh by the way, would you like to buy an apple pie?" She asked.
"Sure!" Twilight said, levitating a hooful of bits from a nearby table and giving it to her.
"Nice doing business with y'all Twi. See y'all tomorrow. And please remember to keep your door shut."
"Don't worry, I will," Twilight said chuckling. "Bye!" She then closed the door.
Applejack returned back to her home and resumed working. Eventually, days passed followed by nights. Soon, she returned back to the marketplace and found the old Grandmaster Spoon waiting for her on a nearby bench. He approached her, no longer seemingly pestered by tiny objects.
"Sooo..." He said, drawing out his speech. "You seem different. Would I be correct in assuming that you've seen it then? You've seen beyond the realm of being and looked into the veil of nothingness, and a wanton being of destruction found you wanting?!"
"Ah have no idea what y'all are talking about, Spoon. All Ah had was a weird dream a few night ago and that's that!"
"Oh, a dream, you say! You had nothing more than an unpleasant dream? One to be looked over by the gracious Princess Luna? Nothing more than a wandering of your imagination? Unfortunately, that's not all it seems. You're under the possession of The Captain, aren't you? About yeigh big, black metal, and sailor clothes from his chest upwards?" He noticed Applejack's face change from confusion to familiarity. "Ah. I thought so. Unfortunately, I can't do anything to help. This is the whole reason why I sought you out to begin with. You have the power to change things. You possess the uncanny ability of honesty, to not only tell the truth but to also compel others to do the same. Only you can break free from his control." Spoon said, before gasping for breath. "Boy, that was a mouthful. I'm gonna go now. Have fun simulating!" With that, he left, becoming one with the faceless crowd of ponies in the marketplace.
All this left Applejack's head spinning. She had no idea what to think of all this. Either she was right that this was all just a huge coincidence or a misunderstanding, and that Spoon really was insane, and that her dream was nothing more than a dream, or else there was more to this than met the eye. Shaking her head, she resolved to herself that she just needed a good night's rest before continuing this strange business.
She headed home for the day, stopping to do the remaining chores for the day, eating dinner with her family, and finally going to bed. She climbed into the bed before she heard a knock on the door.
"Hey Sis." Apple Bloom stuck her head inside.
"Oh hey, Apple Bloom, how are y'all doing? It's kind of late, Ah'm surprised you're still awake."
Apple Bloom looked at the floor, swinging a hoof back and forth. "Oh, well I'm doing good. Ah've been doin' some late night readin' lately for our Book Club. Scootaloo claims we can get our Cutie Marks in giving submarine rides, but it sounds like a lot of work, an' we need to read these stupid submarine guides first."
Applejack chuckled, before rolling her eyes. "Oh submarine rides, huh? Yeah, that'll get your cutie marks for sure." She smiled.
"Anyway Applejack? Are you going to still be here tonight?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Uh, what do you mean, Bloom? Ah haven't been leaving if that's what you mean."
Apple Bloom shook her head. "No! A few nights ago, while ah was goin' to get a glass of water, I heard this strange explosion from yer room, and when I went to go check in on what happened, you were gone, and there was this weird energy all over the place. By the time I went to ask for help, the energy was gone. Then when we were gonna organize a search party, you just appeared back in your room. Where did ya go, AJ? Please don't go again without me!"
Applejack was dumbfounded. She could have sworn that the arcane explosion was nothing more than a dream, and yet here was living proof that it was not. And the magical energy disappeared, but she wasn't there? And then she came back later on? This was hurting her head.
"All right. Ah promise I won't go anywhere without talkin' to you 'bout it first," Applejack said.
"Hmmph," Apple Bloom said, before yawning. "Alright then. I guess Ah'll see you tomorrow then."
"Good night Apple Bloom!" Applejack exclaimed as she closed the door.
Applejack got back into the bed and under the covers. She turned off the lamp on her bedside and fell asleep.
Sunlight cascaded off of the window's glass onto Applejack's muzzle. The bright light was enough to take her out of her slumber. Applejack woke up with a yawn. Getting out of bed, she slowly got ready for the day, before coming downstairs for breakfast. It was the same as usual: pancakes with apple-flavored syrup, eggs, and a plain salad. She took the time to make breakfast before calling everypony together.
She turned to Big Mac, "Hey Big Mac, can you wake up your sister? I've just about got these eggs ready."
"Yep, sure." Big Mac said.
Applejack turned back to her eggs. The past few days have been troubling, Applejack thought. First there was that doggone pony, Spoon. He seemed like such a crazy pony when I met him. First he said that the shapes were lyin'. How do squares and rectangles lie? Then he asked me to help him. I only agreed to get him to go away, but me and my darned loyalty... That night, I'd like to think I was just sleep-deprived. Too much time working in the fields. But there was too much going on. I really want to dismiss it as my imagination gone wild, but after what Apple Bloom said.. it's too much. This whole thing reeks, and I want to get to the bottom of it.
"Sis, you 'bout done with those eggs?"
"Huh?" Applejack said, her mind in a stupor. She almost hit head on the cupboard above her, suddenly being reminded of what she was doing. "Oh, right, the eggs."
She carried the pan over to the table where Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom were sitting, and started giving an egg to each of them.
"Uhm, sis? These eggs are really burned..." Apple Bloom said.
Applejack just looked down at the pan skillet she had in her hoof. Apple Bloom was right; the eggs had been really burned.
"Oh dagnabbit!" she said.
"Oh, it's okay dearie. These are fine." Granny said with a comforting smile.
Applejack sniffed, but nodded her head in agreement.
After she had passed out the eggs, things were quiet for a bit until Granny asked, "So what's on your mind Applejack? Usually you're so diligent when it comes to making breakfast. Is something troubling you?"
Applejack had mostly been poking at her egg until she was asked this. "Oh, ah ran into this pony the other day with this strange advice. He started carrying on about how shapes are lying to us, and Ah was jus' tryin' to be polite, but I tried it out later on and now ah have now idea what to think."
"Advice? Oh Applejack, don't tell me he gave you drugs. I thought I drilled into all of y'all's heads not to accept stuff from strangers."
"Oh um, no, he didn't give me drugs Granny, Ah swear." Applejack said with a weird look on her face.
"Okay good, because Apple Bloom was telling me this wild story about how when ya got home you had some sorta light show going on in there. I was concerned that she dug into whatever this pony gave you."
Apple Bloom started coughing up some of her salad at the mention of her name and then got a sheepish look on her face. "But Ah swear. There was a light show goin' on and everything Granny! And then afterwards, Applejack was just gone! Ah looked all over the house and the farm and she was nowhere to be seen! And then when the sun started to rise, there she was back in her bed!"
This got Granny mad. "Ya mean to say that you left the house at night without us knowing?! Haven't we told you about how dangerous it is to go exploring at night?!"
Granny was irate, but the deflection was off of Applejack. She felt kind of bad about getting Apple Bloom into trouble, but at the same time she was disappointed that she couldn't tell her family about what was going on.
After everypony had finished their breakfasts, Big Mac offered to do the dishes. Usually Applejack would object, but just gave him a nod and then left. The day went by as usual again. She got a lot of her chores done up until noon, where she and Apple Bloom were to start selling some apples in the marketplace again.
She started wheeling the cart up the hill, while Apple Bloom followed sullenly behind. "Ah still can't believe you ratted me out to Granny!" Apple Bloom said.
"Oh no, don't get me involved in this Apple Bloom. I didn't say anything about it. Ah feel bad about it though, if that's what counts." She stopped rolling the cart, now at their usual spot in the Ponyville marketplace. She wiped the sweat from her brow before looking for potential customers.
"I know." Apple Bloom said. "You know Ah was concerned about you, right? How would you react if you went to check on me in the middle of the night, and there was all this magic all over the place, and Ah was nowhere to be seen?"
Applejack paused in her search of potential customers and thought about her sister's question. What would she do about it? "Don't even talk like that, little sister. I swear Ah'd never let that happen."
Apple Bloom didn't see it though. "Well unfortunately for the two of us, that happened to you, and Ah was stuck dealing with the consequences." She put on a frown and didn't say anything else.
Applejack didn't know what to say in response to that, and they say in silence for a while until they started getting customers. After about five ponies wanting to buy apples, she saw Spoon, his gray coat and lighter gray mane sticking out of the colorful crowd. He slowly started to move upward close to them, before stopping on a bench and just looking at them. Applejack took the hint.
"Well, little sis, we've sure done a good job sellin' those apples! Unfortunately, Ah think we should probably take a break for the time being. Why don't you head on down to Sugar Cube Corner and grab a muffin or something?" She handed her little sister 10 bits. Apple Bloom looked at her and smiled with a bit of hope before taking the bits and running over to the bakery.
She wandered over to Spoon's bench and took a seat on the opposite side of him.
"Why, hello Spoon. Fancy meetin' you here."
"Yes, yes, and a hello to you too. I'm sure you know why I'm here, understand the urgency?" Spoon said.
Applejack winced, she knew it would come to this. "Yes. I understand everything. It wasn't a dream after all. It was another world. That 'Captain' are whatever his name is, he threw me back in here when Ah resisted him. So what is this place if not the real world?"
Spoon chuckled. "The real world? I do not know. All I do know is the shapes are lying. The mathematical constants of this realm do not add up. How is it that a Princess can raise the entire sun every morning? The sun is ENORMOUS!" He shouted, "our entire planet wouldn't make up a billionth of it."
This got Applejack mad. "Now listen. I don't care about your yammerin' about how shapes are lyin' or you feelin' like there's more out there, but if you insult the Princess again, we're done!"
"Oh, ok, ok, take it easy now, little filly. I didn't mean anything by it," Spoon said nervously. "It's just, you feel it too, don't you? Your experiences in Sanctuary helped shape you. You know there's more to all this. Doesn't that make you curious? It's driving the heck out of me every passing day!"
"Um, no I don't. I don't feel it. It was mighty strange running into that world, but Ah don't care about who lies in it, or what lies beyond our world. All Ah care about is mah family. They exist here, so that's good enough for me."
This left Spoon stumped. He knew that she had a point, but the knowledge. The knowledge! "Applejack, you can't be serious. I understand the obligation of protecting your family, but you're willing to give up the secrets of the universe for your family?!"
"Ah'm sorry, my mind's made up." Applejack closed her eyes and raised her head.
"Then we have nothing else to talk about." Spoon said, before getting off his bench and walking away.
Later on, after retrieving Apple Bloom and heading back to the farm, Applejack had another break and went to go see what Twilight up to. She knocked on her door.
"Twilight? You home?" She looked concerned as the door opened. "Good gracious, girl. Is it too hard to close a latch?" Applejack wandered into her home.
Inside, the library was dark. She couldn't find much of anything. Except for a stray light under one of the doors. Gotcha, She thought.
Opening the door, the door itself creaked so loud that she thought the neighbors could hear it. She wandered through the doorway until she saw that it led to her basement. She heard Twilight's voice. It sounded like she was talking to somepony else.
Applejack started walking down the basement stairs before calling out, "Hey Twilight you here? DId Spike get back from his vacat-- whoa!" - At that, Applejack slipped and started falling down the stairs. She was close to the bottom already, but it was still painful. - "Oowww."
Twilight turned away from her writings to look over at the newly arrived Applejack. Rushing over to her she said, "Oh my Celestia, Applejack! Are you all right? Are you injured?"
Applejack groaned before rolling onto her side and then standing up. "Thanks for the concern Twilight, but I'm fine."
"Indeed, that was quite a fall." Said a voice. Applejack followed the voice back to the pony to find that it was none other than Grandmaster Spoon himself. "Are you sure you don't need medical attention?"
Applejack just seethed quietly. "What in tarnation are y'all doing here?"
"Oh, Twilight invited me down here," Spoon said. "She seems to be quite the educated young mare."
Twilight blushed and then giggled. "Stop embarrassing me Grandmaster!" she said waving a hoof at him.
Applejack just gawked. "Twilight, why are you sucking up to this guy? He's just a crazy ol' pony!"
Twilight left her mouth agape for a second before responding, "Applejack, do you know who this is? This is Grandmaster Spoon! A famous chrono-wizard and professor at the University of Trottingham! He helped to solve the Inverted Goose phenomenon!"
"'The Inverted Goose' phenomenon? What the heck is that?" Applejack asked.
"Well essentially —" Twilight began.
"We don't have time for that," Spoon said, "we need to exit the simulation! The Captain's forces are probably on their way as we speak!"
"'The Captain's forces?' Where do you even get this stuff Spoon?"
"Uuuughh! This is what I was trying to explain to you Applejack!" Twilight began. "The Inverted Goose phenomenon was a social experiment conducted at the University of Trottingham. Famous scientists in the field discovered that when you shine specific magical wavelengths onto a living creature, in this case a goose, then it will appear distorted. Many scientists tried and failed to explain it, until Grandmaster Spoon came along with his specialty in mathematics. He discovered that using a special type of chrono-magic, that it wasn't the magic around the goose being distorted, rather it was the goose itself. After that happened, a few months later, the Grandmaster had been ejected from the University of Trottingham. I'd always wondered why until I found this book!"She showed it to Applejack.
"'The biography of Time in a Social Setting, by Mystic Spoon?'" Applejack read.
Twilight continued, "This book helps to explain why he left. He didn't leave on his own, there was a split between the scientists. Led by the Creationists, the Grandmaster and other scientists believed that there was a whole new substance making up the goose. Meanwhile, the Foundationalists rejected that belief and stated that there must have been something wrong with the experiment itself. The book says that this conflict between the two groups created a scandal at the University which fired the most vocal parts of the two groups. Without the famous Chrono-wizard on their side, TU, or Trottingham University thought they could quell the problem."
"And has it?" Applejack asked.
"Well, there's still been some infighting, but nothing seriously vocal." Grandmaster Spoon said. "The Creationists and I believed that there must have been something making up the goose itself. Our research led to the theoretical substance dubbed Proton Particles, even though it was neither made of protons nor particles. The damned substance was named after our head researcher Proton Particle."
"That—That's great... Spoon, but how does that relate to our problem at hoof?" Applejack stammered.
"Well according to the book, 'After our countless research, we learned that if we ever could find out what the Proton Particles actually are, we could redeem ourselves in the eyes of the University.'" Twilight read.
"We believed that these Proton Particles made up a single large structure, known as the Framework. Based on chrono-mathematics, I am convinced that some parts of this world are made up differently than others. For example, we learned that the goose wasn't real at all; it was just a uniquely coded mathematical construct that has only twelve command codes being directed from a uniquely-determined source. In fact, every non-sentient animal we conducted tests on had the same coded structure about it. It all led to a single relay point on the edge of the Everfree Forest, not to Ponyville. I mapped it out, it seems to be a small hollow stump filled with twelve snails."
"...Is this guy for real, Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"I know it sounds preposterous Applejack, but it fills in most of the problems with science. It fits so many different theories and interpretations! Seriously, I wouldn't be bothering you with this if I didn't think it was worth a look." Twilight said.
Applejack sighed, "Alright. I suppose it deserves a look. Where is this magical stump, Spoon?"
Spoon levitated out a map of Equestria, and drew a small circle on it. "It's right here Applejack. It's at the intersection between your East Orchard of apple trees at Sweet Apple Acres, and the Everfree Forest. Come on, time is of the essence!"
"Hold on Grandmaster," Twilight asked. "If The Captain's ponies are truly on their way, and we're trying to remove ourselves from the simulation, how will we locate each other when we're in the other world?"
Applejack wondered. Twilight did have a point. While in the other world, Ah could barely find anypony else in the whole darned place. How are we supposed to find each other?
"With the Elements of Harmony. After speaking with you and Applejack, I am convinced that you're the real beings standing before me. You're not a hologram or an advanced intelligence guiding the system. Your deeds in the past have not been worthless. The two of you have power beyond most other ponies in the land. We should retrieve the magical artifacts post-haste!" Spoon declared.
"Hold on, Spoon. If this is a matter of the Elements, then we should get everypony else here too. What about Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy? They deserve to be in on the action too." Twilight said.
"Have you not listened to anything I just said?! We cannot trust anypony! They may be your friends in this Twilight Sparkle, but short of conducting extensive tests on their psyches, we cannot know if they really are your friends and not extensive holograms!" —Twilight was about to interject before Spoon stopped her —"Think about it Ms. Sparkle. If your friends are just holograms, then that means the holograms are based off of a host-body. Fluttershy may not be real in this world, but her experiences certainly are in the real world. If she truly is trapped inside the simulation then, it would be your duty as a friend to free her as soon as possible!"
Twilight realized he had a point and left her speechless.
"Oh come on, Twilight. This is the most cockamamie thing I've ever heard! Don't tell me you're listening to this nonsense." Applejack exclaimed.
Twilight took a few moments before gathering her thoughts. "As preposterous as it sounds Applejack, his thought-process is all there. Assuming the best, then this is nothing and we've all wasted a night of exploring. If it's the worst, well..." She let the thought continue before running out what to say. She didn't need to say any more. Applejack understood.
"All right Twilight, I understand ya." She directed her attention at Spoon. "Spoon, what do we need to do?"
"I'm glad you asked, young sapling," Spoon began. "First, we need to gather the Elements of Harmony, just the Element of Magic and the Element of Honesty; we should not gather the others on the off-chance they've been booby-trapped. Wearing the Elements will grant you the soul-link needed to find each other outside of the simulation—"
"But what about you, Grandmaster? How will you be able to find us?" Twilight inquired.
Spoon just smiled. "Do not worry young mare, for I still have a few tricks up these old bones. After you've gathered up the two Elements and have put them on, we need to find the focal point in the Everfree Forest. I shall cast a spell ritual which should disrupt the system long enough for the three of us to leave." He then paused and turned his attention to Applejack, "And on the off-chance that nothing happens, then we can all just go home and be content that we did everything in our power to do something, and I will never bother you again."
Applejack's stomach twisted. She knew this was the best decision for them all; a choice to settle something in Spoon and still be able to return to her family. So then, why did she feel so bad about it? "Ah'm in, Spoon. Let's get started."
By the time they left the library, the land had begun to get dark. Twilight looked up at the sky; it was already dusk. It was just early enough in the evening that the sun had set but the moon had slowly started moving up in the sky. Usually it was a good period for ponies to smile to their adoring marefriends, and promptly make out, but there was something different about this setting; something darker. Applejack felt a chill in her stomach, something was about to happen.
"Come on you slowpokes! We're almost at the site!" Grandmaster Spoon yelled at the two of them who were crawling behind.
Twilight and Applejack started to move into Spoon's direction with more haste than before. Slowly, the three of them moved across town, from Library, to the fields of Sweet Apple Acres, and then into the dark depths of the Everfree Forest. When they got a few trees in, they saw it. To the unobservant, it looked like a small stump on the ground. Now that Twilight had a better look at it though, it had far more details than that. Various mushrooms were sprouting on top of it, tiny spores had taken root on top of the stump itself. In the center of the top was a large hole. Peering inside, she detected the twelve snails that Spoon had mentioned. They looked dark and sickly, and looked more carnivorous than any other snail that she had ever seen before. She suddenly got disgusted and moved away from the center.
Applejack broke the ice. "All right, Spoon we're here. What should we do now?"
Spoon moved into position behind the stump itself, making the Elements into a a triangular pattern. He then pulled out a robe and a hat, similar to what Twilight wore for Nightmare Night, and put them on. He stood on his back legs and raised his front hooves into the air.
"Elements of Sound, Water, and Air, we beseech thee! Gather your mighty strength so that we may destroy this stump before us!" Grandmaster Spoon cast the incantation as a barrage of magical energy surrounded them at once.
Applejack felt the air around them start to vibrate. Her vision started to get blurry as she saw everything around her start jumping up and down in a fast voluntary manner. Despite this, she knew she felt perfectly fine. She saw the magic begin to affect the target on the ground. The stump began to vibrate as if hit, it set on fire briefly before shaking. Applejack swore it turned into a bright pink pipeline for an instant, before changing back to nothing. Eventually, the magic ceased and everything went back to normal. She peered at the stump. Everything was still intact. The snails looked like they had not been moved in the slightest.
Grandmaster Spoon collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. Twilight ran over to meet him. Gasping for breath, he said, "My magic... It's not strong enough."— He paused for a moment before shaking his head. —"I can't create fast enough magic to penetrate the pipeline. If only we had more disruption, then we could get through this..."
Twilight thought for a moment. "What do you mean by disruption?"
The Grandmaster continued, "Just-just enough stuff going on, that the simulation couldn't stand it. It would be trying to overload everything happening at once that it would snap."
A gear clicked in Applejack's head. "Spoon, I know just the pony."
The bakery at Sugar Cube Corner was just about closing. Mrs. Cake looked at the clock. It was 7:56, just a few minutes to closing time. Her husband was moving a stack of flour into the back, while Pinkie Pie was cleaning the oven. With a broom in hoof, she thought all that was left was a bit of talking with her husband and then she could go to bed. That's when she heard the sound of the bell. The dreaded bell. She was so close to closing time. So close!
Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and a strange light-gray stallion with a long white beard and mane walked in through the door. He was wearing Twilight's Nightmare Night costume; how strange.
"Oh hello!" Mrs. Cake said, shutting her previous thoughts into a closet. "What can I get you dearies?"
Twilight had a frantic look on her face. "Oh thanks for the help Mrs. Cake, but we're not here to order anything. May we speak with Pinkie Pie?"
Suddenly Pinkie Pie disappeared from the back and jumped out of a nearby barrel. Mrs. Cake tried to keep up a calm demeanor, but inside she was exasperated. This close! I was this close to closing!
Pinkie gawked at Twilight and Applejack with their Elements on. "WHAT?! Are the three of you having an Element party without me?" — Twilight was about to interject before Pinkie continued —"And you were going to rub it in my face weren't you?" In an instant, Pinkie's face changed from angry to all smiles. "No, that can't be it! Obviously the most obvious solution is that the three of you aren't any good at throwing parties so you came over to ask me for advice. Touche, Sparkle, touche. However, I'll only impart advice if I could join your party!"
Twilight just hoof-smacked her face hitting her horn in the process. Her mind instantly got a little disoriented, forcing her to shake it away before continuing, "No Pinkie. We weren't having a party. We were conducting an important ritual, until we realized we couldn't do enough, so we were wondering if we could ask you to cause enough trouble for us."
In an instant, the strange wizard pony turned his head to Twilight and began vehemently whispering in her ear. A few mumbles from her saying, "Uh huh, yeah, yeah, okay, no...no no... of course not. No..no Spoon we are going to do this our way."
Twilight then turned back to Pinkie and said, "I'm sorry Pinkie. We should have included you in the first place."
Pinkie jumped over to the group, somehow landing between Applejack, Spoon, and Twilight. She hugged the three of them, before turning to Spoon and saying, "Okay, Spooney! What should we do now?"
Spoon just looked at Pinkie Pie with crazy eyes. "How do you know my name?! Are you in on it?!"
Twilight just looked at him. "It's all right Spoon, it's just a Pinkie Pie thing. She knows everypony in Ponyville before they even know themselves."
"Yeppers!" Pinkie Pie announced while pulling out a wallet with pictures. "You're Mystic Spoon, lives on 4379 Candycane Lane, related to the Spoon family? Ooooooh! And you're a Chrono-wizard? Wowie-wowow!"
"Ah still haven't gotten a clear answer as to what a 'chrono-wizard' is yet." Applejack lamented.
Still holding the wallet of pictures, Pinkie Pie leaned over at Applejack, "It's just a Unicorn that studies time, silly! I thought it would be obvious!"
Applejack just glared at her in response.
Twilight levitated Pinkie Pie back onto the ground, before saying, "All right everypony, let's get started!"
Pinkie Pie had a look of disappointment, "But wait, my necklace. My necklace!"
Twilight realized that they would need to return to the library to retrieve Pinkie's Element of Laughter. She looked at Spoon, who just said, "Don't look at me. You're the leader of this group now. I've been relegated to this group's magical adviser."
Twilight looked like she wanted to protest, but instead calmed herself. She took a breath and said, All right everypony, let's move out!"
The group of four ponies moved out the door and toward the direction of the library.
Mrs. Cake sighed in relief, before looking at the oven and seeing all the grime and residue still on it. She got angry and yelled "Pinkie Pie, you still haven't finished your job yet!"
In the distance, Mrs. Cake heard a yell, "SORRY!"
She went back to sweeping.
They returned to the library, picked up Pinkie Pie's Element and then proceeded back into the woods. Take two: the woods were dark and magical, and the sun was setting. The moon was higher in the sky and then Applejack felt a pit in her stomach begin to tell her that something was amiss. Twilight felt the same too.
"And that was when they knew something was wrong," Pinkie Pie said.
"Pinkie, who in the hay are you talking to?" Applejack asked.
Pinkie smiled, "Oh, just reading off the lines of the narrator!"
Applejack just looked at Twilight, who just lifted her hoof and did a circular motion around her ear.
"Enough bickering! We must reach the stump before all is too late!" Spoon declared.
"Wow, Spooney. You sure missed out on your morning coffee, didn't you?" Pinkie said.
Spoon just glared at Pinkie Pie in response, without saying another word.
Eventually, they all reached the stump. The stump was the same as before: carnivorous snails, mushrooms growing off the top of it, various unidentifiable spores atop it. Spoon got behind it and raised his hooves in the air, before looking at Pinkie Pie, "Pinkie, put your Element on."
Pinkie looked over her shoulder at the Element of Laughter on her foreleg. She rolled her eyes and said, "Oh yeah!" She put the necklace around her neck.
Spoon raised his hooves in the air, seeing the dark and foreboding thunder clouds above them. "Elements of Sound, Air, and Water, we beseech thee. Destroy this accursed stump before you!"
The air began to vibrate once again. Applejack's vision was faulty as she began to see a double-image begin to jump up and down, up and down. She was getting dizzy following it. She looked at Twilight who looked like she was having about the same problem. She then looked over to her right at Pinkie Pie and thought she saw her vision going up and down, before realizing Pinkie was the one jumping up and down. She was balancing herself on a ball that Celestia knows where she got, while trying to balance a number of sticks on her hooves.
Suddenly, there was a colorful show in front of her. The vibrating mist that Spoon had summoned started to penetrate the stump. It turned back into a bright pink pipeline, and Twilight started by joining in and making small fireworks with her horn. The simulation was about to crack. Applejack looked around at the Everfree Forest as the simulation began to change in an instant, changing into a metallic surface for miles on end, before changing back to normal.
She heard a deep crack, as the ground around the four of them broke off and they all fell screaming into the pit itself. All except for Pinkie Pie who was screaming with joy.
Applejack woke up from her dream, feeling a bump on her noggin. She gazed up at the night sky in wonder. That's odd, since when did the sky have all those colorful lights? she thought to herself.
Sliding back up onto her hooves, she noticed something else too. There was glass covering the sky as well, and a big tube, and a giant aquarium area. What in tarnation? she thought, realizing that this wasn't where she thought she was.
"Hahahaha!" Came an unknown voice seemingly far away from her location.
Applejack looked over and spotted The Captain standing next to a strange looking machine. She then looked down at herself and noticed that there were these strange magenta bonds around her hooves, preventing herself from breaking free. She struggled, but couldn't move.
"Oh, don't even try to move 'Applejack', if that's even your real name." The Captain said smugly.
Applejack gave him the weirdest look. "What in Equestria are you going on about!? Of course Applejack is my name." She said without a moment's thought.
"Lies! Don't give me that 'Applejack!' The Captain said giving her a fearsome scowl. "I know you've been working alongside those cyber-terrorists so don't even try to deny it! You infiltrated my compound, snuck into my computer network, and now succeeded in escaping, breaking part of the simulation along with it. And now you have the audacity to lie and say you're the legendary Element of Honesty? Don't make me laugh. But I caught you!" He had a mad glint in his eyes, "You thought your escape would go unhindered, but it did not! My guards captured you and now your precious resistance will watch as their famous infiltrator dies! It's just glorious!"
Applejack just stared at him, mouth agape, unable to even comprehend what he was talking about. Finally she spoke. "Spies? Infiltrators? A resistance force? What in tarnation are y'all talking about? I really have no idea what you're going on about. Seriously I don't!"
The Captain took a few steps closer, scowling yet still smiling at the same time. He looked like quite a mad pony "Oh poor, poor Applejack. Your world is finally falling apart at its stems. Tell you what, since I'm a kind and generous pony, I'll let you choose. You can either join me in destroying your pathetic resistance force, or you can die a pathetic death at the hands of these spikes!"
He then pulled a lever with his horn, and suddenly the ground beneath Applejack opened up. She was being held by a rope on a wench, as she dangled in mid-air. Beneath her was a large pit of magenta spikes. They all looked very sharp and deadly.
The Captain began cackling, before stopping his monologue to look at her, "So 'Applejack' what will it be? Will you join the winners or will you die like a pathetic coward?"
Applejack couldn't process what was happening. She had a mix between fear, embarrassment, confusion, and anger. Currently however, the other emotions were fueling the anger. She fumed, if this were a cartoon, there would be smoke coming out of her ears. The Captain swore that her eyes turned red. He took a small step back in worry.
"Ah have no freaking idea what y'all are talking about. My name is Applejack! I work on a farm, I am not some 'infiltrator.' Ah have no idea what you're talking about, and Ah don't care one bit for your Celestia-damned offer. You can take the offer and shove it where the sun don't shine, because Ah would not want to be on a team with a coward like you, who is forced to throw another pony into a pit of spikes because they can't do their own dirty work. So come on, you worthless excuse for a pony! Fight your own damned battles!"
Applejack fumed. She yelled, expressing all of her frustration, expressing herself like she's never done before. The Captain looked slightly worried and a bit afraid. Suddenly dropping her into a pit of his own spikes wasn't such an appealing idea. He pressed a button on a keypad, and then all of a sudden, the crane turned, dropping Applejack onto the floor.
"Fine. You'll learn the hard way." The Captain said. He backed away from the machine, and bucked it, completely destroying the device, and shutting down the system. The lights began to flicker as the hole in the floor started to close back up but instead suddenly broke, filling in the hole of spikes with its own machinery. The hole was no more. The Captain's eyes shone with a bright-green as he cracked his neck, before glaring at Applejack.
Applejack was relieved that she wasn't in imminent danger, but realized that this fight wasn't over. The Captain had decided to take her advice and allow her to fight him once and for all. Despite this, she silently wondered if this was the right choice to make. The Captain seemed mighty powerful, bucking that machine into smithereens. she thought.
Despite this, she sighed and then spit onto the ground. She narrowed her eyes before adjusting her hat. The Captain decided he had waited around enough and charged at her. Applejack took the opportunity to throw her hat at him, hitting him square in the face. She then reached out a foreleg and caught him while he was running, tripping him into the pit full of spikes. The Captain landed atop all the rubble, so she didn't have to worry about killing him.
After falling, she spotted her hat on the floor and picked it back up, before running out of the exit. "Celestia damned you Applejack! Damn you!" The Captain's voice was heard from the room behind her. Applejack just kept running. This hallway seemed endless she thought. It looked like she was in an underwater base, where there were fish and water swimming along next to her. The hallway seemed to curve around itself, so she knew that there must be a time where it must turn into a circle into itself. She hoped against hope that it didn't just lead back into the same room that she had been in.
After a long time of running, she spotted what she was looking for. She saw a flight of stairs going upwards. Bingo! she thought.
As she started running up the stairs, she started to hear a loud sound behind her. It was the crunching of machinery, opening up. "I'm coming for you 'Applejack!'" came the Captain's voice.
Even as she started to run up the staircase, a stray thought caught up to her, Even after all this time, he still thinks that Applejack's not mah name? What is with this bozo? she thought.
After running for what seemed like a long time, the stairway yielded a door. A locked door, to be more precise. She banged on the door in frustration, trying in vain to get in, until The Captain seemed to have caught up with her. He was wielding a light-greenish sort of magic around him, almost like a type of aura. His eyes seemed to seethe. He was pissed off.
"I finally got you my little seahorse. Now I will show you the true might of Sanctuary!" He started to charge up a spell to launch at her, and then at the last moment, the door seemed to open and she was pulled through. The door closed behind, leaving an angry and agitated Captain.
Applejack looked up and saw her team: Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Spoon all looking at her like she grew another head. At last, Pinkie Pie broke the silence by jumping over to her and hugging her. "Oh, Applejack! We had thought we lost you forever!" she proclaimed.
Applejack tried pushing Pinkie Pie a bit, just enough for her to breathe before she took a breath and said, "Ah sure am glad to see you again Pinkie. Same with the rest of y'all. How in the hell did y'all find me?"
Twilight was the one to speak first. "Spoon was telling me about the psychometric readings that each of the suits seemed to be giving off. He used a spell to find the Element of Magic that was on my head" — she paused a moment to point to the crown on her head, —"and then we noticed that each of the guard-ponies were wearing a certain type of suit. If I recall, you mentioned before about a suit that was able to guide you to The Captain's office last time, right?"
Applejack nodded, before she continued, "Well, Spoon and I were able to figure out how to decrypt the precise algorithm in the suits, allowing us to find virtually anything in the entire building. And lo and behold, we found you!"
Applejack looked at Pinkie Pie, expecting her to take some credit, but she just sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Don't look at me AJ, they did most of the work. I was the inspiration that guided them to their destinations!"
Everyone rolled their eyes at that comment, leaving Pinkie to ask, "What?"
"Anyways," Applejack said, beginning, "That was the hardest part, finding where each other was, but now that we have, what now?"
"I believe I may be able to shed some light on this dilemma," said Spoon. "From my research at Trottingham University, we discovered that there was a type of delta-wave particle present in most of the most basic structures of our universe. Looking at these walls, I can say the same about this place as well." He sighed abruptly, straightened his glasses and continued. "I don't want to let anyone's hopes up, but I believe we're still trapped in the simulation."
"What!?" Applejack cried. "After everything we did? What was with that strange ritual that the four of us conducted then? The ground shifted and we were thrown into a great big void! If that wasn't the real world, then this should be it!"
"That's where you're wrong Applejack," Spoon said. "The ritual did work, and we did succeed in destroying a small portion of it, but despite our efforts, it wouldn't lead to us being freed. Think of it like this. If you're a fish, and you get freed from an aquarium, are you outside? No, you're still indoors to whatever creatures found you to be a pet."
"So you're saying that if this is a simulation, then outside of here is the real world?" Twilight asked.
"No!" Spoon began. "Because if what's outside of the aquarium is the owner and his house, then what is outside of the owner's house? It becomes the owner of the owner's house, and if you travel outside of that, you enter a house of a house of the other owner!"
"So you're saying there's an unending cycle of simulations outside of simulations?" Twilight deadpanned.
"Precisely!" Spoon explained.
Pinkie Pie just looked at Spoon, before leaning over to Applejack and asking, "Where did you find this guy Applejack? He is so creative!"
Applejack glared at her, but kept her mouth shut. "So if there's no end to these simulations, then why in Tartarus did we travel here in the first place?!"
Spoon raised his hoof, about to answer her, but abruptly closed his mouth. "I'm afraid I have no idea," he said.
Applejack growled. "Ah left my sister and my family behind to escort on your damned mission, because you made us think that they were all in danger, and now that we're here, you're telling me that this place isn't real either?" She seethed, and couldn't think straight. She started shaking her head to the left and to the right to make sure she didn't do something she regretted.
Twilight walked over to her and put an arm around her. "I know this is all very confusing and strange Applejack, but you'll see your family again, I promise."
Applejack started crying, until she looked up at Twilight. She asked, "Do ya really mean it Twilight?"
Twilight nodded in response.
"Yeah Applejack, we'll definitely find a way out of here! We'll pop back out of this dimension back into our own before you can say 'surprise!'" Pinkie gasped. "What if we can have a dimension-hopping party!? Can we have a dimension-hopping party Twilight!?" She asked, her eyes seeming to glimmer.
"Yes, yes, we can have your party Pinkie!" Twilight said, now smiling. This little exchange brought out a lot of her feelings, and she was feeling a lot more rejuvenated than before.
The group had been walking down the corridor. The door that they came from seemed to have held for the longest time. There was lots of banging and yelling at first, but now it was suspiciously quiet. It was a bit unnerving.
"Hey Twilight, how come there's water all around us? Are we underwater?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight looked at the walls and noticed that beyond the glass lay the strange water that she had noticed. "I suppose it's possible Pinkie. That, or else we're in a strange dimension where all there is is just water."
Spoon scoffed in response, "Or else there's nothing beyond the walls, and they're just simulating the appearance of water."
"Now that's just downright silly Spoon. Why would the walls need to simulate something if there's nothing there?" Applejack inquired.
"Who knows," Spoon said. "Maybe looking into the face of nothingness would inspire chaos and confusion into the souls of those working here? What can be more daunting than looking into the void itself?"
"You guys are silly," Pinkie Pie said. She walked over to the glass and banged on the wall. A red minnow swam over to her. "Hi fishie!"
The fish seemed to look at her in response. "Aww, he's adorable! He's waving at us in his own language." Pinkie said.
Twilight seemed to facepalm. "Pinkie, it's just a fish. It's not waving at us."
"Yes he is! Look at the small bubbles coming out of his gills. One bubble is for yes, two bubbles is for no. He has tons of bubbles coming out of him, that means he's excited!"
"No, Pinkie. Just, no." Twilight said, shaking her head. She just focused on the path in front of her, the long narrow path. She thought she could see something at the end of the tunnel, but she couldn't tell; the image seemed to fade in and out.
The image before her became superimposed, before blotting back into itself. From her peripheral vision, she could barely tell that it was an outline of a door. As her mind pieced together what she had seen, it looked like a vault door, with many screws tying into the design, with a single light-bulb illuminating the display.
She glanced over at her friends, and they seemed to see nothing, except for Spoon who seemed anxious the whole time.
Glancing back at the door, she started to run up to it, seeing her friends fade from view, and the door begin to progressively get further and further away. She stopped and saw all vision fade from view, and she was alone in the dark with merely a spotlight illuminating the white circle before her. She looked up at the light, and she saw nothing.
Confused, she looked down to see what she was standing on, before learning that it was a black-tiled floor, with a white outline design She looked around, before learning that the tiles seemed to grow, becoming a large outline of a checkered-square. The walls lit up and suddenly there was a TV screen, with white walls surrounding her. The ceiling had become a solid, gleaming metal.
"Hello? Is anypony there?" She asked, not expecting a response.
Suddenly the screen turned on, and it was her. 'Hello? Is anypony there?' the screen mimicked at her.
She looked around, finding echoes of the voice coming from different corridors of the room. She looked around madly, trying to find a way out. She ran towards the sound of her voice in the corridor, but right when she turned the corner, she was back where she started. It seemed that the room seemed to run in a big donut-like shape, with the screen in the middle, always blasting her image and that accursed question. 'Is anypony there?'
Twilight was getting annoyed. As annoyance rose to anger, she found herself with the energy to blast what was in her way. She lit up her horn, and a beam of magical energy hit the screen, revealing a room. She jumped through it, eager to escape from the echoing of her own voice.
On the inside, she found another white room. It was a square room with only a screen on the wall. Before the screen was a white couch. She noticed somepony sitting on it. He too had a white mane.
Twilight jumped towards this mysterious pony and landed on top of him, noticing it was Spoon.
"Twilight stop! Why are you attacking me?" Came Spoon's voice.
"Huh?" Twilight asked, as her vision seemed to change and she was back in Sanctuary.
"What in the hay was that all about Twi?" Applejack asked.
"Yeah, you were like zoom, whip, bam, and then you landed on poor old Spooney here!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
"What!? What just happened? I don't even..." Twilight ended her thought waiting for someone to pick up.
"All I know is that you seemed to stop and stare at the corridor that we were on. Your eyes went hazy, you started muttering to yourself, then your horn lit up and you jumped onto me!" Spoon explained. "By the way, would you like to have the decency of getting yourself off of me?"
"Oh, sorry," Twilight said, as she got off of Spoon's chest.
"Thank you," he said.
"I have no idea what happened. One moment, I was with you guys and then I found myself in a white room, with the sound of my own voice echoing throughout the chamber, and then when I wanted to get out, I found you guys here." Twilight explained.
"I feared this would happen," Spoon said.
"What do you mean, Spoon?" Applejack asked.
"I mean that we never actually left our plane of existence. We seemed to have entered a meta-plane of reality. If my theory holds true, we're all trapped within your mind Twilight."
"What?!" Twilight and Applejack explained at once.
"How in the hay is that even possible!? We met that Captain pony, and then we're exploring this underwater base, and we brought all of us with us..." Applejack paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "I just don't see how any of that is possible. This must be real somehow."
"Remember 'the Captain'?" Spoon asked. "Your earlier depictions of him made him seem very dark and mysterious, but now he seems very antagonistic. What do you think happened since then? I'll give you a hint: it has to do with subliminal messaging."
"Subliminal what-now?" Applejack asked.
"Subliminal messaging," Spoon sighed.
"That means you learned and were influenced indirectly without being consciously aware of it," Twilight explained. "Kind of like when you watch a food commercial on TV and then you start getting hungry."
"Ohhh, I get it! Yeah, we use those all the time, but we don't need no stinkin' commercials to influence ponies. They come to us for us!" Pinkie Pie explained.
"Yeah, thanks for that Pinkie." Applejack said. "So you're saying that... What exactly are you saying?"
Spoon groaned. "It's possible when we left our previous simulation before, that that was the prime dimension, and then using the laws of metaphysics, they were able to insert us to our own minds."
"How in the hay does that work?" Applejack asked.
"How should I know? I'm not a meta-physicist." Spoon said.
"Okay. Whatever or however we're here, we need to get out of it somehow." Twilight said, feeling like her head was about to burst. "This obviously isn't Ponyville, and we need to make it back there." Directing her body into Spoon's direction, she continued, "Spoon! If this were a dream, how would you suggest that we get out of here?"
Scratching his chin, he said, "Well, if this really was a dream, then we could go anywhere and it would lead us in the right direction. Pick a direction at random, and expect you'll arrive somewhere. Chances are we will."
"All right group, where are we going?" Twilight asked.
Twilight looked at the three of them and groaned in frustration. "If we all say we're planning on arriving somewhere, then chances are we'll never arrive there. We need to choose somewhere the four of us have all been before."
"The library!" Spoon exclaimed.
"Yes, the library. All right everypony," She changed direction and pointed at a nearby door. "Imagine that that is the front door to the library."
Everypony proceeded towards the door, and she lifted a hoof before opening it, before disappearing from the complex entirely.
The four of them arrived through the portal and found a very familiar door in front of them. The door to the Golden Oak Library. Twilight took a cautious look back at her friends before looking back. The others looked as apprehensive as she did. Twilight cautiously opened the door.
Inside was exactly what you'd expect. It was the library, filled with the same old books and strange floating magical runes flying around the library. The four of them walked inside before the door seemed to close very quickly and lock. The walls began to glow an ominous red and they realized that they were locked inside. A book was sitting on the table in front of them.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Applejack asked, breaking the silence.
No one seemed to have an answer before Twilight went up to inspect the book. Suddenly, the book began to glow an ominous red glow and lift itself off the table. Floating in the air, suddenly its pages opened up to page 356. An archaic picture of a griffon shown before them. The picture began to change before as if it was looking at them. A claw began to rip out of the portrait as the griffon climbed out of the book. It was malformed with black ink, like an artist's rendition had drawn most of it before giving up with a series of dashes. The griffon's eyes glowed red and it howled a blasting cry. It stung most of the group's ear drums.
Spoon stepped forward. "Don't worry everyone, I'll protect us." He took out an icon from his bag. The icon had a droplet on it. He cast magic and the droplet took on the appearance of water. The water began to multiply until it was a sheet of rainwater. The rainwater turned into a shield that protected the four of them. Then he took out a similar looking icon with a musical note on it. After casting some incantations, the note flew out of his bag and began to multiply until piano music could be heard in the background. The piano music seemed to dissipate the cries of the griffon. Spoon continued his incantations before the water shield reflected and wrapped around the griffon itself and lifted it into the air. The griffon screamed but it was trapped in the water prison.
After everything that took place, the lights began to change back to normal and the red glow disappeared. Twilight and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
Twilight went deeper into her library. "Spike?" She called. A small dragon approached her.
"Yes Twilight?" the dragon said.
"Spike, what are you doing here? I thought you were on that dragon retreat." Twilight asked.
The dragon's form seemed to fizzle with static before responding, "I am on the dragon retreat."
"Then how are you here, in the library with us?" She pestered.
The form shook and became hazy before fizzling out completely with a small implosion. Spoon walked up to her and put a hoof onto her shoulder. "It's best to not stay here for too long. It was clear that this wasn't the real Spike, but a manifestation of your internal thoughts. We had better make haste back to our original realms."
He lifted the hoof off her shoulder and began to walk closer to the table that held the book. He said a few incantations and the Elements of Harmony began to glow. Their eyes began to shine before they seemed to teleport and the world dissolved with it.
Applejack awoke with a thud. She was back in her own bed... again. Almost as if everything that had previously happened was a dream. Despite everything, she got out of her bed and rushed downstairs. Big Mac seemed to look at her. He was wearing his harness as if he was going to be working in the fields again. He looked at her with a confused expression on his face. Applejack seemed to run past him through the doorway. He sighed and continued walking to the fields.
Applejack rushed out of the farm and went straight through the town square, over to Twilight's library. She opened the door and on the other side was Twilight and Grandmaster Spoon. They seemed all right.
"Twilight! Spoon! Are you two all right?" She asked.
Twilight dusted herself off before responding. "Well, I am now. Spoon seems to be all right too. He says he woke up in his own bed too before teleporting here from Trottingham.
"And I'm all right too!" Came Pinkie's voice. The three of them looked around for her before she appeared from behind the staircase.
"Pinkie! Where did you come from?" Twilight exclaimed.
"From behind this staircase. This place has so many nice books!"
Twilight cautiously opened up the door to her basement. The four of them went down to her laboratory to talk. They all sat down in some chairs as if to mentally digest everything that had happened to them. There was a period of silence before Spoon got up to speak. "Well, that didn't go as well as we had hoped." He started.
"You think?" Applejack chimed in. "What in the hay happened in there? You made it sound like we were doing all this to save ourselves, but it turns out we entered Twilight's mind? What in Celestia's name is even going on around here? Do you even know what you're doing!?" She practically screamed.
Twilight got up to calm her down. "Easy now, Applejack. It's not that bad. There's a lot that we don't know here. In terms of metaphysical realities, we're really in the dark in all of this."
Spoon spoke up. "Well, actually not really." Everyone looked at him before he continued. "We all started out with an initial premise, that this universe was fake, and we managed to prove it. Attempting to leave the universe dumps us into a holding pod, like a basket to prevent us from leaving the aquarium. We're then able to return to this universe if we desire to do so. But there's always that question, of what lies beyond. Clearly something doesn't like that we don't bow. The Captain wasn't a figment of your imagination, Twilight. The idea came from somewhere. None of us knew about it in the beginning."
He seemed to pause, before Twilight chimed in. "If that's true, then is it possible that there are hidden memories in each of us? I believe that there might be a spell for remembering the unknowable." She opened a book and cast some incantations.
Suddenly, Spoon seemed to glow and rise up into the air. His eyes shone a bright glow and his mane turned ethereal. He began to speak. "You are correct, Ms. Sparkle. I am that entity from the other world, and my name is Spoon. However, the one that is known as The Captain is my counterpart. He is called Archmagician Fork, and he seeks outside of the known boundaries. He seeks to create a false universe with everyone's souls imprinted on it and absorb the magic within. With that much magic, he could become a god. One that could challenge even Princess Celestia herself."
With all that, he fell to the ground and rubbed his head. His hair reverted back to its original gray. "I don't remember much else, other than that Fork was in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. He came across a book in the Canterlot Archives that seemed to offer complete and total power, as long as he surrendered his soul to it. He did, and it turned him into a monster. He became obsessed with alternate universes and with creating one of his own making, and transported all of us to it. No one has existed in the prime universe for a very long time. That's what inspired me to become a chrono-wizard. There is something dangerously wrong with the timeline. Metaphysically so."
"Then we need to find this Archmagician Fork then as soon as we possibly can." Twilight spoke up.
"Yes. We do." Spoon replied.
"But how are we supposed to find this guy?" Applejack asked.
Spoon sat down in his chair again and pondered. "Well, we all know that his prime body exists somewhere outside of this universe, but a conduit for his power should exist here. In fact, a dimensional counterpart should exist here as well. That is very anomalous. We should find him. He is probably located in a place of immense magical fortitude."
Twilight thought, before consulting her maps. "Well, presumably he's not at the Canterlot Archives anymore. He's probably gotten as much use out of them as he could. The only place I know of with that much magical prowess probably takes place in the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Palace is beaming full of that magic."
"Then that's probably where he is. We should get going!" Spoon said before getting out of his chair.
"Now wait a doggone minute. Now we're going to the Crystal Empire based off of a hunch?" Applejack asked.
"Yes, but it is a very good hunch!" Spoon replied.
"Well, you can't argue with that logic." Pinkie chimed in.
Applejack rolled her eyes as everyone gathered their things and departed for the train station.
After a fairly uneventful train ride, save for Pinkie pointing out every single oddity along the way, the four of them eventually wind up in the Crystal Empire. A long way from home.
"All right, we're here." Spoon said gasping for breath.
"Why are you gasping?" Applejack asked.
"Because of the lack of air?" He gasps.
"Dude, that's when we're up high. We're up north, there's a difference." Applejack replied.
"Oh." With that, Spoon went back to breathing normally. Applejack hit her face with her hoof. How did she get stuck with someone like that?
"We're nearing the Crystal Palace. Everyone stay close." Twilight said, trying to keep the team together. The group approached and saw the spectacle that was the Crystal Palace. It felt like mere months since she and her friends had taken on King Sombra and saved the crystal ponies... or did she? This multiversal stuff was really getting to her.
Pinkie gasped. "Twilight, you remember that time that we all defeated King Sombra under these crystal arches?" Pinkie asked as if she was somehow reading Twilight's mind.
Twilight giggled. "Yes, Pinkie. I remember."
"Sombra was like whoosh and we were like bam! And then he went flying out of the park and it was a home run! We all ran around and scored points and we won the game!" Pinkie screeched.
The librarian seemed to hear them asked them to shush. The Crystal Palace guards seemed amused with a smirk. The group approached.
"We're here because of a magical disturbance--" Twilight began.
"Twily!" Came a voice. Suddenly she was pounced on by her brother Shining Armor.
Cadance flew down to join the two of them. "Twilight! It's been ages since we saw each other. Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!" The two of them did their little dance and giggled. "What brings you here?" She asked.
"Well, this here is Grandmaster Spoon and--" she began.
"Oh my, a grandmaster. This is dire indeed." Cadance interrupted. "Why don't we go inside and we can talk?" She nodded and the group heads inside.
They all head for a meeting room. "Wait, we can't stay here." Spoon announces.
"Why not?" Cadance asks dumbfounded.
"This room. It has six walls in the shape of a hexagon. Hexagons are very confrontational omens that foretell of dark occurrences."
"Oh brother." Applejack sighs.
Spoon glares at Applejack. "You still don't believe any of this do you? You think I'm crazy and just making all this up?"
"Ah don't know what to think, except that a few days ago, you were just this crazy pony on the street, mumbling to inanimate objects!" Applejack exclaims.
"You saw them! You saw the other world and all the visions and Twilight's mind! They weren't fake! How can you be doubting all this?" Spoon exclaims.
"Twilight's mind?" Cadance asked while giving Shining Armor a look. He just shrugged his shoulders in response. "Take it easy everyone." She says trying to diffuse the conversation.
"Ah don't know what ah saw and from the sounds of it, you don't neither!" Applejack said ignoring Cadance's point.
"Ah, splendid! I just love it when a plan comes together!" Came an altogether new voice.
At the top of the stairwell lay a new pony. He had crimson fur, a blonde mane and was wearing a horribly tacky red cloak with all sorts of mathematical symbols across it. And a cowl.
"Fork!" Spoon exclaimed.
"Yes, it is I, Archmagician Fork, at your service. I noticed your bickering and was just drawn to this cacophony of discomfort. A torrential whirlwind of chaos. It is simply delightful. Please, by all means, destroy each other. It will make your misery all the sweeter."
"Fork, what is the meaning of this?" Cadance asked.
"Ah, my good princess, it is so delicious for you to ask that question. All this time that I spent in the castle as your lackey. But alas, I have a confession to make. I've been in this castle for a very long time. Far longer than even you anticipated. I met with the former occupant of this castle and he imparted unto me some most rewarding secrets." Fork exclaimed.
"You don't mean..." Cadance says.
"Yes, it is true. King Sombra was correct in offering his services. All in exchange for a soul. Whose soul you ask? Well, that's up to you. If you cooperate, then I promise undying loyalty to the master. If you do not, then eternal agony awaits you."
Applejack rolls her eyes and mutters, "Like Ah haven't heard that one before."
"What was that?" Fork asks. "Do you have something to share with the rest of the class?"
Applejack seethes. "Yes, Ah do. Your whole speech sounds like cockamamie bull. Ah've heard worse villain lines from when Rainbow Dash drones on about Daring Do. There's nothing y'all can do to us that we haven't already seen!"
"Oh can't I?" Fork asks. He then lights up his horn and a treacherous storm of crimson gets unleashed from it. The storm strikes down to the ground in the middle of the hexagon, and it becomes highlighted in triangles. Lines begin to appear throughout the Crystal Palace and the triangles pick up and fly away. The group begins to fall until they land in a vast onyx wasteland.
"Why did you have to do that? Just let the villain carry on with their stereotypical speeches. It helps us better prepare." Spoon says.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking about how he'd react." Applejack says.
Up above, the scenery around the Crystal Palace returns to normal, albeit with the large hole in the ground. Archmagician Fork glances downward to look at them. "Oh and before I forget, here's a parting gift. King Sombra says hello." He drops a piece of King Sombra's horn into the pit and watches King Sombra materialize into his gaseous form.
"Cadanceeee..." Sombra growls. He recognizes her and the rest of the friends that helped imprison him before. With a growl, he launches himself into the ground and dark crystals begin to grow.
"King Sombra? Here? Oh good grief..." Twilight remarks.
"Yeah thanks a lot, Applejack!" Pinkie Pie exclaims.
"Oh come on, who could have predicted this would happen?" Applejack complains.
"I kind of did." Spoon says.
"What? You did?" Applejack asks.
"Of course. We were heading to the Crystal Empire to fight a foe from another universe. Fork must have teamed up with King Sombra in order to acquire his interdimensional powers. That's the only thing that would make sense."
"Hmm, Ah guess so..." Applejack seems to ponder this.
"Umm, guys I think we should do something about the crystals." Twilight adds. The crystals continued to grow until they were much bigger.
"I'll go get help." Cadance says before taking off and flying towards the hole.
Fork's horn glowed and a magical barrier appeared around the hole. Cadance hit it and it zapped her. "Tsk tsk, Princess. You won't be escaping that easily." Fork quipped.
Sombra took his gaseous form once again and looked at the group with a growl and a smile. They were approaching their imminent doom and it couldn't be helped but make him just the tiniest bit more happy.
"Twilight what do we do?" Cadance asks.
Twilight seemed to be freaking out a bit before she composed herself. She took a deep breath and released it. "Okay, so remember what happened last time. The powers of light and hope were enough to repel King Sombra. Before, he was operating at full power, but now he's at a shell of his former self. He had thousands of years to build up the defenses on the Crystal Palace, whereas now, he's only had a few months. So he's definitely not operating at full power. It will be much easier for us to dispatch him."
"But what about the Elements of Harmony? We kinda need Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity, don't we?" Applejack asks.
"Well, as long as they're in our hearts, they should be enough to light the way with us." Twilight responded. She opens her suitcase and she levitates the Element of Magic onto her head. She also levitates the Element of Laughter onto Pinkie's neck and the Element of Honesty onto Applejack's.
Spoon chimed in. "With my icons of power, you should be able to connect with the Elements even from vast distances." He said an incantation and his musical note materialized and multiplied into a symphony. Music began to grow. As Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack rose into the air, a line of magic wrapped across them. The line continued into the vortex of the symphony across to her friends. Their eyes glowed and magic shot out of Twilight's crown. The magic hit King Sombra and wrapped around him, confining him.
"Nooooo!" Sombra exclaims. The rainbow light hits him and he disappears into nothingness. The magic then goes up into the air and hits the shield, destroying it. It also seemed to change the surroundings to make them a nicer coral color.
Cadance lifts the group up with her magic and flies through the hole. Shining Armor, Twilight, and Cadance all work together to seal up the hole until the Palace is back to the way things were.
"Now, where did he go?" Shining Armor asks.
"That snake! He couldn't defeat the true power of Friendship, so he probably slinked back into the shadows to await another time to attack." Spoon responds. "Knowing him, he probably went up to the Crystal Library."
"Then that's where we need to go." Shining replies. The group got up and began to head up the stairwell.
