New begining based on what little we know of G5. Equestria is a land divided. But Twilight Sparkle will soon learn that if they are to survive the coming Shadows then every pony must learn to come together. If only there was a book telling her how.
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria there lived the three tribes of Ponies. The strong Earth Ponies, the brave Pegasis, and the magical Unicorns.
Each tribe lived happily upon their own lands, each land being a bubble of safety and peace sheltering each tribe from the violent and deadly magical storms that almost always raged right outside their territories.
Travel between lands was always dangerous and fraught with risk on those rare days when the storms were quiet, for no pony could ever be sure how long the corridors between lands would remain open. So each tribe lived by themselves, rarely if ever making contact with each other and would continue to do so for all time… or so it seemed.
Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, many creatures from playful ponies to daring dragons lived each day together with joy and wonderment.
But then the catastrophe happened. An unimaginable power tore through the very star Equestria orbited, and the world and it's two moons were set adrift into cold space. But the Alicorns, the most magical and wise race within Equestria, would not let this be the end. Bringing their magic together they sacrificed everything for the world they so loved.
Queen Majesty of the Alicorns sent herself to the first moon, imbuing it with their power and love, breathing the flame of life into it so that would forever bring light and happiness every being of Equestria.
King Grace of the Alicorns sent himself to the second moon, imbuing it with their strength and wisdom, scattering countless lights across the darkness surrounding their world, to forever guide and protect the destiny of the world below.
And to watch over the new sun and stars the last of the Alicorns, two sisters, were left behind. But when the world looked like it was saved, the sisters disappeared with only this message remaining:
Beware, the dark stars shall aid in her escape and the world will be cast in eternal night.
Without the sisters, the magic of the Alicorns went out of control and the lands of Equestria were torn apart by eternal tempests. Earth Ponies, Pegasus, Unicorns, and others were separated and left adrift from each other, with travel between the lands being full of danger and risk.
But not all was lost, and the new sun and moon continued to shine and in time life adjusted to this divided world. Creatures of all kinds went about their lives and eventually the tale of the Alicorn's and the two sisters passed into myth. But just because the warning was forgotten did not mean the danger was gone, and one day a new light would be needed to fight the coming Shadows....
The thatched roofs of Ponyville shown golden in the light of the early morning sun as a trio of earth ponies trotted down the road. An empty cart being pulled behind the largest of the trio, a mountain of a pony with a coat of dark red and a mane of corn silk yellow. His companions, a rather tall - though not as tall as her brother - pony with a healthy orange coat and blonde mane in a braid and her sister spoke amicably as the family headed into the town market.
The street was a bustle of noise and chatter as herds of earth ponies and the cheery whistles of small steam engines joined together to form the musical back ground to Ponyville’s early morning. Small groups of ponies worked together to open the shuttered store fronts as two ponies would alternate pulling on the chains to hoist the shop doors while others hustled too and from to set out tables and wind-up the displays.
The occasional clockwork cart rattled along the street, guided by some family on their way to market. A baker pulled back the great brake lever on a mixing bowl releasing the ceramic arm of the mixer to reach into the pony sized bowl as a trio of assistants poured in a large sack of flour, two firmly gripping with their jaws the opening of the bag as the third tilted the bottom of the bag up with his head. Across the way a florist hummed a lively tune as she patted down the soil of the flower pot before her as her tail hit a switch, setting a series of small spring loaded gears spinning as they cranked open the greenhouse’s skylight.
All around ponies worked together with each other and their mechanical helpers.
“Hey Applejack, so what are we getting today?” the youngest of the group inquired, her bright red bow bouncing jauntily in her fiery red mane set against her light-yellow coat.
“The new school year’s starting up soon so we’ll need to pick up some new supplies for you Apple Bloom. Not to mention that Big Mac needs new work shoes and I’ll need to replace my work shoes for the new place I’m starting at.” Applejack replied as she and her sister Apple Bloom kept up with the larger stallion’s gentle pace.
“Ya mean that you’ve got to pay so you can work for somepony else?”
“The working world can be a cruel place sometimes little sis, especially if you’re only working part time. No one’s really willing to spring for your stuff.” The blonde mare answered as her and her brother’s shoulders seemed to sag and their expressions took on a dead and lifeless stare. Shaking her head a bit, the orange pony continued on, “and of course granny wanted us to pick up a few more jars and a new ladle at Barn Yard Bargains and finally check out a copy of ‘Records of Rare Root Remedies’ from the library.”
The mention of the final stop brought a sudden momentary stop to the youngest member of the group before she quickly sprinted ahead to catch up to her retreating companions. “The library? Do we really have to go there? Can’t we just pick up a new copy at a book store or something?”
“Now now Apple Bloom, there’s no sense in buying a new copy when we can just borrow what we need for now. Besides there’s nothing wrong with the library, don’t you like all those comic books they have now?”
“Well yeah…,” Apple Bloom groused as she looked away, her head hung low. “it’s just Ms. Sparkle can be kind of …weird. How’s she able to live without anypony else like that? Just isn’t natural.”
Rolling her eyes Apple Jack briefly chuckled. “I’ll agree that she is a bit of a strange one, but she’s a hard-working mare when it comes to those books of hers, and you know she isn’t really alone.”
“You know what I mean, she’s barely in town for more than an hour and barely talks to anypony else. And one time I saw her just walk right by somepony that was struggling to unload some carrots from a cart, who does something like that?”
Frowning a bit, Apple Jack nodded slightly acknowledging her sister’s claim, but decided to try to defend the young librarian. “That may be true, but we don’t know Ms. Sparkle’s side of the story now do we?”
Seeing her sister shake her head Apple Jack leaned down to gently nuzzle Apple Bloom, “Who knows, maybe she didn’t see that other pony, or she could have been in a rush to help somepony else she promised. These things sometimes happen. So, I don’t want you to go around spreading rumors about another member of the community like that, we all stick together; it’s the Earth Pony way.”
Deflating a bit Apple Bloom conceded as she brushed up against her older sister to show her apology. “OK AJ, I guess it could have been something else. I’ll try to keep an open mind about Ms. Sparkle.”
“That’s all I’m asking,” Apple Jack replied, giving the filly a brief hug. “Why I’m sure the Ms. Sparkle every bit a loving member of the Ponyville community as any other Earth Pony!”
“Ugh,” Twilight Sparkle grunted as she flopped her head down upon her desk. “I hate everypony here. Spike, I command you to burn this town down to the ground.”
Smirking from his side of the room, a small dragon with purple scales and green back and head frills continued to shelve a small pile of books back into place. “Don’t tempt me Twi, if I did who would we buy our groceries from?”
Grumbling under her breath the purple Earth Pony with a starburst pattern on her flank and a purple mane with a pink streak tied in a bun, slowly rose to a sitting position upon her cushion. “Would it kill those ponies to actually return their books on time? Or without damaging the spines? Or not spill pony know’s what on the pages? Or to not rip the pages!?”
Seeing his companion grow increasingly agitated Spike the dragon leisurely jogged across the room to gently rub her shoulders. “Hey now, I know that ponies can be idiots a lot of times, but even I’ve got to admit that not all of you are that bad. Don’t let a few rotten apples spoil the rest of your day.”
The tension easing from her withers as Spike continued his skillful ministrations, the town librarian and semi-professional mad scientist began to relax.
“I guess you’re right, I suppose you only need to burn down half the town.”
Chuckling the young drake patted his roommate on the back, “There you go, now we’ll only be imprisoned in Tartarus for a hundred years instead of a thousand. I knew you were a smart mare.”
The town library that was the current home to Twilight Sparkle and Spike Dragon was one of the oldest living spaces in Ponyville. A testament to the power of Earth Pony magic, it was grown from seed and lovingly shaped and sculpted by the early settlers. Not a single nail nor saw was ever used in its construction. A true living home that had acted as a shelter to its earliest inhabitants, then as a gathering space, and finally a library to the history of the community around it. Any visitor to the town was always enraptured by the massive tree in the center of the old district of Ponyville, its branches holding various rooms and storage spaces, and its green leaves providing shade and comfort to passersby.
Within its hallowed confines Twilight and Spike had made a home for themselves and now oversaw the day to day operations of the library and the needs of its patrons.
Blowing her mane out of her eyes, Twilight and Spike continued to go through the libraries old and new inventory, the occasional title catching one of their interest before being tucked away to be read later. Twilight's pile being the larger by far. The comics were special to them both though, as each title generated a new debate from the plausibility of the villain’s plan actually working in real life to all the different applications to a hero’s super power. Thus, the two quietly passed the afternoon away in comfort.
Until said comfort was broken by the door slamming open from the entrance of three lively and loud ponies. “Morning Ms. Sparkle! We were wondering if you had a copy of ‘Records of Rare Root Remedies’ in stock?” the Orange Earth Pony with the long blonde mane exclaimed as the door loudly slammed shut behind her and her compatriots. Beside her, the younger filly looked curiously around, the yellow one zeroing in on the comics section and already beginning to trot in that direction. While outside a large red stallion stood by two wagons keeping watch.
Wincing from the noise, Twilight set her stamp down as she put on an obviously forced and painful smile upon her face as she faced the one facet of being a librarian that she despised. Dealing with visitors. “There’s a perfectly organized and updated card catalogue right next to the entrance, directly to your right actually. I’m sure you can find whatever book you are looking for using that.”
“Well,” Applejack hemmed as she rubbed the back of her head, “I thought that since you know the library so well, I could just ask you about it, seeing as how you live here as well and all. Plus, I never could figure out that complicated number system thing that you use.”
“It’s the Dew-Eve decimal system, that same one they use in every other library in existence. It really helps with keeping track of everything.” Twilight replied, her already strained smile straining even more.
“Mm Hmm” Applejack nodded as she proceeded to look everywhere in the library but the card catalogues next to her. “So if you could just point to where the book is I’d greatly appreciate it.”
No longer able to keep up her facade Twilight’s smile collapsed as she reluctantly stuck a hoof out pointing towards the top of a shelf across the room from Applejack.
“Thank you so much Ms. Sparkle! I’ll be sure to leave a tip in the jar.” Giving a quick bow of her head Applejack head off towards her destination.
Grunting a bit as she begrudgingly appreciated the promise of further financial contributions Twilight Sparkle was about to return to her cataloguing when she heard a slow whistle come from the other mare.
“Wow, that sure is high up.” Craning her next up, the oldest daughter of the Ponyville Apple branch looked up at the little green book out of her reach.
“Ladder's next to the bookself,” Twilight absentmindedly muttered as she scanned the sheet she was working on to find where she had left off. A feeling of discomfort began to form in the back of her neck though before Twilight looked up to see the confused look upon Applejack’s face, the shocked look from the young filly, and Spike looking perplexedly at the whole scene.
“Oh right! Of course, ha ha ha!” came Twilight’s awkward laugh as she dashed from behind her desk to clamp down on the rungs of a step ladder leaning against the bookself. Pulling the open ladder with her teeth she brought it over to appreciative Applejack and held it in place as the other mare got on.
Climbing the ladder, Applejack stretched her neck to bite down on her target, and book in tow headed back to the smaller librarian. “Thank you very much Ms. Sparkle. You know, my Granny will be brewing up some remedies this weekend. Everypony is invited to bring over their own ingredients and bottles if they’d like something. Why don’t you come on down, we’d love to see you around town more often and I bet you’d know of all sorts of different potions and alchemy to show everypony else.”
Her ears folding back as she gave an awkward smile before scrambling back to the safety of her desk Twilight shielded away from the friendlier pony. “Um, that does actually sound nice, but I couldn’t impose on your Stable like that.”
“What?! The Apple family isn’t like some of those other Stables, Ms Sparkle. We’re a down to earth and practical breed. Don’t let something like that intimidate you. Just because we’re a Stable Clan doesn’t mean that we’re any different from any other pony here in town.”
“Stable Clan?” Spike asked, as he looked to where the two mares were standing.
Backing up a bit as she eyed the librarian’s helper, Applejack nervously smiled as she tried not to let the fire breathing creature of legend intimidate her. After all, if a small mare like Mr. Sparkle could spend all day with him then that had to mean that he was tame, right? “Oh! Uh, hello there uh…” Looking back to the librarian Applejack asked, “What’s your pet’s name?”
“Hey!”
The purple mare had to cover her mouth with her hoof to stifle her laughter. “Spike isn’t a pet-“
“Darn right I’m not,” Spike grumbled.
“He helps me out here in the library and has assisting me for a while now.”
Having the decency to look admonished, Applejack rubbed the back of her head. “Sorry about that Mr. Spike. I’ve never really seen a dragon before, much less talked to one. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a thing about them and I’m sorry to you that I offended you. Could you forgive me?”
Holding the other pony’s gaze for moment, Spike relaxed his shoulders as he exhaled the breath he was holding. “Alright, since you apologized so well, I guess I could let it go. Just don’t do it again.”
Smiling a little easier herself the orange pony nodded. “You won’t have to ever worry about me. And I’d be happy to answer your question about Stables. Stable Clans are old families that according to legend did some great deed or service that was recognized waaaaaay back in the day. You can tell which families they are ‘cuz they’ve all got a clan name. Our’s is Apple, making me Applejack Apple, and that’s my little sis, Applebloom Apple.”
“So you’re a family of hero’s?”
Bursting out in laughter the young mare stomped the floor hard. Soon her amusement died down and she wiped a tear out of her eye. “Heh, sorry. Some families where I suppose, but that was a LONG time ago. Plus, from what I heard, our family used to be farmers that grew apples so delicious that it impressed some really fancy so and so.”
“Apples,” Spike deadpanned.
“Apples,” Applejack nodded.
“So you’re farmers?”
“Nope,” she answered as she shook her head. “Our family hasn’t been farmers for centuries. Ponies needed help and some ancestor left the farm to help establish a town or two and never looked back.”
“Wait, they founded towns? If a dragon did that then that’d make them the lord of that city. You guys are nobility?” Spike asked incredulously as he took in the simple and humble appearance of the pony in front of him.
Chuckling Applejack shook her head. “Nah, our family has never been one for fancy titles. We Apples were just happy to help out with whatever we could. Never asked for any reward either, though sometimes I sort of wished they had. Maybe then me an’ Big Mac outside wouldn’t have to take on so many jobs to make ends meet!” the blonde pony joked as she gave a good-humored laugh.
“Um, well I hope things turn around for you and your stable Ms. Apple,” Twilight said awkwardly as she reached for the book to check it out of the library. .
“Call me Applejack,” the other mare interrupted well naturedly as she then extended a hoof out to the librarian, rolling it a bit as she tried to coach the mare behind the desk to also share her first name.
“Right, well thank you for stopping by and using your public library. I’ll be busy that weekend, but I’ll be sure to drop by if I have the chance,” the purple Earth Pony lied through her teeth.
Looking confused for a bit, Applejack’s warm smile returned soon after as she took her book in her jaw and tossed it into her saddle bags with a flick of her head. “Well, we hope that we’ll see you there then Ms. Sparkle,” Applejack called out from over her shoulder as she and her sister left with a loud clatter of hooves on wood and an energetic slam of the door.
Resting her head on her work surface, Twilight closed her eyes as she recovered from her one social interaction for the day. “I just really don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of overly friendly strangers all day even if it would involve local alchemic formulas.”
“Huh? You’re into that stuff too? I thought you were more into gadgets and gizmos,” Spike inquired.
“Of course I would be,” Twilight responded as she straightened her posture, taking what Spike referred to as her ‘lecturing pose’. “This could be a good opportunity to observe the local potions market and any colloquial variants to how they practice alchemy here. Not only that but it would have been a good chance to see the personal practices in Earth Pony magic by an actual Stable clan.” Picking up another book, Twilight flipped it open with her muzzle to begin reading. “Oh well, it would have been nice I suppose.”
“And you’re not going because…?”
“Well, because of other ponies, duh.” Twilight replied, flipping another page.
Smacking his forehead with the palm of his claw, Spike pulled out a parchment and quill and began writing.
Hearing the distinct sound of a letter being drafted Twilight turned to her assistant and roommate. “What are you doing Spike?”
“Letting the Apples know you’re coming,” was the small dragon’s succinct reply.
Narrowing her eyes, the purple Earth Pony leaned over her book as she glared at the rebelling reptile. “Spike, I’m not going and you can’t make me.”
“Sure I can,” Spike replied before rolling up the parchment and taking a deep breath.
“Don’t you dare!” Jumping towards him, Twilight was too late as green flame engulfed the parchment and a wisp of green smoke silently flew out the window.
“Why Spike? Why?!” Knowing it was too late, Twilight watched the message disappear out of the window and soon a terrified shriek and a yell of ‘What in the world?!’ could be heard from outside. “You know I hate crowds and gatherings, why would you do this to me?”
Patting his companion on the shoulder Spike shook his head slowly, “Now now Twilight, just trust your old buddy Spike-“
“We’ve only known each other for a year.”
“-and let me take you to this weird thing you ponies apparently do. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want to spend everyday indoors with you. You’ve got to start going out more and meeting the folks here, and I’d like to be able to get to know the ponies here without worrying about the town guard being called in to corral a ‘wandering’ dragon.”
“Ugh, but it’ll be noisy and crowded and everypony will be asking me questions about where I’m from and keep expecting me to help them out with things,” Twilight whined as she lightly stomped her hooves on the floor.
Raising an eyebrow at that last statement, Spike rubbed his chin in though. “You mean like with Applejack and the ladder?”
“Yes, exactly like that.”
“Yeah, what was that all about? Is that an Earth Pony thing?”
Rolling her eyes Twilight once again straightened herself as she patted her mane bun, this time leaning down to pull open a drawer with her teeth and pluck a pair of glasses with her lips. Placing them upon the table, a quick flick of the tongue to get the temples and tips were unfolded, she leveled her head to the edge of the desk and slowly pushed them onto her face with one hoof. Properly attired she looked over to Spike.
“Pretty much. Since we haven’t really gone out much you probably didn’t notice, but it’s sort of a thing most other Earth Ponies do. It’s all about community, family, and helping each other out.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Twilight sighed. “I personally think it’s less about being altruistic and more to do with physiology and its impact on societal evolution.”
“Of course, it’s so obvious,” Spike snorted as he crossed his arms.
Ignoring her roommate’s snark Twilight continued. “I believe that it is due to Earth Pony hooves not being well suited to grasp objects though we are still able to do so to a limited degree.”
“Yeah, still trying to figure out that sticky hoof thing you guys sometimes got going on.”
“Our only real way to manipulate tools is with our mouth,” the mare remarked.
“And I’m constantly trying to forget that almost everything I touch around here has been in some ponies mouth at one time.”
“This is still inefficient though. Try to imagine going through life with only one claw Spike.”
Blinking at that, Spike lifted a claw to eye level and tried to think about how his life would be like with only the one.
“I bet that early communities that banded together to lend an extra jaw to their neighbors and help with various day to day tasks would have benefited from an increase in production as two ponies together are better than one. These communities would have eventually beat out others with more individualistic minded ponies.”
“So what? You’re some sort of evolutionary throw back?”
Sputtering in indignation Twilight glared at the dragon. “This is not a genetic trait, it’s a LEARNED behavior passed down from generation to generation. My genetic makeup is just fine, thank you very much. It just means that these Earth Pony communities tend to just expect aid to come trotting by and for everypony nearby to just drop what they’re doing to come by to help,” she groused as she crossed her forelegs together.
“Oh,” thinking about it, the wheels within the young dragon’s mind began to spin. “So because you grew up in-“
“Yes,” Twilight injected, cutting Spikes train of thought short.
“Ah,” realizing that that particular conversation was done with for the foreseeable future an uncomfortable silence fell upon the duo. “Soooo,” Spike started, trying to escape the now awkward atmosphere, “tell you what, I’ll run interference for you this weekend so you can concentrate on doing your nerd stuff.”
“You’d do that for me?” Looking appreciatively at the dragon, Twilight thought of the possibilities this weekend could afford. New magics, old knowledge being shared, notes upon notes that she could be taking. And all without needing to really interact with any pony else!
“Of course, I’ll still expect you to talk to the other ponies there,” Spike injected, apparently deciding to shatter Twilights good mood.
“But wh-h-h-h-y Spike?” Twilight groaned.
“I can’t believe I’m the one who has to tell you this but,” leveling a firm stare at the pony across from him he delivered his task for this weekend, “You need to make some friends.”
“And what about you?” was the immediate reply.
“I’ll have you know,” Spike said jerking a thumb to himself, “that I’m a delight to be around. Once I can talk to those ponies without them freaking out, I’ll have them eating out of my claws.”
A blown raspberry greeted his declaration.
“Real mature Twilight.”
Slumping down, it seemed that there would be no escaping the social awkwardness of the upcoming gathering. “Nothing good ever came out of making friends,” Twilight groused.
Trotting down the road, a small earth pony with a smaller dragon on her back and two full saddle bags made their way to their destination. They had made the journey from the old town district of Ponyville, with its quaint family stores and modest dwellings, to the market district with all of its hustle and bustle. The constant stream of noise and chatter put the purple earth pony on alert as she focused on the road ahead of her and marched as quickly as she could out of the area.
Soon, the various bright window displays as well as the congestion of pony and steam powered cart alike gave way to the new residential area. While thatched roofs and simple homes were still dominant, sprinkled around were the hard-shingled roofs of larger family homes and the occasional multistory apartment. The sounds of this part of town also changed as well; whereas the old town district was distinct in its peace and quiet with nary a steam whistle in ear shot, and the market was a cacophony of clanking gears and clipping of hooves, the new residential area seemed to strive to be a balance between the two.
Well-manicured lawns and gardens lined the streets, and small fountain-style bird baths allowed the soothing trickle of water to provide ambient noise. Their styles ranged from simple water falling down miniature rocks, to one depicting a tiny filly joyfully tilting a pitcher into a bowl. Here and there a mail box merrily tooted a small melody announcing that the mail mare had deposited the daily mail into them. Savory smells filled the streets as tuffs of smoke wafted from the many chimneys. Occasionally, a clockwork cart carrying a small family would drive past, but even those seemed to have well-oiled gears and insulated boilers, since they rattled and clanked less than their larger delivery cousins did in the market district.
“How come we don’t live in this place? Looks nice enough,” Spike asked as he looked from side to side from atop Twilight’s back.
“There was no library in this part of town and having books delivered to me every day would have been too expensive and required me to get a job doing who-knows-what to pay for it.” Twilight responded. “By living at Golden Oaks, I can be surrounded by books all day and be paid for it! I can’t believe you’d want to live anywhere else; I don’t see what’s so great about this part of town.”
“Uh huh,” Spike nodded absently as he watched a group of foals playing in a yard, their shrieks of joy filling his ears as he took in the simple scene of childhood fun. But their laughter died down as they saw the tiny dragon riding the small mare. With a startled yelp, all three were soon running back into the safety of their home. “Yeah, I guess there really isn’t anything here for us.”
Absently nodding her head, Twilight continued on until she reached a solid looking four-story building. Even from the street they could hear the sounds of ponies gathered together on the roof-top patio as music and chatter floated down to them. Pushing her hoof against the gate latch, Twilight released a small counter-weight, and soon the mechanical gate slid out of the way allowing the two to enter. Once they had passed, a wound spring rolled the gate back into place and reset the counter weight. Pausing briefly at the open front door, the two looked to each other and shrugged as they entered the building and took the lift up to the roof. The wrought iron gate of the lift unfolded and closed in front of them as they got on.
The rooftop gardens of Sweet Apple Apartments held a lively gathering as many of the locals came by to both socialize and to view the fruits of their neighbors’ labors. A trio of ponies, known around town as the Flower Trio, eagerly showed off the various strains of flowers they grew. The nectar and pollen of many of the fragrant flowers was sought after by their patrons for use in potions and salves, with a few of the less expensive ones becoming snacks by wandering browsers. Across from them, a small table with various presses and strainers came to life as their inventor joyfully wound their springs and lit the boilers. Bottles and bags, potpourri and pots, and cans and candy were all on display as the air took on a festive feel to it.
But the center of attention of this impromptu fair was the box gardens themselves, arranged neatly in a grid upon the roof. Everywhere one looked, they could see the results of months of hard labor. Fruits and vegetables of all shapes and sizes filled each box to overflowing, and the various guests traveled to and fro as they sniffed and gazed upon the various varieties of plants on display. Tall poles surrounded the whole roof as lanterns were strung between them and lit, illuminating the gathering.
It was onto this scene that Twilight and Spike entered as they stepped out of the apartment’s lift unnoticed. Quietly shuffling to the side and trying to avoid any attention to herself, Twilight, with Spike still riding on her back, made her way to an empty corner to get a better feel of the area.
“Whew! This one’s got a real kick to it!” exclaimed one young stallion with a pair of turnips for a cutie mark. Holding a blade of golden hued grass, he took another nibble, shuddering as if an electric current had just run through his body.
“Eh, you better be ready to pay for what you’ve tasted so far Hayseed,” the matriarch of the Apple Stable, Granny Smith, casually warned as she waved her hoof at the offender.
“Don’t worry Ms. Granny Smith Ma’am, you can be sure I’ll leave the entire payment with your granddaughter before I leave. I can’t wait to see how you’ll use these grasses tonight.”
Nodding her head, Granny Smith headed towards a table at the front of the roof where her grandson Big Mac was already putting the finishing touches to the various bottles, mortars and pestles, and other implements that the older pony would be using.
Looking around, Spike took in the atmosphere. “So I take it this is more than just someone’s garden sale? These plants are used for special purposes?”
Backing away from the bustle of the gathered ponies, Twilight’s eyes darted back and forth, checking to make sure her entrance was as discreet as possible. “Yeah, everything here is probably going to be used in any variety of tonics. I’m pretty sure those grasses over there can be charred and mixed in with iron alloys to make Damascus steel,” she casually explained as she settled into a nice dark corner with Spike still atop her back.
“Wait, what? How does that work?” the dragon asked as he suddenly began reappraising what he had initially taken in as a small hobbyist gathering. The knowledge that these simple weeds could be used to make powerful items caused him to rethink the entire event.
Settling down and letting Spike off of her back, Twilight broke with her survey of the area and turned towards her companion. “Earth ponies have a strong connection to the earth, as the name implies. We can channel magic through our hooves into the ground to imbue plants, stone, and other materials with our magic. Plants are especially susceptible to earth pony magic, as they can continuously absorb it throughout their entire life cycle, and even pass on some of it on to future generations.”
Blinking owlishly, Spike once again began to reevaluate his roommate and the gathered ponies. But before he could ask anything further, a loud cry broke out as a cheerful mint-colored unicorn with green and white striped mane trotted towards them; Lyra Heartstings, a regular to the library. By her side trotted a sturdy-looking, cream-colored earth pony mare with a unique two-tone blue and pink mane. Side by side, Spike could see that the unicorn was about half a head shorter than her companion, who in turn was about average height for an earth pony.
Seeing Twilight wince, Spike tried to intercept the unicorn mare but was caught by surprise when several things seemed too happened at once. A piercing shriek and cry of “Dragon!!” filled the air as suddenly the gathering of ponies exploded into a full riot almost instantly.
A mare at the flower stand suddenly fainted while one of her companions cried out in alarm, “The Horror! The Horror!” Her final companion bolted off in a blind panic, over-turning their stand and crashing into the crowd. All around, ponies suddenly began screaming and running wild, their eyes filled with irrational fear as they tried to find some way to escape. Several ponies tried to jam themselves into the lift, the mass of bodies soon overcrowding the device and denying anypony the room to actually pull the lever to operate the machine.
Just before several of the ponies could attempt jumping off the roof, an ear-splitting whistle pierced the crowd, while a strong but steady beat of hooves pounded on the roof top, the small tremors vibrating through everypony there. Big Mac, the source of the steady rhythm, strode forward from his grandmother’s side as she lowered her hoof from her lips. Heading straight towards the most panicked looking ponies, he sided up to them and lowered his head to pull them closer, one on each side of him. His steady heart beat and measured breathes calmed the ponies and soon their hurried breaths began to slow down to match his. Continuing to press them close, his large hoof continued to pound out the steady rhythm on the roof, much like a heartbeat, with each pulse traveling up the bodies of those gathered, making them unconsciously relax to match their own body rhythms to the steady pace being set.
“Now relax. Nice and easy everypony,” Applejack called out as she approached the mob of ponies at a slow pace, bringing attention to herself so they would not be further spooked. “It’s okay; you’re all fine. I can personally vouch that Spike here is a nice being; a real gentle-dragon once you get to know him.”
Seeing a respected member of the Apple Family Stable speak favorably of the dragon helped most of the ponies assembled truly calm down.
Trotting up to stand besides Spike, Lyra Heartstings also addressed the crowd. “Yeah, I’ve known Spike and Twilight from way back, they even help me find new stories to sing about for all of you! I can personally assure you that he’s completely harmless unless you happen to be a plate of gems,” she finished with a small giggle.
Smiling with gratitude at the unicorn, Applejack once again addressed the crowd. “So you see, there’s nothing to be afraid of. The Apple Stable supports Spike, and even the town unicorn Lyra Heartstings backs him up.”
“Yep! That’s me, Ponyville’s own magus!” A gold colored aura surrounded her horn, with a similar one encasing an empty flower pot and lifting it off the ground. Sounds of awe filled the air as many of the earth ponies gathered took in the spectacle of real unicorn magic being performed in front of them for the first time.
Off to the side, Twilight heard a snort and turned to look around. To her left she spotted a short earth pony mare in a wide-brimmed hat and light dress turn her nose up at the display and trot away. Her light lavender coat and dark purple mane with light blue streaks disappeared into the mix of ponies.
“So feel free to chat it up with him if you like, and continue to enjoy yourselves. Granny will be starting her class soon, so get ready and find a spot to watch from,” Applejack continued as she gave a bow to the assembled crowd.
Despite her invitation to do so, no pony came up to Spike to speak with him. Instead, though much calmer now, every pony seemed to give him a wide breath, which caused him to lower his head dejectedly. A warm hoof wrapped around his shoulders, and he looked to see Twilight give him a sad smile. Soon her own hoof was joined by a mint green hoof and an orange hoof patting his back as Lyra and Applejack joined in. Even Lyra’s companion tentatively patted him on his scales.
“Thanks guys,” Spike said, smiling a little as he accepted their support.
“You got it pal. Me an’ Bonbon here will always have your back. Don’t know why everypony was freaking out like that. I think you’re pretty cool!”
Chuckling, Spike’s smile grew larger.
“What do you say that, as an apology, I let you and Ms. Sparkle here help Granny Smith with tonight’s lesson?”
Gasping, Twilight rushed forward, her hoof still wrapped around Spike and pulling him forward with her. “You mean it? We’d love to help!”
Rolling his eyes at the mare’s antics, Spike reached up to remove Twilight’s foreleg from around his neck. “Yeah sure, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“All right gather around everypony, let’s get this show on the road.” Standing behind the table set up for her, Granny Smith warmly looked out over the assembled family and neighbors.
Off to the side Twilight and Spike stood by, with Twilight’s eagerness to learn blocking out everything else around her as she observed the old matriarch pull out a variety of simple dried herbs and then a pot of fresh lavender. Beside Twilight, Spike dutifully jotted down everything on a note pad.
“You’ll need as fresh as you can get for this next part, dried or even day old are just no good.” Gently poking the tip of her hoof into the soil of the pot, Granny Smith slowly traced her hoof up the base of the stem and then up to the upper portions of the plant. The young sapling eagerly fed on the magic provided, growing larger as fresh buds began to form at the tips of its stems before they burst in to full blossoms, and a heady scent of the fragrant flowers was soon filling the air. With a quick nip of her teeth the blossom was snipped off and fell into a waiting kettle joining the other ingredients.
Next she placed the kettle upon a copper base, the flat plate of copper in the center being open in the middle with a large circle drawn there. Around the circle was a grid of open ceramic holes, some holding glass vacuum tubes plugged into them while others held various old insulated wires and clay baked resistors with rainbow colored stripes on them. Another smaller flat plate sat just on the lower edge of the entire device. Raising her hoof, she aimed it just above the smaller plate before stamping down and sending a pulse of energy from her hoof to the entire set up. Earth pony magic flowed into the construct and was shaped in turn by the various tubes, each one flaring brightly before the magic filling them shot into the center of the circle and into the kettle. Warming immediately, the kettle gave a cheery puff of purple steam accompanied by a short whistle as the mixture inside congealed and changed from green to white.
“Now this cream will really help get the aches out of your joints and give you back some of the looseness you may have lost over the years. Just a little dab will do, but if you plan on going out and need something with a little less smell, let me show you how adding a bit of marjoram and swapping out this trotter’s tube #3 here with a meadow mark 5 will really –“
“Excuse me!” Waving her hoof in the air, Twilight called to the older mare to get her attention. “Excuse me, Ma’am? Mrs. Granny Smith ma’am?”
Blinking at the sudden interruption Granny Smith turned to her side to take notice of the pony at the side of the stage. “Er yes, Ms. Sparkle?”
Smiling brightly, Twilight pointed towards the Potion Maker's Breadboard ™, Granny Smith’s hoof still hovering above it about to make it’s alteration. “I’d like to get a diagram of your spell matrix before you do anything to it, as well as after.”
Chuckling Granny Smith shook her head at the younger mare’s antics. “No need deary, it’s just a simple Spring Trigger’s setup. You can find pictures of them in the front of any recipe book. I’d imagine your library would have it in nearly every book there.”
“That’s exactly why I want to get a diagram!” the purple mare exclaimed bouncing on her hooves in excitement. “I want to compare it with the standard variant and determine if there are any measureable variations in thaumatic strength based on differences on wiring choices or in the order in which each thaumatic vacuum tube is installed. I’m writing a paper on the subject,” Twilight finished, looking proud as she stood as tall as she could. Through this exchange Spike had already walked past Granny Smith, and carefully lifted the kettle out of the way to make a sketch of the existing setup before pulling out another sheet of paper in preparation for the minor change Granny was about to make.
Blinking, Granny Smith turned towards her granddaughter for some explanation only to meet an equally confused and somewhat embarrassed shrug of the shoulders.
“Ah, alright I suppose,” Granny uncertainly replied as she turned back to the table only to meet with Spikes friendly eyes as he gestured back to the magic array. “Right, right. Um, where was I again?”
“Replacing the trotter’s tube #3 with a meadow mark 5 tube,” Twilight helpfully prompted.
“Right, of course,” mumbling to herself Granny quickly swapped out the vacuum tubes and watched as Spike dutifully laid the second sheet of paper down and began making the second sketch.
From where she was standing, Applejack looked apologetically towards all the ponies in attendance as they began to murmur to themselves. Some were confused, while a few were amused by the little librarian’s actions. Behind her Big Macintosh raised an eyebrow.
“I was just being friendly, you know, let everypony see the new pony in town. Maybe get to know her better,” Applejack replied to his unspoken question while rubbing the back of her head.
The eyebrow remained raised.
“So she’s a little … quirky. Nothing wrong with that. Once she’s got her sketches I’m sure things will get right back on track.”
A head tilt joined the raised eyebrow.
“Now don’t you be like that Mac. Once Granny gets going again we’ll be in for a fun night, you’ll see.”
“I know you asked for this thistle but wouldn’t nettle be better for this particular application?” *** “Wait! That’s slightly over the half cup line. Let me get my graduated cylinders and then we can get really crazy with our accuracy." *** “Spike can you rewire this section here on the breadboard while I find the trotters tube 6 and 7? Mrs. Smith, I'm sure you'll find that this set up will increase the efficiency of the thaumaturgy by 0.8% “ *** “Excuse me, but could you explain exactly why you are using juice from a Krim instead of a Brandywine as would normally be done? And how long have Krim’s been planted in this area? As for that matter, the Brandywine’s? Actually, could you just go over the entire history of tomato planting in Ponyville since its inception?” *** “You harvested this from the Everfree Forest!? Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Is it distinct enough that it would count as an entirely new species or are any changes to its properties entirely due to the environmental conditions within the forest itself?”
An hour in and most gathered had expected to have a dozen or so recipes to take home and try, yet currently they were still on the third one as the young librarian interrupted the demonstration yet again. A few attendants had fallen asleep while the rest merely groaned and hung their heads. Seated squarely on her haunches, Applejack held her head in both forehooves. Big Mac just keeping a level stare at his younger sister.
“I made a terrible mistake. I’m a big mare and I can admit that. I’ll just go up there and thank Ms. Sparkle for her time and have Caramel help Granny out.”
“I’m curious myself, do you normally go into the Everfree to gather ingredients?”
It took a moment to register that this new question had not come from the stage but instead from the audience. To hear another voice other than the resident librarian speak was so unusual that Applejack nearly stumbled as her head whipped about to locate the pony.
Perking up from hearing somepony else actually express interest, Granny Smith also turned towards the new voice. “What’s this? We got a real questioner for once?” To the side Spike held in his laughter at Twilight’s look of indignation.
Lowering a lavender hoof, amethyst eyes met the aged matriarch. “Yes, Starlight Glimmer here,” the new mare introduced herself. “I was wondering, do you normally go into the Everfree? Isn’t it dangerous? I’ve certainly tried looking for anypony here that would venture in, but I couldn’t find any that would."
Shrugging her shoulders, Granny gave a small grunt. “Eh, it’s not something I’d recommend to just any ol' pony, but as wild and strange as those woods are, if you know them well enough you can get a good feel as to how to get through. It may change from time to time, but that old beast is as stubborn as they come and not even the tempests can keep the ole’ gal down for long.”
“I see,” the new mare smoothed her light dress as she smirked. “So if I were say, looking for the ruins in the middle of the forest, you would know how to get there?”
A look of alarm crossed the wizened face of Granny Smith before her eyes narrowed and stared down at the new mare. Off to the side, Twilight was prompting Spike to record the conversation as she ran everything she herself knew of the dangerous forest, hungry as ever for any new tidbits of information.
“I think, young missy, that you shouldn’t be chasing after the secrets of the Everfree all willy-nilly. There are things in there that you need to respect; things that wouldn’t take too kindly to an overly curious earth pony poking around in.”
“Well, I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not an earth pony, is it?” And saying so, the mare flung off her hat revealing a horn sprouting from the center of her head. “So what do you say now, old mare? How much would it cost to have you take me through the Everfree?”
Ignoring the crowd’s gasp of surprise at the sight of another unicorn in Ponyville, Granny Smith grit her dentures and steeled her eyes. “The answer is still the same; no.” Letting out a tired sigh the green senior leaned back as she turned her attention back to the table of ingredients before her. “Now I suggest you kindly settle down as I’d like get on with the night. I promised young Hayseed that I’d show him how to use the flag grass.”
“Pity, I was trying to do this the easy way.” Stepping forward a cyan glow began to surround her horn before her view of the stage was cut off by a nervous looking mint unicorn.
“Uh, hey there. I really think that you need to calm down now. Let’s just take a deep breath and maybe we can grab some snacks from-whoa!” Lyra yelled as she found herself suddenly flung magically aside.
Scattering as far from the hostile unicorn as they could, the crowd of ponies bunched together as they watched the unicorn begin to advance again.
“Sorry, as I was –“ But before she could continue the whole world changed, the garden roof top becoming a dark cave, torch light flicking wildly off the walls of the cavern. Looking around her, the unicorn saw shapes emerging from the shadows; tall bipedal figures lifting clubs and spears above their heads as they advanced on the lone pony occupant of the cave, a shivering melody pricking at her ears.
Rolling her eyes, Starlight waved her horn and the melody, as well as the illusion, shattered, a cry to the side revealing Lyra looking shocked at the broken strings of her lyre.
Smirking, Starlight lit her horn again, this time peeling the light dress off her herself and revealing a starburst cutie mark with a pair of two-toned cyan ribbons floating up from it. “You’re out of your league little ‘magus’,” Starlight gloated as she reveled in the look of comprehension and horror on the other unicorn’s face.
Unbeknownst to her, Twilight and Spike’s eyes also widened at the sight.
Not wanting any more interuptions, Starlight’s horn lit once more, a cyan glow encasing both her and Granny Smith and levitating them up off the surface of the roof by several feet.
“Granny!” Bolting across the roof top, Applejack charged ahead, several other earth ponies following in behind her as they raced towards the unicorn, only to see her blast off with Granny Smith in tow, the two sailing off into the night sky in the direction of the Everfree forest.
Applejack didn't have the luxury of being shocked as she watched her grandmother, and matriarch of the family, fly away in the hooves of a stranger. Stumbling back a few steps, she clenched her jaw and forced herself into action. Stomping a hoof, she turned her head to take stock of the situation and fight off every urge to blindly gallop off in full pursuit of the assailant.
Sadly the sudden noise of her hoof seemed to shake the rest of the roof from their stupor and soon ponies were screaming and shouting, rushing into the lift with a few now throwing open the guard rail to the fire exit and rushing down the exterior stairs.
Putting a hoof on Big Mac’s shoulder Applejack just shook her head as he attempted to restore order once more. She knew the others were scared, but once the others had run far enough they’d burn off that panicked energy and begin to calm down, helping to corral any others. As for her, she needed Big Mac with her right now; they had a family member to rescue.
“Go downstairs, get me a pair of saddle bags, some rope, lanterns, a first aid kit, repellent, and anything else you think I’ll need. I’ll round up a search party and head out after Granny.”
Shaking his head, the big red stallion locked gazes with her. “Nope, I’m coming too.”
“Mac,” Applejack began, her voice taking on a heavy tone, a tone of one forced to bare a burden far too soon in life, “it’s a good thing that AppleBloom is out with Cheerilee tonight so she didn’t have to see this. But if I don’t make it back, Mackie,” she paused as the weight of what she knew she had to say only began to settle within herself as well, “she’s going to need family with her, and you’ll be the only one left, you hear?”
“But our cousins-“
Cutting him off Applejack shook her head. “She’s going to need more, you know that. Now go downstairs and gather my things. I promise I’ll be back with Granny before sun-up, you’ll see.”
His chest tightening, Big Mac slowly began backing away from his sister, burning the image of her standing tall among the lantern lights that were illuminating the night sky, silently committing it to memory should it be his last of her, before turning to gallop towards the lift.
Looking around the now much clearer roof top, Applejack checked to see which ponies hadn’t immediately run. They’d be good in forming her rescue party, though from the look of it, the choices were rather slim. Arrayed around her were Golden Harvest (Carrot Top to her friends), Tree Hugger, Bon-Bon, Lyra, and the librarian and her assistant. And with the way Bon-Bon was cradling Lyra’s front forehooves it seemed that Starlight’s magic attack had done more than just break a few lyre strings. Out-classed or not, having any unicorn on her side would have been a boon.
“Carrot, Tree, Bon-Bon, I know that I have no right to ask this of you but-“
A nudge by her side stopped her as Golden Harvest gave a small smile. “You don’t need to say any more Applejack, I’d be proud to help you out.”
“Heeey AJ, we’ve got your back.”
Her eyes misting from the tears of relief starting to form, Applejack wiped them away as she accepted the help from the two ponies around her.
“I’m so sorry Applejack, I-I tried what I could, I tried but she was a Blessed, she was—was- was a Bleeehsed!” Lyra began to sob as Bon-Bon swept her up in a hug and rocked her back and forth.
“Shhh shhh, no pony is blaming you sweetie.”
Nodding her head in agreement Applejack walked up to the pair, Lyra still sobbing in Bon-Bon’s hooves. “I’m not blaming you Lyra, but what can you tell me about the unicorn that ponynapped my granny? What’s a blessed?”
“Blessed is a nick-name unicorns give to other unicorns whose special talent is magic itself,” the librarian of Golden Oaks said as she walked in from the side.
“But she’s a unicorn, aren't they all magic?” Applejack said in a somewhat confused tone.
Shaking her head the lavender librarian explained, “Most unicorns can only do about a dozen or so spells, all mostly related to their cutie mark in some way. Lyra here has a lyre cutie mark, a musical instrument normally carried by bards and story tellers. So she has spells associated with story telling and music. But for unicorns whose cutie marks are related to magic itself, they have access to practically every spell out there and continue to pick up new spells all the time. Such unicorns quickly get placed in high positions of influence and power and are the upper echelon of unicorn society. Getting a magic-related cutie mark makes you practically ensured to a blessed life, hence the nick name.”
A slow burning anger began to form in Applejack’s gut as things began to take shape in her mind. “So this Starlight is a unicorn noble? So the rest of the unicorn government is supporting this? What sort of game is Unitopia playing at here, taking my Granny into the Everfree Forest!?”
Shaking her head, it’s was Ms. Sparkle's turn to look confused. “That’s the strange thing, I’ve never heard of a Starlight Glimmer before. Have you Lyra?"
Shaking her head no, Lyra also began to look confused as she thought about it.
“Lyra and I have been in Ponyville for a little over a year now, so it’s possible that a new Blessed showed up, but this Starlight looked too old to be a new-comer, and all of the Blessed are treated like celebrities. Everypony in Unitopia can name you every Blessed there is; it’s not like there are a lot to begin with.”
Blinking at this new information, Applejack decided that it was a mystery for another time and dropped it, she had a grandmother to save and turned to Bon-Bon. “What do you say Bon-Bon? I could use every hoof I can get.”
“I can’t; Lyra here is hurt,” the cream-coated mare began before a mint muzzle pressed against her.
“It’s okay Bonnie,” Lyra said nuzzling into her fur. “Please, I can tell you want to go; don’t let me hold you back. If only I could have done more; if only I had brought another lyre or something I could have-“
“Don’t, IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT.” Bon-Bon shushed her good friend. Gazing longingly at the platonic love of her life, Bon-Bon looked into her eyes to see the pain and shame put in there by the unicorn Starlight Glimmer. Pulling Lyra close to her one last time, Bon-Bon kissed her friend upon her brow, near the base of her horn to seal the silent promise to her best friend of her return. “Applejack, could your brother take Lyra to the hospital? I’ll be more than eager to pay that Starlight back for hurting her like this.”
“Won’t even be a problem,” Applejack replied. “Alright everypony, gather your things together, we’ll meet at the edge of the Everfree in half an ho-“
“Um, excuse me,” an exasperated voice asked to her side. “Aren’t you going to ask if Spike and I want to go?”
Looking over at the librarian, Applejack took stock of the other mare. Applejack had always been rather tall even among earth ponies while the librarian was down-right tiny. But tonight, seeing her next to Lyra, she had been struck at just how tiny. Unicorns were a good half a head shorter than earth ponies if Lyra was any indication, but Ms. Sparkle was shorter than even that. Standing before her, she barely came up to the base of her neck. And while she had always tried to teach her little sister to look for the good in everypony, the librarian’s reclusive nature had secretly bothered her. With everything that had happened that night, she just wasn’t certain she could handle looking after the pint-sized earth pony and her assistant.
Heaving a big sigh, Applejack shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry Ms. Sparkle, you probably don’t know this but these woods are dangerous and-“
“And that’s where you’re wrong!” Stamping her hoof on the ground the purple mare looked up directly into Applejack’s eyes, her gaze burning with an inner fire. “I’ve read up on the Everfree and its environment, as well as the creatures that live with in it, and everything any pony in Ponyville has ever written about it. Next to Granny Smith, I’m probably the next most knowledgeable pony of the Everfree Forest. I CAN help!”
Startled at the vitriol of her tone Applejack nearly stumbled back. Looking over the other mare once more and seeing her resolve Applejack mused over her options before reluctantly nodding. “Alright Ms. Sparkle, get your things. We’re going to the Everfree.”
Rushing through the door of the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle set Spike down before gathering things she would need for the journey.
“Alright, I give. Who are you and what have you done with the real Twilight Sparkle?” Spike sarcastically asked as he slowly moved towards the kitchen.
“What are you talking about Spike? We really don’t have time to paly around if we’re going to make the deadline of half an hour to meet with the rest of the group.” Emptying her saddle bags of her equipment and notes that she had prepared for the night, Twilight began to organize everything and then started planning out what sort of list she would use to organize the supplies she would need for the trip through the Everfree. Perhaps a trusty old scroll, or should she go with a binder this time?
“That, that right there. The Twilight I know doesn’t go meeting other ponies or talk about joining groups. Why’d you even volunteer to go? And why’d you have to volunteer me?”
“Hmm?” Twilight paused, confused to the last part of the question. “Of course you’d be coming with me; what else would I have you do?”
Missing the momentary hurt look on her assistant’s face, Spike blew a puff of steam to calm himself from Twilight’s casual dismissal of his independence and started grabbing food from the pantry, muttering to himself as he did. “I swear we will have words Sparkle and go over what’s ‘fair’ and what that even means.”
The next few minutes were spent in actual packing done by Spike with independent planning done by Twilight. Having calmed down enough, Spike broached the subject again. “You still didn’t tell me why you’re suddenly chomping at the bit to join that Applejack pony and her friends. You suddenly decide you’re some sort of hero or something?”
Twilight, holding her quill in one hoof while inspecting a test tube with her other, set down her implements as she turned to face her roommate and huffed, “Well, it was just plain insulting of that Applejack to just dismiss the two of us right out-of-hoof don’t you think? I mean, rude much? Of course I’d want to prove her wrong in underestimating me.”
“Uh huh, try pulling the other one. It’s got bells on.”
“Well, loosing Granny Smith would represent an irreplaceable loss of knowledge and cultural practices and I couldn't just idly stand by and watch.”
“Still don’t see how that means we’ve got to get involved.”
“A chance to explore the Everfree is a unique opportunity and I couldn’t pass up a chance to study the environment up close. Who knows when another opportunity could arise?”
“Yeah right, try again.”
“… going out to help some pony else is the right thing to do?”
“Hurray, it only took you three tries before you got around to how this is the right thing to do. Too bad I’m still not buying it.”
Sighing, Twilight’s head sank as she stared blankly at the partially completed list before her. Reaching up to rub her temples she tried desperately to organize her thoughts and steel her resolve before all of her doubts had a chance to take hold and convince her on how crazy of an idea this all was. Spike was right in that regard, this really wasn’t something she’d do. She’d just met these ponies, she had no stake in this. But that wasn’t exactly right, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know how to explain it Spike, but something about this whole thing just doesn’t add up and that’s been gnawing at me this whole time. How can there be an unknown Blessed? What did she want in the ruins in the Everfree? What are the ruins in the Everfree? If she is a Blessed then is Unitopia really somehow involved despite what I said?”
Idly rolling the sealed test tube on the table in front of her, she mulled over all that had happened that night but still came up with nothing but a unsettling fear that something was going on, something that could lead back to a place and ponies that she knew well. “What if Unitopia is somehow involved? What would that mean for dad and mom; for Shining?”
“Awww, so this whole thing is just to make sure the folks back home are safe and not part of some secret plot to pony-nap random old mares.” Spike jokingly gushed.
“Spike! This could be serious,” Twilight exclaimed, offended at the dragon’s mocking.
“Hey now, just kidding you know,” Spike said as he raised his claws in a placating gesture. “I think it’s great that despite all the ‘I don’t care about anypony else’ facade you still love your family. It must be great to have a nice family like that; some of us aren’t so lucky.”
Wincing a bit, Twilight awkwardly picked the test tube back up and went back to examining it. “Uh, well yes, I didn’t mean to, well… I’m really glad that you’re here now Spike, so, thank you for all your hard work and effort.” Twilight finished lamely as she internally groaned at her awkward attempt to comfort Spike.
Feeling a bit better about going now, Spike walked over to the earth pony and patted her on the back. “Heh, don’t strain yourself, I get what you’re trying to say. Alright then, so why don’t you tell me what you’ve got so far and I’ll go grab it.” Plucking the vial from her hoof, Spike took one glance at it and tisked. “By the way, this is way past its expiration date,” he noted before swallowing it whole, the magical liquid consumed by his dragon flame in an instant.
Relieved at the change of subject, Twilight quickly got to work with Spike as the two prepared for their first real excursion out into the Everfree.
Twenty-eight minutes later, Applejack, Bon-Bon, Tree Hugger, and Carrot Top stood in front of the intimidating Everfree Forest. Even at the best of times the forest was a dark abode of dangerous plants, ferocious beasts, and wild magical weather. And that was not counting the times the chaotic magical tempests surrounding the earth pony lands invaded, mutating it further and driving its inhabitants into a maddening frenzy, leaving them riled and violent for weeks after the tempests had been fought off.
Now looking at those same woods at night, Applejack could only find herself grateful that the last tempest had been months ago so the inhabitants of the forest would be only violent and aggressive rather than murderously berserk.
Raising a foreleg to her jaw, she adjusted the power output to her hoof greave, the heavy bronze leg and hoof armor extending three-quarters up her leg. Each greave was a testament to earth pony know-how and ingenuity; etched lines of power glowed as solid constructs built into each armor piece quietly hummed away, their tiny hydraulics and pistons idling for now. On her back she carried two full saddle bags filled with supplies, courtesy of her brother. She would need to thank him later, she thought, looking at the greaves upon her hooves. They had been passed down and maintained for generations in the Apple family and it had been Big Mac who had brought them down, reminding her that the precious heirlooms were built to protect the family and not just as a decorative piece of Apple Stable history.
“Do you think something happened to that Spike and that librarian?” Bon-Bon asked as she looked down the road leading back to Ponyville. Turing her chamfron-covered head was a bit difficult in the full body plate barding that she was wearing. The massive sonic war hammer slung to her side was balanced by an equally large battle axe with two tubes perforated with holes attached to the axe-head on her other side. Applejack noticed that, for a candy maker, Bon-Bon must've had an impressive amount of raw strength, even by earth pony standards, to carry so much steel. And speaking of steel, her weaponry was rather impressive as well; she’d need to remember to ask her about that later. "What was her name again?”
Applejack shook her head. “I think I heard Lyra mention it, but I was a bit busy trying to corral all the other guests. Didn’t really catch it.”
Tree Hugger laid peacefully on the grass, giving no indication that she was the least bit worried about the tangle of trees and carnivorous beasts lurking just yards away in the forest. Her half lidded eyes stared at nothing in particular as she swayed her red-patterned bandana-covered head to a melody only she was privy too. “Think she said it was Twiggy,” she breathed as she adjusted the boxy saddle panniers at her sides.
“I’m pretty sure it was something else. Maybe Twin Light I think?” Carrot Top pondered as she tapped her hoof to her chin. Of the three others, Applejack was the most concerned for Carrot Top when she had seen her trot up with pillows tied around her, an iron pot for a helmet, and two saddle bags full of nothing but carrots. The large repeating crossbow on her back made her re-evaluate the orange-maned mare though. Her choice of ‘armor’ aside, Applejack welcomed the firepower, though again she made a mental note to talk to the carrot farmer about the obviously well-used mechanical crossbow later as, apparently, she didn’t know her neighbors as well as she had thought she had.
“Well she knew we were supposed to be here in half-an-hour, and I can’t sit here waiting for her when my granny is in danger at the hooves of that –“ Applejack started before her ear flicked to the side, pointing towards town. Cocking her head, she listened to the wind as the other mares took notice and began to listen as well.
Soon all of them picked up the sound. A long high pitched wail of some sort heading towards them if they weren’t mistaken.
Galloping at full tilt, burdened with one pint sized chubby dragon and two bulging saddle bags spilling beakers and metal gizmos to the side, the last pony member of the party barreled straight into the group.
“nottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardynottardy-” Frothing at the mouth, her eyes unfocused as she babbled her mantra between gasps of breath, the town librarian spasmed on the ground as her legs had given out the moment she had reached the group.
“Sorry about that, she’s not really used to the whole physical exertion thing,” Spike apologized as he got off the mare’s back and began to fan the exhausted pony. “We couldn’t decide on what to bring and then we noticed what time it was and ended up having to sprint all the way here because we didn’t want to be tardy and well…” Waving vaguely towards his companion he let her current condition fill in the rest of the explanation.
“But the library is right over there,” Carrot Top pointed out incredulously as she gestured to the tall oak tree just over the hill leading up to the Everfree. While not exactly on the door step of the forest, it was built in the older section of Ponyville, back when the settlers had first arrived in the lands and regularly ventured to the edges of the forest for lumber. “It’s a brisk gallop but this…” Carrot gestured to the sweat soaked and collapsed form in front of them that was currently doing its best impression of a fish on dry land.
“Yeah, she’s not really built for endurance, you know?” Spike hemmed as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“But... she’s an earth pony.”
Wincing a bit Spike just looked towards the rest of the group as he continued to fan Ms. Sparkle. “I don’t suppose any of you could carry her until she gets her second wind?”
Groaning as she face-hoofed, Applejack silently marched up and, biting down on the limp mare by the scruff of her neck, picked her up and threw her over her back. Not even waiting for permission, she similarly grabbed Spike, with a startled yelp erupting from his lips, and deposited him onto Tree Hugger’s back. Turning back to the rest of the group Applejack gave a curt nod, “Let’s get going.”
Lighting her horn, Starlight shot a spell towards her target.
Seeing one of the more dangerous creatures of the Everfree, a cockatrice, imprisoned in a block of ice with so little effort un-nerved Granny Smith.
“Heh, this isn’t nearly half as bad as everypony kept making it out to be. But I guess this place would be a death trap to an earth pony,” she snorted as she walked right past the frozen monster, her hostage in tow. “Alright old nag, which way now?” Starlight demanded as she looked around the area.
“Just straight ahead, it’s not too much further now,” the elderly mare grumbled as she pointed past a patch of blue flowers, a bramble of woody vines covered in dripping thorns lining the flowers on either side.
“Right,” Starlight nodded before she flicked her horn forward, Granny Smith suddenly finding herself flying towards the path she had pointed out.
Yelping in shock at the sudden movement, she twisted her body to try to avoid the danger ahead, only to suddenly stop in midair.
“Hmm, interesting. You twisted towards the thorns, or should I say, away from the flowers. Cute, old mare, but I’m not in the mood for games.”
Sighing as she was floated back towards her captor, Granny Smith tiredly pointed to some trees to the right of them.
Trotting through the trees, Starlight grinned as she spotted the ancient remains of a gravel path. “There now, isn’t it so much better to just play along?”
“Yah!” Bucking her hind legs, Applejack’s armored hoof greaves amplified her strike so much that, despite her target dodging to the side to avoid it, the tree behind the creature exploded in a shower of splinters and shrapnel.
Growling in anger, the lion-headed, scorpion-tailed, bat-winged manticore leapt back towards the orange mare, who quickly rolled to the side as well to avoid the flurry of swipes.
Holding her crossbow ready, Carrot Top tried to take aim, but the constant movement of the two combatants caused her to hesitate as she did not want to risk harming Applejack. To her side, Bon-Bon patiently watched the ebb and flow of the fight with singular focus as she waited for the right opportunity to strike.
“Look out for the tail! A manticore’s poison can kill a full-grown pony by disrupting your respiratory system and then attacking your nerves. It also is full of acids that attack your cells, producing a slurry of –“
“The details on how it’ll kill me are NOT helping! If you have time to go over all of that stuff, then tell me something I can use right now to stop this thing!” Applejack cried out as she jumped away from another claw swipe. As soon as she was clear of the beast, Bon-Bon rushed it, practically tackling the creature and swinging the massive war hammer. A high-pitched whine built up quickly in the implement before she brought it down.
Moving aside, the manticore was able to dodge again but was unprepared for the head of the hammer hitting the ground, releasing with it a deafening explosive sound and pushing all the combatants away from each other.
Keeping back, the librarian and Spike looked through their saddle bags for something that could be of use for dealing with an angered beast three times the size of even a large earth pony like Applejack. Looking back towards the creature, she thought through about what she had read about it. Peering at the lion-head of it for a moment, inspiration finally struck as she turned towards the final member of the group.
“Tree Hippy,” she began only to be corrected.
“Tree Hugger, little one.”
“Right, whatever, do you have any Nepeta cataria?”
“???”
“She means cat nip!” Spike yelled as he winced, watching the manticore land a grazing blow on Applejacks side.
“Oh! Yeah, I’ve got a stash,” Tree Hugger replied as she pulled out a small pouch from one of her panniers.
“Good, now Spike, throw it towards the manticore.”
Grabbing the little pouch, the short dragon threw it with all his might into the center of the fight between the manticore and the duo of Applejack and Bon-Bon. Spilling its contents the entire way, the pouch landed with a lack luster plop, but the herbal scent of the bag’s contents hit the manticore like a run-away wagon. Staggering back, it held it’s nose as it was assaulted by the aroma, before the creature’s eyes began to lose focus and its body began to sway.
Seeing their opportunity, Applejack and Bon-Bon reared their respective weapons back and delivered a mighty blow to the beast, sending it flying out of sight into the murky depths of the Everfree Forest.
Moving quickly to Applejack’s side, Carrot Top looked over the shallow wound near the other mare’s belly. “Here, chomp down on this,” Carrot Top said as she shoved a carrot into AJ’s mouth.
Chewing on the end of the carrot, Applejack felt a rush of coolness flow through her body as her wound began to slow it’s bleeding. While not healing entirely, it began to look better than it had just moments ago. Inspecting the wound, Carrot Top nodded her head before digging around in her saddle bags again. Though all of her carrots looked identical, she seemed to pass over several before grabbing one. Biting down and chewing on it herself, she stopped short of shallowing and instead smeared the pulverized mush against the length of the wound with her tongue; eliciting a gagging choke from Spike and a look of fascination from Ms. Sparkle.
“There, that should sterilize it as well. Does anypony have any bandages?”
Nodding their heads, Ms. Sparkle, Bon-Bon, and Tree Hugger began digging through their respective bags but were stopped by Applejack’s raised hoof.
“Don’t worry girls, I’ve got my own as well. Dipped in some pretty strong healing tonic Granny whipped up a while ago.” Munching on the last bit of carrot, Applejack turned her head and pulled out a gauze roll.
Tree Hugger and Bon-Bon wordlessly stepped forward to take the gauze roll from Applejack and begin applying it but were stopped again as Applejack quickly nipped the end of the roll and unfurled it around her midsection and began quickly wrapping it around herself. “Don’t worry girls, did a bit of work in the care center. Got pretty good at dressing little cuts like this.” In short order the claw wound was patched up and the group continued forward.
Flame blasted against the rocky hide of the cragadile, doing little to slow down the beast as the stone monster charged forward. But while the flame did little harm, it did obscure its vision enough that it failed to see its prey move out of the way while it continued to plow ahead, slamming its head against the boulder that had been behind the two ponies.
Smirking, Starlight levitated the stunned beast and began straining as she held the now immobile cragadile, as well as Granny Smith. With a grunt and a crack of stone, Starlight ripped the legs off the beast, the cragadile rearing its head back as it bellowed out in pain and rage.
Dropping the crippled monster, Starlight turned back towards her captive. “If we keep encountering things like this because of you, I swear that your suffering will be the stuff of local legends.”
Casting a pitying look at the wounded creature before them, Granny Smith simply shook her head. “Nopony’s been to the ruins for years, and the woods haven’t been maintained for centuries before even I was born. What’d you expect? Some ancient magical path that somehow survived multiple incursions of the tempests after all this time?”
Gritting her teeth, Starlight didn’t want to admit that she had been hoping for something like that. Instead, she cast another look at the cragadile as it began trashing ineffectively on the ground. But around it, various stones began to glow and slowly move towards the stumps of its limbs.
“Oh no you don’t,” Starlight admonished as she lifted the beast in her magic again, this time tossing the entire creature far above the tree line.
“We had better be close. I’ve got a lot to do and I don’t want to be stuck for long in this backwater land.”
Rubbing her chin, Granny Smith pondered their location as she look back and forth, not looking to be in any rush in her decision.
Her face twisting into a look of anger, Starlight then relaxed and let out a deep breath before smiling towards her hostage. “You know, I’m actually glad we’re taking our time on this little journey.”
“Eh, well, I’m glad you think so too deary,” Granny Smith replied, trying to figure out the younger mare’s sudden change in attitude.
“Oh course, the longer we take, the more likely someone rescue party from Ponyville will show up. Maybe it’ll even have somepony you know, like that grandson of yours.” Starlight sing-songed as she circled the matriarch. “You’ve seen what I did to that cragadile, can you imagine what I could do to that big hunk of a stallion?”
Schooling her expression, the Apple family matriarch forced herself not to give her captor the satisfaction of seeing the horror she felt internally show up upon her face, but the tightening of her expression and the sudden stiffening of her posture was all Starlight needed.
“So you see, it’s really in both of our interests that we get this done as fast as possible. The sooner I get what I want, the sooner I leave Ponyville, the earth pony lands, and your family. I think that’s something we all want, isn’t it?”
Deep within her, Granny Smith knew that it wouldn’t be that simple. The ruins within the Everfree had laid abandoned for generations. But the mare in front of her wanted something from that place, and Granny would bet her home that helping out the mad mare would only bring misfortune upon somepony else. No good would come from Starlight getting what she wanted. But seeing the magic of the unicorn in front of her, and knowing that her family wouldn’t sit idly by while she was taken away, she knew that she couldn’t stall any longer.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Granny Smith bowed her head and pointed towards a grove of trees. “Through there then to the left, there’ll be a bridge that’ll take you straight to the ruins. I suppose this’ll be the part where you don’t need me any more isn’t it?”
Chuckling, Starlight simply trotted on, carrying the aged mare behind her. “Believe it or not, this’ll all turn out for the better in the end. I’m not the bad mare here.”
Seeing her captive snort and turn away, Starlight just shrugged and pressed on. “I know I may seem a little extreme, but I’m really doing this to give everypony a chance. Aren’t you earth ponies tired of being so plain compared to everypony else? Haven’t you ever wanted to do something but couldn’t because it wasn’t something your cutie mark said you could do? Don’t you think it’s unfair that somepony can lord over you just because of some mark on their flank?”
Truly confused, Granny Smith cocked her head to the side. “No, what in the hay are you talking about?”
“Ugh,” Starlight grunted, exacerbated by the elder’s lack of understanding. “Knew it would be pointless to try to convince you ponies here. Just trust me, after I’m done every pony in every land will be equals.”
Sniffing the ground, Spike and Tree Hugger lead the group to a small grove of trees, the duo stopping to take a look at their surroundings.
“You sure they came this way?” Applejack asked as she tried to make out any more hoof prints. At least the mare who took her granny hadn’t seemed to bother covering her tracks. But the deep underbrush of the forest and various rocky areas had made some parts of the pursuit difficult. Luckily, dragons could apparently track by scent, and Tree Hugger as well. Though she had claimed that she was simply following the ‘negative vibes left behind by that unicorn's bottled up harshness’.
“Yeah, I’m sure that at least somepony came through here. I never really got a lead on that Starlight chick when she was at your granny’s demonstration, but I was next to your granny for almost the entire time. So unless there’s some other pony wandering around the forest in the middle of the night carrying something that smells like muscle cream and apple pie, I’m sure it has to be her.
Nodding her head, Tree Hugger pointed in the same direction as Spike. “Yeah AJ, that unicorn gives off a smokey trail of anger and bad karma wherever she goes. She went this way alright.”
Behind them Carrot Top and Ms. Sparkle were engaged in conversation, or more accurately the tiny librarian was eagerly asking questions about the various carrots the orange-maned pony grew and Carrot Top was only too happy to talk about her livelihood. Bringing up the rear was Bon-Bon as she kept watch for anything following them.
“Doesn’t look too bad in there,” Applejack remarked as she tried to see through to the end of the grove. “I’m actually surprised we haven’t met up with more critters.”
Her ears perking at Applejack’s statement, Ms. Sparkle turned her head away from Carrot Top. “You know, that is strange. All accounts I’ve read of the Everfree painted the forest as much more dangerous. Not that I’m complaining, but do you think it’s because Starlight simply cleared the way for us?”
Shaking her head, Applejack took another look around the woods they were in. “That might explain some, but well …,” shivering a bit, her eyes wandered over the greenery. “You getting a bad feeling about all of this?”
Looking to Bon-Bon for any indication, the armored mare shook her head while Carrot Top shrugged. “I'm not really picking up anything. Are you, Ms. Sparkle?”
Shaking her head as well, the little librarian indicated that she had not.
“I do; there’s something weird in the air,” Spike muttered as he glared at the woods around them. “I can’t put my claw on it, but it’s like… it’s like-“
“The forest is waiting,” Tree Hugger finished.
“Yeah! That’s what it feels like. Like everything’s waiting for something.” Spike snapped has claws as he was finally able to place the strange feeling.
Looking through a break in the canopy, Applejack saw a ridge rising from the forest floor, the stony outcropping bathed in pale moonlight. Upon the ridge, she spied dozens of timber wolves gazing up into the sky. A cold trickle of fear chilled her heart as she gauged the distance between themselves and the ridge, and not liking the answer. As if alerted to their presence by Applejack’s focus on it, the timber wolves turned as one to look at the small group of warm-blooded and tasty intruders into their territory. But rather than rush towards them, the predators simply turned back to look towards the moon. Sitting patiently and silently in the night.
“Waiting for what?” Applejack quietly asked as she backed away form the scene.
Walking towards a beam of moon light breaking through another section of canopy, Twilight looked up towards the sky.
“You think this has anything to do with that Starlight character?” Applejack asked as she joined her, trying to make out what had caught the wolves' attention. Up in the night sky, the moon presided over the night sky, the stars arrayed around it as glimmering servants.
“No, but… does something look off to you?” the other mare asked as the rest of the group joined them.
Applejack had done a stint as a tour guide at the planetarium once, but she was far from an expert on the night sky. But despite this, gazing up at the moon she couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling of wrongness that began to creep into her.
“Let’s just keep moving and get out of- “
Her words were cut off by a gasp. Twisting around to look back at the night sky her eyes widened as she beheld four dark spots, like dark stars, move across the bright white surface of the moon.
“Beware, the dark stars shall aid in her escape and the world will be cast in eternal night,” the small mare beside her intoned.
“What?”
Continuing to look up at the night sky, the librarian replied, “It’s something I read a long time ago in one of my books. An old myth about alicorns and the world before the tempests.”
“There actually was a time ‘before’ the tempests?” Bon-Bon asked in disbelief. As far back in recorded history, there had always been the tempests.
Nodding her head, the smallest pony of the group tore her eyes away from the night sky. “I think we should get your grandmother back and get back to town. I’m going to need to do a lot of reading.”
“You won’t get any arguments from me. The sooner we get granny back, the sooner we can leave these creepy woods and their crazy night sky.”
Facing the grove of trees once more, the group went in. Once inside, the light of the sky was now completely cut off, but Applejack and Ms. Sparkle quickly produced lanterns, and a small flame from Spike quickly had both of them lit.
Long shadows were cast from the light of the two lanterns as the group made their way through the grove. The occasional groan from the ancient woods and the memory of the moving stars sapped their courage as they huddled closer together.
“Don’t worry about a thing, as long as we’re together we can get through this. Earth ponies are always stronger together,” Applejack reassured the rest, even as she tried to hide her own nervousness.
Quickening their pace, the small group marched on, following Spike and Tree Hugger’s directions, trusting in the two to guide them as their tiny bubble of light made it’s way through the engulfing darkness, the omnipresent pitch black blotting out the rest of the trees and giving the illusion of a vast emptiness surrounding them. They continued in silence as minutes stretched on, all glancing around in search of some landmark or break in the ominous atmosphere.
It was Carrot Top that cried out first, a short shout of hope as she spotted the glowing bluish light ahead of them. Heartened by something else piercing the darkness, the ponies began to run forward only to stop as the light in front of them also stopped and then turned to face them.
Before them stood Starlight Glimmer, with Granny Smith suspended in the air by a cyan glow of magic. No words were spoken as Starlight shot a beam of magic at the trees around them and then galloped off, Granny still in tow.
“Granny!” Applejack shouted as she began to charge forward only for a massive wooden limb to smash right into her, knocking her back to the rest of the group. With a tremendous roar, the earth shook and the air around them seemed to scream as massive roots began to pull themselves out of the ground. The trees around them began lifting themselves out of the forest floor, knotted limbs swinging wildly as the foliage began to advance upon them with violent intent.
“She used an animation spell in conjunction with an ill-intent cantrip at the same time; amazing!” Twilight gasped as she watched the foliage around them rise up.
“Not the time!” Spike yelled as he bopped the mare on the head, breaking her out of her appreciation of the spell-craft before them and back to the immediate danger.
Charging forward, Applejack and Bon-Bon sprang into action. Applejack’s hoof greaves cycled up in power before she lashed out with both hind legs, catching a smaller tree dead center and blasting it apart into a shower of splinters. Hefting her axe, Bon-Bon swung and hacked away at a smaller tree, breaking it into kindling before backing off as another, much larger, specimen swiped at her.
Behind them, Tree Hugger stood paralyzed at the corruption of the woods around them, while Carrot Top pulled out her cross bow and loaded a carrot.
But before she could shoot, Bon-Bon swung her axe towards a small rock peaking out of the forest floor, the blade of her axe scrapping horizontally across the surface of the rock and causing a shower of sparks to erupt, hundreds of tiny embers trailing the blade's flight path and pelting the perforated tubes attached to each side of the axe. The volatile chemicals in each tube ignited as the sparks found their way within each tube and soon the rockets roared to life as Bon-Bon twisted her head and slammed the axe down upon another arbor opponent before hefting the it up once more, swinging it around herself, and raising up on her hind legs as she began spinning like a top, the thrust of the rockets adding to her momentum as she moved faster and faster, becoming a whirling dervish of destruction shattering all life around her.
Seeing that Bon-Bon was thinning their opponents drastically, Applejack slammed her greaves into the ground, launching herself into the air and coming down like a meteor upon another tree, knocking it down. Jumping back, she saw the last member of their group pull out a metal disk from her saddle bags and toss it at the wooden opponent as it struggled to get back up. Immediately, steel wires sprang from the device and wrapped around the tree, trapping its limbs as her assistant breathed a short burst of dragon fire upon it. Soon the entire being was awash in flames as the steel cables held against the heat of the burning wood and kept the plant from lashing out as it turned to ash.
Turning to the last tree, they saw a massive old oak that had towered above the rest, but proved to also be the slowest to pull itself free from the ground. The group jumped back as it tore the ground beneath them with its roots and charged forward. Cycling up her greaves once more, Applejack bucked it hard, blasting away a good section of its trunk. But the old oak did not display any indication that it felt any pain as it merely slid back a few feet before lumbering forward once again.
Reaching back into her bags, Sparkle pulled out several orbs with her teeth and flung them at the wooden golem. Tiny rotors popped out the top of each orb as they quickly began to spin and fly around the massive opponent. Their tiny propellers did little to damage the ancient oak, but they did seem to confuse it as it swung it’s many limbs at the darting little flyers, giving Bon-Bon time to rush forward and slam her rocket axe directly into the massive tree, taking out more of it’s trunk.
Pulling out a cylinder, Sparkle tossed it to Spike and ran towards Applejack. “Once Spike drops that canister in front of the tree, wait for it to step on it. Once it does, I need you to buck it as hard as you can!”
Nodding, Applejack watched as the small dragon raced up and dropped the cylinder on the ground and shoot a harassing flame near the tree to get its attention without setting it and the forest around them on fire. “I’ve bumped into bookshelves tougher than you! Why can’t you hit anything? Too dumb to actually aim?” Blasting another short burst of flame at the tree Spike ran back as his wooden opponent began stomping after him.
As soon as the ancient oak stepped on the cylinder, the ends of the jack began extending, catching the underside of the tree and pressing upwards with all of its might. Racing forward, Applejack planted both forehooves upon the ground and with a deep grunt, kicked out with all of her might. The power lines of her greaves shined a bright yellow as her legs hit the oak. Tipping backwards, the oak tilted further than it could compensate for and, with a thunderous groan, toppled back, snapping branches and limbs as it hit the ground with an earth-shaking crash.
Despite being on its side, the old tree still had some fight within it as it shook and trembled, trying to right itself once more. Running forward, Carrot Top placed a hoof upon the old arbor as Tree Hugger moved in and pressed herself against the damaged and dying tree. “Shhhh, that’s enough old one,” Tree Hugger whispered, her tears falling upon the rough moss-covered bark of the flailing tree as she nuzzled and stroked it. “Let that hate go, it doesn’t belong to you,” she murmured as her earth pony magic entered the wood, pushing away the invading and unwelcome unicorn magic. To her side Carrot Top concentrated harder as she supported the other earth pony.
Softly speaking to the tree, Tree Hugger wept as she reached down through the earth and poured her magic and that of the land itself into the twisted tree in front of them. Its struggles slowed down, thrashing limbs calming as bit by bit it returned to its natural state. Soon the entire tree laid still and Carrot Top stepped away from it, though Tree Hugger did not, her face still pressed up against the ancient wood.
From their spot, Sparkle and Spike watched the other equines move in to comfort the other mare, nuzzling her and gently stroking her neck and back as she continued to mourn for the fallen tree. With a sad look in her eyes, Applejack bowed her head and gently nudged Tree Hugger with a soft nicker. Wiping her eyes, Tree Hugger stepped back and nodded back to Applejack, acknowledging that the group needed to continue moving. With one last look towards the tree, Tree Hugger turned away from it, only to see the town librarian in her path. With a sheepish blush and a timid tilt of her head, Sparkle placed a tiny acorn in front of the other mare.
“Uh, it fell off of the tree in the fight, so I thought maybe you’d like it?” She mumbled as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, avoiding eye contact and so as to avoid further connecting emotionally to the grieving mare.
Tree Hugger would not have any of that though as she swept the smaller pony up in a massive hug. Picking up the acorn with the reverence of a holy artifact, she carefully placed it within her pannier. “Thank you.”
Eager to move past the embarrassing moment, Sparkle nodded and quickly turned back to Applejack, and the group began moving again. Soon enough, they found themselves leaving the grove of trees and looking upon a mist-covered chasm, the broken remnants of a bridge rotting away at either end, with the broken and crumbling remains of a castle just beyond. Though it must have been an impressive sight back it it’s heyday, it now stood as a silent sentinel within the middle of the forest, nature reclaiming it bit by bit despite the ancient wards that still seemed to hang about it.
Looking back at her companions, a silent communication seemed to pass between Applejack and the rest of the party. Well, for everypony except for Sparkle and Spike, who just looked confused at the sight of the rest of the ponies glancing at each other and nodding their heads.
Reaching into her saddle bags, Applejack pulled out a rope and with a flick of her head, tossed one end towards Bon-Bon who soon had it tied around a sturdy tree. Cycling up her greaves again, the orange mare backed up several paces before sprinting forward. Kicking hard off of the ground, she launched herself across the chasm and landed with a heavy thud on the other side, her hooves digging deeply into the ground beneath her, the other end of the rope still secure within her mouth.
Plucking a few saplings from her pannier, Tree Hugger dug a small depression in the soil and planted them lovingly. “Come on little dudes, you can do it. Grow up big and strong. Life is so great out here, the air is cool and damp, and there’s so much yummy water and minerals in this soil.” Twitching at her voice, the saplings soon began to grow, reaching the hanging line of rope that stretched out across the chasm. They began to grow across the rope, growing ever thicker and more robust as they approached Applejack.
Setting her end of the rope to the ground and holding it in place with her hoof, Applejack directed the other end of the mass of vines towards the ground again where they dug once more into the soil. Digging deep into the earth the vine bridge continued to grow and strengthen until it was thick enough for two ponies to cross side by side.
Spike watched with his jaw dropped, while Sparkle’s eyes drank in the entire scene, giddy excitement bubbling up within her as she catalogued more earth pony magic performed before her. Soon she, Spike, and Carrot Top had crossed the bridge, with Bon-Bon choosing to go last due to her heavier armor. Once the last member of their party had joined them, they were able to see the ruins of the castle in all of its broken glory.
Approaching the entrance to the structure, Applejack turned to her companions. “I can’t thank you enough from the very bottom of my heart at what all of you have done so far. Really, I can’t be prouder of each and every one of you. I know that with all of you by my side we can beat anything that Starlight can throw at us and rescue my Granny."
Setting hoof into the ancient ruins left one feeling like stepping into another world. All around them, a mix of solid stone and deep shadows made it impossible to tell at first glance what was real and what was just illusions cast by the light of the moon. Past the front gate was a dilapidated courtyard with curious sun and moon motifs. A long forgotten fountain held the sun above and the moon below its ornate carvings. Broken cobblestones held carvings of the sun and moon in an alternating pattern. And engraved on the wall furthest from them was a bas relief of two rearing alicorns, their bodies facing outwards while their heads and horns were pointed inwards, the sun and moon blazing high above them.
Crossing the courtyard felt almost anticlimactic as the group reached the inner gates without any difficulty or obstacles. Pressing forward, they entered a vast hall, the roof having long crumbled to dust and half the pillars having fallen to ruin. Still, despite the neglect, some stain glass windows remained, all depicting a large white alicorn with a pink flowing mane.
“How long have these been here?” Sparkle asked idly as she looked around the hallway.
“No time for sight-seeing. That Starlight mare has to be around here somewhere,” came Applejack’s terse reply as she began to pick up speed, running faster down the hall.
Rushing up the large double staircase at the end of the hall, Applejack turned towards Spike. Taking a sniff of the air, he pointed towards the right as the group continued their chase.
Ancient moss-covered stone-work and stairways echoed with the hoof beats of living ponies for the first time in millennia as the group made their way deeper into the ruins. Racing forward, they soon made their way to the entrance of an inner courtyard, a loud crash breaking their focus and causing them to stop.
“Where the Tartarus is it!?” the voice of Starlight Glimmer echoed past the entrance.
Five ponies and a dragon peeked around the corner to see their target angrily stomping around a large broken fountain in the center of the courtyard. In the middle of the fountain, the sculpture of stylized angular tree rose from a marble base, the trunk inscribed with the symbols of the sun and moon at the top and bottom of the trunk, with a heart carved out of the center of the trunk between the two. Above it, the branches of the tree held various orbs, each fitted with a different jewel in the center of them.
Or at least it looked as if it had at one point. Now several of the orbs lay broken at the base of the fountain, with an angry unicorn reaching up and grabbing another from its perch only to throw it down, shattering it.
Picking up the jewel that was once encased within the stone orb, the unicorn inspected it before tossing it aside and reaching for another orb.
“What in the world are you looking for deary?” a confused Granny Smith asked from the side. No longer being held within the other mare’s magic, she did not want to risk raising Starlight’s ire by making a break for it. She had no delusions as to her chances of making it to the exit before the other mare noticed her, not did she believe that she would be able to over power the younger mare either. So she stayed put, wincing as the unicorn shattered another ancient relic and piece of pony heritage that had survived countless incursions of the storms, wild animals, and the long march of the years.
“Damn it! You said it would be here,” Starlight yelled up to the sky, completely ignoring the older mare. “You told me that I’d find a power that rivaled Destiny here! Well here I am, so where is it?!”
Granny Smith and the group outside waited with baited breath as they took in the unicorn’s rantings and waiting with her for an answer.
But only silence followed.
With a disgusted grunt, Starlight went back to ripping the stone orbs from their mountings.
“What in the hay?” Carrot Top muttered as she watched the apparently deranged unicorn desecrate the ancient site.
“Doesn’t matter if she’s right in the head or not, right now she’s not paying attention to Granny so now’s our chance,” Applejack replied, focusing on the light green elder. “Bon-Bon, you and me are going to charge Starlight to distract her. How well is that armor going to hold against unicorn magic?”
“It was made to survive anything lower than a level five spell,” the simple candy maker answered.
Nodding her head, Applejack continued. “I honestly have no idea what that means,” she started, quickly shushing Ms. Sparkle’s explanation with a wave of her hoof. “But unless anypony else has something stronger-“ she said looking directly at Ms. Sparkle who shook her head that she did not, “then I’ll be right behind you as you lead.”
“Carrot, Tree, you two will flank her on her left and right. I’ll be depending on you two to take her down while she’s distracted with Bon and me.”
Nodding their heads, the two mares reached into their respective travel packs. Passing along a carrot to each member, Carrot Top urged them to eat. The crisp taste of the orange root sent an invigorating tingle throughout their bodies and washed away the fatigue of the long night.
Tree Hugger pulled out some leaves as well and passed them out, the strong medicinal herbal scent erupting within their mouths jolting them awake and alert as if they had just drank a gallon of caffeine each.
“Whoa, you guys know your stuff,” Sparkle noted as Spike nodded in agreement next to her.
“Right, that leaves you, Ms. Sparkle and Spike. With the four of us keeping Starlight busy I’ll need you two to grab Granny and get her the hay out of these woods,” Applejack concluded.
“Wait, you don’t think we’ll just leave you here do you?” Spike shot back incredulously.
“I don’t know,” Sparkle added with much greater apprehension. “I mean, logically it makes sense but I would really like to try to get some information from this Starlight. Isn’t there some way to negotiate with her first?”
Gritting her teeth, Applejack held her impatience in check. “Look here Sparkle, I get that you’d like to know what’s going on and why that crazy mare took my Granny; I’d like to know too. But Granny is right there,” she said pointing at the mare in question. “This may be the only chance we get to surprise Starlight. What if we try to talk to her and instead of talking back, she just grabs Granny and flies off like she did before? Is there any way that you can keep her from doing that?”
Crestfallen, the other pony thought about it but could not come up with a satisfactory response. Any reply though was cut off by Spike’s next question though.
“Hey guys? Why’s it suddenly so quiet in there?”
All planning stopped as every being there peered around the corner and into the courtyard. Standing there facing them was Starlight Glimmer, charging her horn.
Carrot Top gave a startled yelp as she instinctively flinched back while Bon-Bon charged forward. Before she could get to a full gallop though, Starlight’s blast went off striking her directly on her chamfron. While the armor did hold, the force of the blast knocked the mare back a step as she struggled to maintain her position under the force of the magical onslaught. Kicking off the ground, Applejack shot out from behind Bon-Bon and flew like a fired bullet straight towards the unicorn. Switching targets, Starlight threw a magical shield in front of her. The discus-shaped construct buckled as Applejack struck it, but it held, and soon was pushing the orange mare back.
Back at the entrance, Carrot Top stood in stunned shock at the suddenness of the whole situation. It took a light nip by Tree Hugger to break her out of her stupor as she turned to the mare and realized what her next action needed to be. Loading a carrot into her crossbow, she raced left as Tree Hugger ran right.
Blinking back the sudden explosion of sound and movement, Sparkle and Spike also regained their composure as they quickly followed the wall and tried to keep out of sight as they made their way to Granny Smith.
Charging once more, Bon-Bon unhooked her massive war hammer and swung down on the unicorn.
Throwing up another shield, Starlight was unprepared for the explosion of sound and the shockwaves ripping through her magic as the hammer unleashed its sonic blast. Recoiling back as her shield cracked and splintered, she shot a burst of flame to her right as Applejack charged in, jumping away at the last second to avoid the inferno.
Seeing the armored mare raise her hammer once again, Starlight abandoned her damaged shield and, picking herself up with her magic, leapt back. The hammer strike destroyed the shield but did little else. Charging up another spell, she suddenly lost her connection to it as a loud thunderclap rang out and the ground beneath her hooves shook and rattled.
Satisfied at knocking the unicorn off balance, Applejack reared on her back hooves again and, with a mechanical whine from her greaves, slammed her front hooves on the ground once more sending another shockwave though the stone floor of the old ruins.
Knocked down once more, Starlight was barely able to recover fast enough to dodge the next hammer blow, the sonic blast still catching her and flinging her to the side. Where an unfriendly Tree Hugger stood. Tossing a vial at the floored unicorn, the glass container broke and a green mist rose from it.
Before it could envelop her though, Starlight let lose a guttural scream as she blasted everything away from her. “Enough!” Rising to the air once more she encased the mist in a bubble before sending it straight towards the charging Bon-Bon.
Choking on the gas, the armored pony fell instantly with a shocked Tree Hugger rushing towards her.
“I have had enough of you earth ponies and your stupid empty ruins! I am going to make all of you pay for wasting my time!” Starlight yelled as she shot off a multitude of magical beams streaking in every direction and hitting everything around her.
Jumping away, Applejack was able to dodge the assault while Tree Hugger had no choice but hide behind the downed Bon-Bon, whose armor could still withstand the attack. Popping a cork off of another vile, the mare poured it into Bon-Bon’s mouth. Thankfully, she slowly stopped choking and took in a deep breath.
Away from everything, the town librarian and Spike reached Granny Smith. “Psst, Mrs. Smith?” Sparkle called out as she crept up behind the older mare.
“Eh? Oh it’s you,” Granny Smith half-heartedly replied as she saw who it was that was rescuing her.
“Yeah, yeah, try not to get too excited there,” Spike muttered as he checked over the old mare for injuries.
“Please Mrs. Smith, we need you to come with us out of here.” Sparkle continued as she began to gently pull on the senior.
“Now you cut that out, I’m not some invalid. I’m perfectly fine with helping my granddaughter out. Just get me some seeds or some rope or something and I’ll be ready to go.”
Smacking his claw into his forehead Spike let out a groan. “Oh gosh, not this.”
“Eh?” “What?” Granny Smith and Sparkle replied.
“Oh come on Twi, you’ve read enough comics to see that this is one of those situations where the hero tries to rescue the hostage only for the hostage to jump in and try to help. The hero then gets so distracted in trying to get the hostage to safety that they forget about the villain and then get’s blasted. Cue big ‘NOOO’ and villain gets away and then wait for the next issue for the start of the revenge arc.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Granny Smith spat as she looked around for a suitable rock to chuck at the enraged unicorn attacking the rest of the party.
“Actually I’ve got to agree with Spike here,” Twi responded. “As soon as you step in, Applejack is going to die,” her statement bringing Granny Smith to a stop. “Probably when she throws herself in front of a magical blast meant for you.”
“Good guess, but my bits are on Granny and Applejack getting into an argument in the middle of the fight and Applejack being shot from behind.”
Hesitating, Granny Smith looked between the rock she had picked up and her granddaughter dodging a shower of frozen spears summoned by Starlight. With a grunt, she tossed the rock aside and turned towards her rescuers. “Alright, fine. But I’m just going to the entrance. Can’t expect a mare to head through the Everfree in the dead of the night by her lonesome self do you?”
“Actually, we’re supposed to lead you back to town.” Twi sheepishly replied.
“Come on, if we leave now then what was the whole point in coming out here?” Spike asked his hesitant companion.
Furrowing her brow, the younger mare chewed on her lip as she thought. There had been a plan, and even though she had not technically agreed to it, it was more or less working. Did she really want to abandon it? On the other hoof she did want answers…
“Spike,” turning towards her assistant, Twilight took out a bundle of metal tubes. “I’m going to need your help setting this up.”
Stones erupted from the ground as Starlight summoned a wall to block Applejack’s charge, only to then jump out of the way as a mass of vines tried to ensnare her. Blasting a gout of flame towards Tree Hugger, Starlight ducked as she avoided having her head cut off from a rocket-assisted axe. Putting up another shield, she grunted as hundreds of cuts appeared across it from the spinning axe blade before it collapsed and she was forced to fly away once again to put enough distance between her and Bon-Bon.
“Grrr, you are way too much trouble,” Starlight growled as she shot another blast at Bon-Bon, only for it to harmlessly impact the surface of the barding. “Go be a nuisance back in Ponyville!” Grabbing the stone floor beneath the armored pony, Starlight launched it and pony alike through the broken ceiling and far off into the sky.
Seeing her opponents down by one, Starlight readied another spell, only for her ear to swivel to her back at the sound of a bow string going off. Casually flicking the incoming carrot away, Starlight shot a blast of magical force towards the ineffective snipper.
Or at least that was the plan, had the casually flicked carrot not exploded in a massive fire ball, knocking the flying unicorn to the ground.
“What the HAY?! You have combustible carrots? Why do you have combustible carrots?! How is that even a thing?”
“When life gives you rabbits,” Carrot muttered as she loaded another bushel of carrots onto her mechanical crossbow, “you make combustible carrots!” Pulling the trigger, she opened fire once again.
“Mwahahahahaha! Come little bunny, come to my carrot patch!” she mocked as she rained explosive roots down upon the running Starlight.
All around them explosives rained down, the sheer magnitude of the detonations causing half the floor to erupt in flame.
“Gyah! Look where you’re aiming that thing!” Applejack yelled as she sprinted away from the carrot-bombs exploding behind her.
“Not cool, dudette!” Tree Hugger added as she also ran for cover.
Unseen by all, a little dragon padded into the flames and set a small metal cylinder on the ground that he then extended into a standing rod before jogging off to set another.
Blowing away the flames, Starlight shot a blast of magic towards the shapely young carrot farmer, only for said farmer to grasp a knotted bundle of carrots by their stems and whip them in front of her. Springing out into a circle from the central knot, the carrot shield absorbed the magical blast and in fact actually looked to grow thicker and healthier.
“… what in Tartarus am I looking at here?”
Shrugging, Carrot Top reloaded her crossbow and once again took aim. “Rabbits can be darn near impossible to get rid of sometimes. It’s when they start using magic that you know that they’re getting serious.”
“Magic,” Starlight deadpanned.
“Well yeah,” Carrot Top replied, “why else do you think magicians hire rabbits as assistants?”
Starlight had little time to contemplate that before the courtyard once again filled with the sounds of explosions as more flames burst forth.
Zipping away from the inferno of beta-carotene, Starlight was grabbed midair by another mass of vines before being pulled down towards a large venus fly trap. A blade of magic cut the vines in time to stop her from being pulled into the waiting jaws of the pony sized fly trap, but her victory was cut short when Applejack slammed into her from above, bouncing off the unicorn and sending her right into the jaws of the carnivorous plant.
Landing next to Tree Hugger, Applejack took in the scene before her. “Should we pull her out of there before she's digested?”
From within the leafy executioner, a white hot light began to glow. Reacting on instinct, Tree Hugger tackled Applejack to the ground as the fly trap exploded, with white lightning searing the skies and ground around them.
Taking a strike to her barrel, Tree Hugger screamed out before collapsing to the ground, knocked unconscious from the pain.
Raising her crossbow again, Carrot Top let loose another barrage, only to watch in stomach-dropping terror as a cyan glow surrounded all of her projectiles and held them in place only feet from where she stood. Ducking behind her shield once more, the mare was blasted back by the force of the explosions, knocking her into the wall of the ruins and sliding down in an unconscious heap.
The disheveled form of Starlight took a step towards Applejack as the orange mare struggled to move Tree Hugger off of her without hurting her. Seeing Starlight raise her horn, Applejack could only try to shield herself with her forehooves as Starlight brought her horn down.
Wincing in anticipation of the oncoming pain, Applejack held still for a moment. As the moments passed by and nothing seemed to happen, Applejack ventured opening an eye to glance at the unicorn before her.
A baffled looking Starlight blinked in surprise at the lack of dead earth ponies and pointed her horn at Applejack once again, only for nothing to happen a second time.
Not sure what was happening, the two became aware of the sound of panting softly filling the otherwise still silence of the air. Turning to look, the two beheld Ms. Sparkle, hoof slammed down upon a button atop a silver box with wires extending to a ring of steel rods placed around the courtyard, each one glowing a silver white as they diligently sucked any magic away.
*huff huff huff* “Magic Suppression Field successfully tested and deployed.”
Completely stunned by the turn of events, Starlight was caught completely off guard by an armored hoof slamming her down to the ground. Standing atop of the now powerless unicorn, Applejack’s greaves hummed softly in grim warning as to what she would do if Starlight dared to move.
“Wait, the greaves; how are they still working when my horn isn’t?” Starlight questioned before being shoved further down by Applejack.
“Quiet you; you’re in no position to ask questions.”
“I never really thought about it before but my magic suppression device only absorbs ambient magic in the air like unicorn spells. Earth pony magic is transferred primarily through touch directly from the earth pony to their target,” Sparkle explained in a slight pant as she trotted up to the pair.
Seeing that her Granny was no where in sight and thankful to still be alive, Applejack looked at the town librarian with new appreciation. Turning back to the struggling unicorn beneath her she motioned towards Starlight with her muzzle, “so what do you think we should do with her?”
A pensive look crossed the other mare’s features as she gazed upon the trapped unicorn. Feeling a claw stroke her back, the little librarian looked over to her assistant as he silently urged her onward. Taking a deep breath, she moved forward. “What does Unitopia hope to gain from these ruins?”
Snorting contemptuously, Starlight looked away as she continued to attempt to unleash her magic. “Who cares about Unitopia? They’re the worst of the lot with their obsession with bloodlines and cutie marks.”
A sense of relief filled Sparkle as she felt the weight of her worries lessen considerably. So her family and home wasn’t caught up in some unsavory plot. Still, that still left so many other unknowns.
“Then who are you working for? And what did you hope to find in these ruins?”
“I’m not working for anypony!” Starlight shot back with such venomous force that it caused the lavender pony to stumble a step back.
“Hey, we heard you trying to yell at somepony,” Spike shot back, clutching at his partner's back.
“Ugh, I certainly don’t work for him. If anything it’s a partnership,” Starlight responded before turning away again to try to focus on her magic.
“Him? Him who? And what were you looking for here?” Sparkle pressed on, trying to re-engage the other pony. But her words seemed to fall upon deaf ears as the unicorn continued to stare at the opposite wall, her brow furrowed in tight focus.
“Hey, the lady asked you a question,” Applejack injected as she pushed once more at the mare beneath her hoof.
Still Starlight remained silent.
“Look, maybe if we knew what you were looking for we could…” trailing off Sparkle looked towards Applejack for assistance only to get a stern look of reproach in return.
“Do I need to remind you what she did tonight? I don’t care what she was looking for, or why. Nothing could excuse her for what she did.”
“I’m not looking to help her, just maybe if we knew more about all of this we could find some kind of-“
“Uh, guys?” Spike interrupted. “Are those rod things supposed to be getting brighter?”
Swinging her head to look at the magic suppression device and its array, the librarian saw that they were beginning to glow brighter, the absorption rods even beginning to hum slightly. Looking down towards their prisoner, Sparkle saw that Starlight wasn’t just looking away, she was focusing directly on a rod across from her, her horn now beginning to slowly emit a cyan field as she overloaded the prototype invention.
“Applejack! Her horn! You’ve got to –“Anything else Sparkle was about to say was lost as the control box of the magic suppression device gave a small pop and puff of smoke while Starlight’s magic erupted into an enormous dome of power, knocking everybeing back.
“Congratulations, you’re my new target!” Starlight roared as she fired off an azure beam of pure magical power at the prone form of the small earth pony.
Struggling to get back to her hooves, Sparkle froze in shock as her mind locked up at the sight of the deadly onslaught. Only to then have her vision blocked as a young reptile jumped in front of her.
“Look out!” Spike yelled before the beam of magic hit him, his head jerking back violently with the impact. Tumbling uncontrollably in the air, his body hit the ground behind everypony, bouncing once before slamming into the hard stone floor once again and coming to a stop.
“Spike!” Staggering to her hooves, Sparkle stumbled towards her assistant and only companion. Her breathing hitched and, choking, she collapsed to her knees, gently rolling the young dragon to his back. Gazing at him though brought a confused gasp as she saw the azure blast of power now firmly clamped in the jaws of the small dragon as he seemed to focus all of his concentration on crushing the magical attack. With a final grunt of effort, Spike bit down and swallowed the arcane energies, his dragon flame consuming the raw magic just as readily as it would one of his employer’s magic experiments. A loud burp followed as he smacked his lips.
“Hmm, tangy with a slight hint of sweetness, but a sort of burning garbage after-taste. I’d eat that again,” Spike mused on his meal.
“Spike, you scared the daylights out of me!” a relieved librarian shouted as she swept him up in a hug.
Slapping a hoof to her forehead, Starlight glared at the assembled group. “Really, does everything here have some sort of cheating ability?”
“Considering that you’re a unicorn with access to every type of magic there is, I don’t think you’ve got any room to complain,” Applejack noted.
“Heh, guess you’re helpless now that we know I can just eat anything you throw at us,” Spike gloated as he stood tall and placed his claws on his hips, his cocky smirk daring Starlight to try to shoot him again.
Glaring back in response, Starlight levitated a large piece of stone rubble up and, with a pulse of energy, broke off its outer edges, sculpting it into a stone spike half the length of an adult pony and pointed it directly at the dragon’s head.
“Eep!”
With half-lidded eyes, Sparkle watched as the formerly swaggering dragon scampered onto her back and held onto her neck for safety.
“Yah!” Vaulting over the two, Applejack kicked the stone spike out of the air. Hitting the ground hard with her forehooves, she reared her legs back and kicked out towards Starlight again, only for her hooves to hit air as the unicorn ducked under the blow and rush to the side.
Raising a shield, Starlight blocked Applejack’s follow-up strike. Blow after blow landed on the cyan barrier, but the unicorn held firm, pushing Applejack back and launching a fire-ball at her.
Leaping out of the way, Applejack put some distance between her and her target as she saw Ms. Sparkle toss a boxy cube covered with a speaker on each side at Starlight. A piercing wail erupted from the box, the skull rattling pitch threatening to break Starlight’s concentration. But rather than lose her grip on her magic, Starlight shot the cube and whipped her head towards the small mare.
Sparkle shrieked in surprise as her saddle bags suddenly began to glow. “No, no, no, no, no!” she desperately pleaded as she and Spike both grabbed onto the bags trying to keep them in place as Applejack once again began to charge towards Starlight.
But with a toss of her head, Starlight ripped the bags from Sparkle and, with a thought, crushed them both within her grip. Sparks and shrieks of torn metal filled the air and smoke poured out of the bags.
Laughing with glee, Starlight swung the ruined bags in a tight arc at Applejack, striking the surprised mare in the face with the make-shift metal sling and dazing the orange mare as she tumbled to the ground.
Looking at the destroyed remains of her tools, then to the downed form of Applejack, Sparkle stumbled back as the now confident unicorn advanced towards her. Staring straight into the eyes of her assailant, Sparkle gulped before steeling her expression and lowering her head in one last desperate attack.
Raising an eyebrow, Starlight cast an incredulous gaze at the pony and dragon combo before her. “You’re kidding right?”
Snorting out a puff of vapor, Sparkle pawed the ground with her right forehoof as she readied her charge, Spike leaning over to grip her neck even harder.
“What are you doing?” Spike asked nervously.
Stomping her hoof, Sparkle let out a desperate yell as she charged with all her might straight towards the amused unicorn.
“You’re not actually kidding?” an entertained Starlight giggled as she lowered her horn and retrieved the stone spike she had made earlier, pointing it at charging earth pony.
Screaming in terror, Spike gripped his roommate with all his might as he wished to be anywhere else at the moment.
Charging forward, Sparkle continued to yell as she rushed the unicorn, a flash of light enveloping her as Starlight shot out the granite javelin just as Spike shot off a panicked burst of dragon fire.
The magical green flames consumed the duo in an instant, the stone spike fired by Starlight passing harmlessly through the spot they occupied just a moment before.
Rearing back in surprise, Starlight watched as a vortex of green fire appeared behind her and, with a flash of emerald flame, a very confused earth pony and dragon dropped to the ground. Jerking her head left and right, Sparkle tried to orient herself at the sudden displacement as Spike continued to grip onto her neck, eyes bugged out in fearful shock.
Gathering her wits first, Starlight lashed out with a wild swing of her horn, an unfocused blast of force knocking the duo back towards Applejack before a much stronger spell sent all three crashing back into the ground and rooting them in place.
Her horn blazing with power, Starlight Glimmer stood over the two ponies and dragon that had fought so hard against her. “I’ll give you credit, you three actually gave me trouble, but it ends now.” Lowering her horn she pointed it directly at the group. “Any last words?”
Glaring at the unicorn, Sparkle and Spike were ready to cry out their defiance, when an orange hoof raised itself unsteadily up, catching everyone else by surprise.
“Um, if you don’t mind, I do have something that I’d like to say before we go,” Applejack bashfully admitted as she looked away from her companions.
“Uh, I wasn’t actually serious about that last word thing. It just felt like something I was supposed to say before blasting you all into oblivion,” Starlight admitted as she was taken aback from the blonde earth pony actually taking her up on her offer.
“Yeah, well, mean it or not, you’re the one that said it,” Spike injected.
“Right, and if you’re going to offer something like that then you have no pony but yourself to blame if somepony takes you up on it,” Sparkle added.
Coughing into her hoof, Applejack brought everyone’s attention back to herself. “I just wanted to tell you Ms. Sparkle, and you as well Spike,” she trailed off before taking a deep breath, “I’m sorry.”
“What?” the librarian asked incredulously.
“Yeah, what she said,” Spike added.
“Ugh,” Starlight grunted in disgust. “Are you kidding me?”
“Ever since we entered this forest, I basically wrote you two, Ms. Sparkle especially, off as well… a pain in the flank,” Applejack continued, bringing a look of hurt and surprise to the lavender pony’s face. “I never liked gossip or rumors and always tried to judge a pony on their own merits; I even tried to stand up for you whenever I heard somepony talking about you behind your back.”
Hearing this both Sparkle and Spike’s hurt subsided a bit but their confusion only grew as they tried to figure out what Applejack was getting at.
“But the honest truth of the matter is… I think you’re weird!” Applejack shouted as she lowered her head. “You came in on the same ship as Lyra Heartstings, but she’s become a fixture to nearly every birthday party and gathering. We practically know everything there is to know about that pony, from her favorite foods to her grandsire’s name. But you… I don’t think I’ve ever met another pony that tried so hard to be by themselves as you! I try to be a good member of the community; I try to get to know everypony and help them out whenever I can. But for the last year you’ve barely come into town and when you do, you barely say a word to anypony, you barely spend any time with anypony else, and you immediately head back to your library acting as if we all’ve got the plague. It’s just so...so...so frustrating trying to keep looking at the positives of a pony when you treat us like that. Tartarus, I don’t even know your first name!”
With each accusation, the librarian winced as she saw what her actions looked like to other ponies.
“So when you volunteered to help save my Granny, I should have been grateful, I should have been happy about it. But with Granny gone, I just didn’t have any time to spare for you. I needed your knowledge of the forest, but beyond that…” Taking a deep breath, Applejack looked sadly over to the other earth pony mare. “I just don’t know you, and with something so important as trying to get my family back, I was so sick with worry, so scared out of my mind, that I just thought, ‘I just don’t have time for this, she can just wait in the background as we REAL earth ponies go and get Granny back.” Lowering her head again, Applejack bowed towards the purple mare. “That was downright petty and wrong of me. I’m so sorry for putting you down and brushing you off at the beginning of this trip. You’ve more than pulled your weight and did more to fight Starlight than an entire group of ponies could.”
“Twilight.”
“Huh?”
Wiping her eyes with her forehoof, Twilight Sparkle lifted her remorseful gaze up from the floor to timidly meet Applejack’s gaze. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you Applejack Apple.”
Her eyes dampening as she took Twilight’s hoof, Applejack gave it a firm shake. “You can call me AJ if you like. To be honest, I never really cared that much for all that Stable silliness.”
Across the room, the shattered fragments of an orb softly began to glow.
“Oh shut up!” Starlight yelled, her face twisted into a furious scowl as she felt like vomiting at the sight before her. Her power flaring to life, several large stones lifted off the ground as she bound them together. One by one, more stones joined together, forming a massive slab to crush the remaining rescuers.
Letting go of Twilight’s hoof, Applejack reached deep within herself as she strained against Starlight’s spell holding them in place. Pouring all of her earth pony magic into her greaves, she sucked in a deep breath as she pushed harder than she ever had before to draw in more strength.
“Applejack, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, shocked as she watched the other mare strain against the magical bonds.
Taking a heavy step towards Twilight and Spike, Applejack grunted as she struggled to place herself above the prone pair. “I’ll try to keep that rock off of you two for as long as I can. Spike, you do your dragon magic voodoo to get Twilight and yourself out of here.”
Not taking his eyes off the growing mass of rocks above them, Spike took Twilight’s hoof. “Problem with that; I have no idea how I did that the first time.”
“Just means that you’ll have no idea how you do it the second time either,” Applejack remarked as she poured everything she had to keep herself between her new friends and Starlight’s spell.
Wracking her mind, Twilight tried to think of some way for all of them to get free. But even as one idea after another came to mind, her lack of tools forced her to discard them all. Cursing her own physical weakness, Twilight tried to move from her position only to barely drag herself a few inches before collapsing again. “Spike, AJ, I’m so sorry.”
Above them more stones floated up to join the growing mass, Starlight no longer daring to underestimate her opponents as she sought to create a veritable landslide to prevent any form of escape for the trio.
Holding her position, Applejack locked gazes with Starlight as the other pony placed the finishing touches to her spell. “Don’t worry you two,” Applejack’s calm voice reassured her companions, “you’re going to be alright,” she promised as her greaves pulsed with power once more. “You can trust me on that.”
As the last few stones were swept up in Starlight’s magic, a small assemblage of pebbles swept past Starlight and impacted with Applejack’s chest, an orange glow beginning to form.
Caught by surprise one too many times that night, Starlight flung the small mountain of stone at the trio before her. The massive aggregate blocking out the sky as it smashed not only into the floor, but overflowing and tearing though the surrounding walls as well. Everything in front of Starlight was obliterated as earth and stone scoured the landscape before her, wiping away anything that had stood in its path.
Panting, Starlight observed the aftermath of her attack. In front of her, the back portion of the castle ruins had been wiped out, a sea of shattered rocks strewn about. But even as she saw only destruction, her horn tingled with the feel of powerful magic. Gritting her teeth, she threw up a shield as the stone field exploded with brilliant orange light.
Eyes aglow with a bright white light, Applejack rose from the blast crater, a gleaming golden gorget set upon her neck with a luminous orange gem in the shape of an apple resting within its center. Behind her, Twilight and Spike were lifted in the air, free of Starlight’s power as they were set gently down, eyes wide in awe and surprise at the sight of their friend.
Floating down to the ground, Applejack’s rear legs touched the ground first as the rest of her gently touched down shortly thereafter. The very air around her was awash with a sense of ancient power, potent and deep. She threw her head back, and the very center of her being seemed to explode out into all directions, knocking Starlight back but seeming to pass harmlessly over Twilight and Spike. Washing over the prone form of Tree Hugger and sparking off the unconcious Carrot Top, the air beyond the castle began to howl and shriek in a cacophonous roar. Beyond the borders of the forest, the very tempests suddenly flashed brighter than day as thousands of lightning bolts tore across the horizon, as if trying to fight back against the tidal wave of force only to be snuffed out in the next instant, the ever present dark clouds of the tempests themselves being blow back.
“NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” an enraged Starlight screamed, the veins in her neck bulging as she frothed at the mouth. “That power was supposed to be mine! I was the one looking for it! I was the one who followed the clues! I was the one who searched this room first! So how is it YOU are the one with the element?!”
Her eyes slowly closing, Applejack let out a deep breath as she sagged in on herself. Stumbling for a moment like a new born foal, the large earth pony looked around in wonder before her eyes settled on the gorget she was now wearing. “I… I have no idea what just happened,” she answered in all honesty.
Her reserves of power depleted, Starlight struggled to get back up, to launch one last spell, to turn the tides one last time to her favor; only to collapse as her legs gave out beneath her.
Twilight tried to make her way to the unicorn mare's side but stopped as an echoing laughter filled the air.
“Oh what FUN that was,” mocked a smooth serpentine voice. “I must say, I’m rather surprised that you little ponies actually pulled it off.”
“Wha? Who’s there?” Applejack demanded as she, Twilight, and Spike circled the room with their eyes trying to find the source of the mysterious voice.
“You!” Starlight spat as she pulled back her lips in a hiss. “You said that I could find the power I need here, so why did it go to that pony?!” she accused as she pointed towards the confused Applejack.
“Oh, ho, ho, ho! I said that the power you seek would be here; I don’t remember actually saying that you would be able to obtain it though,” the voice chuckled, it’s merriment bouncing around the air and disorienting the rest of the group as they turned to and fro, trying to track the location of the voice.
Behind Starlight, a sound like tearing cloth filled the air as the claw of an eagle talon appeared and seemingly tore through existence, as a twisting miasma of solid black vapor with purple lightning arcing across it appeared.
“That’s a magical tempest cloud!” Spike yelped in shock.
From within the depths of the localized tempest, two yellow eyes with red pupils gazed outwards before a lion’s paw darted out and dragged an upset Starlight through. “Now, now, don’t worry my dear. There’s still plenty of other chances left. Just keep seeking your goal and providing me with entertainment and I promise you that you’ll get the power that you crave,” the hidden figure promised with a throaty chuckle. “Oh how good it is to see something NEW after so long! Quick, quick, my little ponies; give chase and fight the good fight, we’ll see you in Cloudsdale~,” the mysterious voice sing-songed.
With a flick of its wrist and a snap of its fingers, the storm clouds popped out of existence, leaving behind the confused group of the three newly-formed friends.
It was a place of darkness. More than just an absence of light; darkness permeated every corner, every nook and every cranny. Like a living thing, the darkness seemed to oppressively press down upon everything within the area, lounging languidly upon every surface and every being.
Within the center of this darkness, upon a raised platform, laid Nightmare Moon in all her glory. Dark blue armor adorned her form as waves of midnight obsidian made up her mane and tail. Green draconian eyes pierced their surroundings as nothing in the night could escape their gaze. Curling her lip back revealed predatory fangs as Nightmare Moon glared down upon the shivering unicorn before her.
“Incompetence. Betrayal! How has one of the Elements of Harmony revealed itself after so long!?” the dark monarch roared at the pale yellow pony with a pink mane.
“I-I-I’m so-sorry, my mistress!” squeaked the terrified yellow mare trying to hide behind her pink mane. “Re-reports say that Discord sent the unicorn Starlight to the earth pony lands to find the Element.”
A low rumbling echoed through the chamber as green silted eyes narrowed. “Discord!” Nightmare Moon spat the name. “Of all the fools; I should have known. Child of the night, go! Bring that vile worm to me at once!”
Squeaking in fear, the unicorn nearly tripped over her green saddle dress sheet as she scrambled out of the room to fulfill her mistresses order.
“Ho, ho, ho, ho, you should be a bit gentler with your playmates, Moony,” a playful voice laughed as the air next to Nightmare Moon burst in a cloud of cotton candy and the forms of Starlight Glimmer and a long serpentine figure made from a menagerie of creatures. “I’ve discovered that life is so much more fun with a bestie to share all those special moments with, isn’t that right my number one gal-pal Glimmy Glam?”
“Yaaargh!” Starlight screamed as she jumped up and tried to body tackle Discord.
With a snap of his eagle talon, Starlight found herself suspended in midair as she glared murderously at the Lord of Chaos.
“You bastard!” Starlight yelled from her midair prison. “What was the whole point in leading me to the Everfree castle if I was never meant to have the element for myself?”
“Indeed Discord,” Nightmare Moon growled as she stood up, her form towering over Starlight. “What game are you playing at this time?”
Sparing only a glance at the dark princess, Discord coiled and twisted in the air around Starlight. Putting a lion’s paw to his chin he hemmed and hawed as he inspected the enraged unicorn. “Now why are you so angry, my dear friend? Didn’t you like playing with all those other ponies? Don't you find games more fun with so many more varables?”
“This isn’t a game, you psycho!”
“DISCORD!!!” Bellowing in fury, Nightmare Moon stalked up to the duo and rearing up, glared down at the trickster. “You will explain yourself now!”
“Tut, tut, you two, I don’t see what’s the big deal.”
“You promised me power and then set me up to fail!” “THOU REAWAKENED AN ELEMENT OF HARMONY!” The two voices screamed with Nightmare Moon's cry nearly drowning out Starlight's.
“Again, I really don’t see what’s the big deal,” Discord replied raising an eyebrow.
*WHAM*
Powering her horn, Nightmare Moon slammed the draconequus against the wall as she marched towards him. “Explain thy self now!”
Standing back up, Discord evenly glared back at the black alicorn as he made a show of brushing off a broken stone chip from his shoulder. “Be very careful with who you chose to make enemies with, moon-butt.”
“I could say the same, villain,” his opponent shot back.
Had this threat meant to intimidate the other party though, it instead seemed to have the opposite effect as laughter erupted along with a shower of sparks from Discord’s throat. “Hahahahahahahaha! Hello pot! This is the kettle! You’re black! Hahahahahahaha!”
“Cease your prattling and explain!” the dark alicorn demanded.
“I agree, what in Tartarus are you thinking!?” Starlight yelled.
“Oh very well, spoil sports,” Discord harrumph’d as he crossed his arms. “I merely wanted to poke at dangerous ancient magical artifacts with a pony to see what would happen, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed!” Discord finished with a manic grin on his face.
“You child-minded fool!” Nightmare Moon sneered as she ground her teeth at the callus whimsy of the spirit before her.
“So you lied to me? Used me just for your entertainment?” Starlight accused, anger and disbelief warring within her.
“Lied? Oh no, no, no, no, no, my little pony. The elements are powerful and could very well give you the power to twist destiny around your little hoof like a piece of string." He smugly sang as he swung on a giant yarn cat's cradle he had summoned. "You just didn’t find the right one.”
“The right one?”
“Oh yes, the one that those plucky adventurers found was the Element of Honesty; you want the Element of Magic my dear,” Discord practically purred into Starlight’s ear.
“Element of Magic? And I’ll find it in Cloudsdale?”
“Oh ho, ho, ho! I have no idea!” he laughed gaily as he swam around the air, chuckling all the way. “You’ll just have to go there and see, now won’t you?”
“What!?”
“You will do no such thing Discord!” Nightmare Moon yelled as she hurled crippling blasts of magic at the serpentine spirit, only for Discord to twist and roll away from each with blatant ease. “You have done enough damage! I will not allow you to carry on with thy whims!”
“Oh Looney Mooney,” the spirit of chaos mocked as he turned to look directly at her, “One can NEVER do enough damage.” And with a snap of his talon, he and Starlight were gone once again, leaving the mare in the moon alone once again.
"…"
“It’s all coming undone for you, isn’t it?” a soft voice whispered in Nightmare Moon’s ear.
“Silence!” Marching to behind her platform Nightmare Moon threw aside a black velvet curtain to stare directly into an iron cage hidden behind it. Inside she saw the chained and locked form of another alicorn, smaller than her, with a pale blue mane and crescent moon upon a dark sky cutie mark. “This is but a minor annoyance at best. The fool plays at things beyond his ability to grasp, yet again. I need only to ensure that I am not harmed when this too blows up within his face.”
Leaning forward, her prisoner glowered as she stared down her jailer. “Not this time. You hear him; he plays with the Elements! He will fall just as you should have fallen all those years ago!”
Flinching back, Nightmare Moon growled and power gathered around her horn before she stopped. A cruel grin spread itself across her features. “Ah, would this have been before or after I killed your sister; what was her name again?” she nearly sang as she tapped her bottom lip with her hoof, pretending to be in deep thought.
“You leave Celestia out of this!”
“Oh yes; Celestia. That was it.”
“Don’t you DARE speak her name, demon! She was a thousand times the pony you could ever hope to be! Even her name alone is too good to be spoken by a vile witch like yourself!”
Craning her neck down to look down upon her captive, Nightmare Moon smirked. “Oh, was dear sweet Celestia really that important to you?”
“More than life itself, monster,” her captive hissed.
Her hooves clacked against the marble floor of the room as the regal alicorn circled the cage. “Then tell me again, who was it that aided me? Who was it that allowed me passage to her very throne?”
Her anger popping like a soap bubble, the smaller alicorn flinched as if struck, shrinking into herself as she sought refuge in the furthest corner of the cage. “I-I didn’t know; I was so young, and I was jealous,” she babbled as she turned away, unable to look any more at Nightmare Moon.
“What is this? No more brave words? Do you not have an opinion anymore? What say you about the Elements, my dear Luna?” Nightmare Moon mocked.
No words met hers though, as Princess Luna curled in upon herself and silently wept, her whimpers fading to nothing with in the chamber.
“That is what I thought; utterly pathetic.” Tossing the velvet curtain back upon the tiny prison, Nightmare Moon marched away from the empty cage and returned to her platform. “I cannot allow that fool Discord to continue this game.” Stretching her neck and summoning her magic once more, Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and looked deep within herself. “Still not my best, but soon I should be recovered enough." Gathering the shadows around herself she looked up towards the sky where she could feel the world's moon hanging high above her. " Beware all those that stand in my way, I shall soon be coming for you.”
It was an odd, but surprisingly encouraging, day after their joined adventure into the EverFree Forest. While Applejack and Granny Smith tearfully reunited with their family, and Tree Hugger and Carrot Top had parted ways with them, Twilight and Spike had returned to their home at the Golden Oaks Library in relieved exhaustion. Twilight had immediately set about writing a bulleted account of everything that she had learned and had happened, and then made a short checklist of things left to prepare for next. It was approaching noon before Spike had dragged her away from her writing desk and tucked her into her bed before heading to his room as both of them dropped into slumber.
It wasn’t until they awoke the next morning that the repercussions of what they had done and what they had been through finally hit them. It was an almost surreal affair as Spike made breakfast in the same kitchen he had worked in for over a year, making the same breakfast fare that he normally made when just hours before he and Twilight had been in a fight for their lives.
Twilight herself sat in front of her mirror, a hoof brush long forgotten as she could only stare at her reflection. The face looking back was a familiar one; one that she had seen everyday without thought as she went about her life. But now, the young mare peered closer, taking in every detail and every facet. Turning this way and that, she finally stared deep into the eyes reflected there. They were the same color and shape as always, but today they oddly captivated her, seeing more existing in them than she had ever noticed before.
“Twilight! Breakfast!”
Hearing Spike call for her, Twilight Sparkle, the town librarian, explorer of the Everfree Forest, fighter against evil unicorns, and … friend to others, hesitantly took one last look before she stepped away from the mirror and headed down to eat a warm breakfast made by her assistant. Just like she normally would every day. Stopping at her door, her hoof hovered above the latch. How could she still call it the same breakfast as every day, if she was no longer the same pony as she had been before?
“Twilight!”
Putting her thoughts aside, she made her way down the stairs and into the sun-filled little eating nook with Spike.
Breakfast started as a silent affair as the two slowly went through their normal routines, but with none of the blasé familiarity they took for granted before. A quick glance here and there, a clearing of the throat; the two fidgeted in uncertain confusion as neither quite knew how to broach the elephant in the room.
“Soooo, about yesterday?” Spike, the more socially adept of the two, clumsily began.
Looking at each other they held their gazes for a moment...before matching grins broke across their faces!
“Oh my gosh! Can you believe it!?”
“I know, right! She was just blasting away all like ‘Pew’ ‘Blam’ and ‘BLLLLAAAAARGH’ and AJ was just ‘Pow Pow Pow’!”
“And when the magic suppressor got overloaded like that!? I’ve already got a ton of ideas on how to fix that!”
“And Carrot was just blasting away at everything like a mad mare!”
“I know! I so want to talk to her about what she does in her garden!”
Bursting from their seats, the dam of emotions broke as the two giddily regaled to each other the events of yesterday as they acted out their battle, swinging their arms and hooves as they merrily chased each other around in mock combat. Laughing now at the terror and fear they had felt, basking in the strange euphoria at having survived certain death together. Collapsing in a fit of laughter two hours later on the floor, Twilight and Spike caught their breath, their chests heaving as the excitement abated.
Looking over to her companion and catching his gaze, Twilight shared a look with Spike and finally voiced what both had come to realize.
“We’re never going to be the same, are we?”
“Heh, yeah I guess not,” Spike chuckled. Reaching over, he grasped Twilight’s hoof as the two laid there staring up at the ceiling.
“So what do we do now?”
An excited smile grew on Twilight’s face.
The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity and manic energy as the duo packed, tinkered, tested, and repacked. Lists were drawn up and discarded as chalk diagrams were sketched out and erased and redrawn. In the middle of it all, Applejack had surprised them by stopping by and offering her help.
“Granny may be safe, but I’d never be able to call myself an Apple if I didn’t see that that Starlight never does this to anypony else,” she answered when they asked about her decision. “Besides, Granny herself took me aside this morning and told me ‘Our ancestors left the farm lands to help found this town and many others like it. We Apples may no longer cultivate the land, but we still do our part to help cultivate our communities and all ponies in need,’ Applejack quoted as she nodded her head. “I figured you two might try something like this, and I’ll be damned if I just stood by and didn’t keep the two of you out of trouble,” she finished with a cheeky grin.
“Besides, that Starlight was looking for this magical doodad,” she said as she patted the side of her saddlebag where the mysterious gold gorget with its orange jewel was stored. “And as long as she’s looking for it or others like it I doubt I could rest easy knowing she or her weird partner could return to my home at any time to get their hooves on it. I’m bringing the fight to her this time.”
And so the party grew to three, and soon four as Carrot Top returned as well to see how the two were doing. She proved to be a welcome help to Twilight in her research as well as surprisingly insightful into magical studies.
“Found it! It’s called the Element of Honesty, one of a set of magical artifacts called the Elements of Harmony that were said to exist during the time of the alicorns. According to this, ‘The Elements of Harmony represented one of the four aspects of harmony, in this case the intrinsic mystical connection between platonic ponies and were given power by the strength of their bearers' friendship. They were supposedly capable of banishing evil and purifying beings of darkness.’”
Poking her head out of the pile of books she was currently buried under, Twilight lit up as she listened to Carrot Top read from the book she was holding. “That’s amazing Carrot! How did you find it? I’ve been searching every compendium and magical index in here trying to find even a passing description of what Applejack has,” she said as she pointed to the mare’s saddle bag.
“Oh, well you know, I just sort of looked under ‘E’,” Carrot Top bashfully admitted to Twilight’s exasperated disbelief.
The clock ticking, the four ponies made their plans quickly as every moment lost was another for Starlight and her mysterious partner to make their move.
Looking over the travel schedule, Twilight looked back towards the group. “So, should we try to get Tree Hugger and Bon-Bon as well?”
“Nah,”Applejack said shaking her head. “Bon-Bon is nursing Lyra back to health, but she promised us all deep discounts from her store. And Tree Hugger said that she would be busy caring for the new little one; the acorn from the old Oak of the Everfree Forest. She wanted to invite all of us to join her in a yoga/cleansing session but I guess I’ll be telling her that we’ll all need to take a rain check on that.”
“It’s too bad, I would have liked to have tried that,” Twilight said, momentarily surprising herself by actually meaning it. “But that still leaves the issue of, well, getting to Cloudsdale.” She said, hesitantly looking towards Spike.
Taking a deep breath, Spike gave a brave smile and a thumbs up. “Heh, don’t worry about me Twi. I’m with you all the way.”
“Are you sure,” Twilight asked concerned. “Remember back in Unitopia how the crew at the pier needed to cage yo-“
“I said I’m fine!” Spike yelled before quickly subduing himself. Taking in a deep breath he continued, “Longma travel through the tempests all the time, they’re always bragging about how far they go and how great their networks are. Well, I’m a mighty dragon and I won’t lose to any fake dragon-pony thing,” he proclaimed as he thumped his chest. “Trust me Twilight, I can do this. I’m a pure-blooded dragon, a noble dragon! Dragon’s are strong, we’re determined, we d-don’t let anything intimidate us! I’m going to show those Longma one day what a REAL dragon is like!”
“But-“
“No!” Spike asserted himself as he looked Twilight directly in the eyes. “Twilight, I know I can get over this,” he said before slowly and bashfully averting his eyes. “b-but, I wouldn’t mind if you helped me out a little.”
“Spike,” Twilight whispered as she pulled him in for a tight hug. “I’ll look out for you every step of the way.”
Giving a curious look at the two, Applejack decided to leave what looked to be a personal matter to the side as she focused on the next step of their journey. “Alright then, we still need to find some way to actually travel to this ‘Cloudsdale’. Besides it supposedly being in the pegasus territories, I honestly have no experience with it, I’m ashamed to say. I’ve never traveled beyond the earth pony lands before.”
“I can help with that,” Carrot Top stepped in. “It just so happens that I’m shipping some produce to Cloudsdale later today, and I know a few ponies there as well who might be able to show us around. I’m sure with a few cloud walking potions I had in inventory, we can track down this Starlight Glimmer before she can cause any more trouble.”
“That’s amazing Carrot Top!” Twilight exclaimed before she felt Applejack place a hoof across her chest, placing a block on the librarian's optimism.
“You just happened to be shipping some produce to Cloudsdale set to leave later today?” the orange mare deadpanned with half lidded eyes as she gazed at the still smiling face of Carrot Top.
“Yes, that’s right,” the other mare replied with open sincerity.
“And you just so happened to have ‘cloud walking potions’, which I’m guessing we’ll apparently need, just lying around in your stock?”
“Why, yes, of course Applejack; I ship to all parts of Equestria and need to be ready for just such an occasion,” Carrot Top sensibly replied.
“And I’ve been meaning to ask, but you also happened to have exploding carrots and a magic absorbing produce shield yesterday?”
“Gardening is so much more intense than most ponies give it credit for,” Carrot Top replied, smiling sweetly and fluttering her eyelashes.
Narrowing her eyes, Applejack leaned forward as she tapped the bright orange maned mare in her fluffy chest. “After all this is over, I’d like to sit down and have a talk with you, Golden.”
“Why I’d love to share a pitcher of carrot juice with you Applejack; how about we meet at my house, or would you prefer I come by to visit you?” the mare named Golden Harvest, but known as Carrot Top to her friends, beamed as she clapped her forehooves together.
Put off by the display of open hospitality, Applejack backed down as Carrot Top pulled a small pamphlet with the picture of an airship proudly drawn on its cover out of her saddle bag. “Now if we’re to ride along with my produce, we will all need to book some seats. As it seems, this flight just HAPPENS to also take passengers and I have right here the prices for each type of ticket,” she said as she smiled serenely at Applejack. “Isn’t that just so lucky for all of us?”
Applejack looked like she had bitten a lemon, “Okay, now you’re just trolling me.”
Leaning down to flip open the pamphlet with her lips, Twilight’s face took on an ashen hue that only became worse as she looked down the list of prices.
“Now, I know that we probably won’t be traveling first class,” Carrot Top continued, “but I’m sure if we pool our resources, we can find something that will work within each of our budgets.”
“Well how much are tickets anyway?” Applejack asked as she walked up to the table to take a look at the pamphlet.
“Well, due to the dangers of the tempests and the expenses needed to maintain airships and pay the crew, travel is a bit on the expensive side,” Carrot Top explained. “But, again, if we dip into our savings a bit I’m sure –“
“SWEET MOTHER OF FAUST! OOOOOOOOOH! I’M DYYYING!!!” Applejack screamed as she clutched her chest and staggered back, dropping to the floor and began hyperventilating.
“Again, we’ll be pooling our resources everypony,” Carrot Top said trying to assuage their fears. “If everypony pulls from their savings I’m sure we can find something that will suit our needs.”
Turning to his companion, Spike asked a question that sadly told Carrot Top everything she needed to know about the young librarian’s fiscal abilities. “Hey Twilight, what are ‘savings’?”
“It’s something that moms and dads do for their foals so the foals don’t have to do it for themselves,” Twilight answered before trotting to a far corner of the library where a box lay. Flipping past the ‘I should have listened to Twilight’ and ‘I should have listened to Spike’ signs, she continued searching though the box before landing on one in particular. Placing the ‘I was a bad grownup’ sign around her neck she then proceeded to sit facing the corner.
Glancing back to the still hyperventilating Applejack, Carrot Top groaned and looked back to the pamphlet. Skipping to the last entry on the back of the page, she checked the price and compared it to what she had. Multiplying by four, Carrot Top gave a tired groan at the amount. “When did saving the world become so expensive?”
Airships; marvels of transportation since ancient times. The Carrack-type ship looked exactly like its ocean-going counterpart except for the wide fish like fins sweeping out from the back and middle of the hull and the massive whale shaped balloon anchored at six points along the ship; two at each end with two in the middle. A jaunty captain's quarters lay at the end of the aptly-named quarter deck with an enclosed wheel house atop it. Two sealed cargo doors were built into the deck surface, with a griffon hen figurehead staring out into the sky before it.
The balloon itself looked far too heavy to actually float, but despite the thick canvas and nylon-wrapped skin, it pulled on the rope net around it, fighting to take flight had the ship not been moored securely.
Trotting up the gangplank, the three ponies and one dragon made their way to the ship, with Applejack in the lead and Twilight and Spike in the rear. Riding on Twilight’s back, Spike chatted amicably with the rest of the ponies at first. But as they got closer to the ship, the dragon began to grow more silent to the concern of his purple companion. Now that they were on the boarding ramp to the ship itself, the little drake had developed a pale look to him as he began to sweat heavily, his breathing becoming shallower with each step.
“Welcome aboard the ‘Lollipop Skip’! How can we serve you today?” a chipper stallion greeted them at the top of the gangplank.
Sheepishly, Carrot Top stepped around Applejack and pulled out four paper napkins that the ticket-mare had given over to her as printing their actual tickets would have apparently been a waste of good paper and magic.
The stallion only needed to glance at the ‘Last Class’ scribbled on each napkin for his smile to die a sudden and painful death.
“The hold is on the bottom of the ship. Don’t touch anything, and we’ll try not to throw you overboard as ballast when we take off. No promises though. Also, don’t forget to sign your waivers.”
Wincing, Applejack and Carrot Top nodded to the crew-pony as they tried and failed to read a legal waiver covered in so much fine print that the document appeared as a solid black page. Knowing they had no other choice; the two mares signed the documents and began their trek to the bowels of the ship when a strained wheezing caught their attention.
“Hey Twilight, I don’t think I can do this,” Spike weakly called out.
“It’s okay Spike, we’re almost on board. You can do this,” Twilight encouraged as she slowed her pace to steady her passenger. “Just close your eyes and take deep breaths, try to focus on just doing that.”
Taking several deep breaths, Spike began to shiver as sweat poured off of him. “I-I-I need some more time, just let me lie down,” he croaked, he began to slide off of Twilight’s back.
“You’re almost there, you’re doing so much better than at when we traveled here the first time Spike,” Twilight nervously cheered as she quickened her pace up the ramp.
“I-I-I need to sit down," he dry heaved as he wobbled precariously on Twilight's back. "I-I've got to get- I've got to- I’ve got to get OUT!” Spike suddenly shouted as he jumped off Twilight’s back.
“Spike!” Lunging forward and tackling the fleeing dragon, Twilight held tight as Spike began flailing his arms harder.
“I NEED TO GET OUT! I NEED TO GET OUT! INEEDTOGETOUTINEEDTOGETOUTINEEDTOGETOUT!!”
“What in Tartarus is going on?” Applejack cried as she turned around and ran to the duo.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks as he locked sight of the distant tempest clouds that they would be traveling through.
“Please AJ! Help me get him inside; he’ll calm down once he can’t see the tempest anymore,” Twilight pleaded as she continued to hold onto the increasingly frantic dragon.
“Ma’am you need to leave, I can’t let you on without signing the waivers,” the now alarmed crew member called out.
Gripping a quill in her teeth and slashing an ‘X’ on two forms, Twilight looped a foreleg around Spike as Applejack did the same on his opposite site. Each pony sprinting in a three-legged gait with a flailing dragon between them, the two raced down the ship with Carrot Top running ahead to open hatches and clear the path for them.
Reaching the bottom of the ship, the trio deposited Spike as Twilight wrapped him in her hooves and rocked him back and forth under the concerned watch of her two travel mates.
Slowly Spike began to calm down as his breathing returned to normal.
“You okay Spike?” Twilight asked as he buried his face into her fur in shame to avoid looking at the rest of the team.
“What happened back there?” Applejack asked as she set down next to Twilight to give her and Spike additional support, with Carrot Top settling down at her other side to watch over the group.
Sighing, Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, Spike had a rough experience with the tempests before.”
Looking down with sympathy at the frightened drake, Applejack couldn’t help but be reminded of the times when she would comfort her little sister Applebloom during the scheduled lightning storms. Just because you knew what was coming, didn’t make it any less scary, especially for one so small. “Don’t worry about a thing Spike,” Applejack cooed as she stroked his back. “This ship is as sturdy and solid as they come,” she said, stomping on the solid oak boards beneath them. “We’ll be right here with you the whole way, and before you know it, we’ll be in Cloudsdale in no time.”
Shaking his head, Spike turned to look directly at Applejack. His tear-stained face and haunted look surprising the large mare. “You don’t understand; tempests want to kill you.”
At his side, Carrot Top gasped as she realized something. Applejack though, only saw a frightened child in need of comfort.
“I know that tempests can be scary but-“
“You don’t get it,” Spike’s cold monotone cut through Applejack’s soothing words like a knife. “You don’t get it at all,” Spike continued, turning back to clutch Twilight harder as his mind traveled back to his desperate flight out of the dragon lands, avoiding the patrols chasing him under the uncaring watch of the Longma elites. Thinking back to the tiny life pod he had snuck aboard in desperation to escape, Spike began to speak as he remembered...
The waves swelled and dropped beneath Spike as he struggled to hold onto the broken remains of the life pod. Dark purple lightning flashed around him, the booming thunderclaps bursting above him and striking him with a violent wall of air pressure from each explosion of sound. Golf-ball sized hail stones rained down upon him, pelting him mercilessly as his dragon scales and hide screamed in pain from the abuse even as a new sensation of intense itching began growing all across his body.
“HELP!” he screamed in panic as the world suddenly seemed to drop from under him. He dug his claws into the wood beneath him as it looked as if the ocean itself was receding below as he pitched forward. His cries were lost as his wreckage slid down the descending wall of water, surfing along the face of a newly formed 100-foot-tall wave. Faster and faster, he slid down into the roaring darkness as the wooden plank began to lose its connection to the wave beneath it as the fall became steeper and steeper, soon becoming nearly vertical as Spike finally lost his grip on the board and slammed face-first into the unforgiving waters below, the force of several metric tons of water crashing onto him and pushing him further down into the depths below as the ocean churned and tumbled. The massive underwater currents pulled and tossed the young dragon beneath the waters and it was only due to his draconic nature that his body was even strong enough to keep from being crushed and torn apart.
“Hel-mphgr!” Spike cried out in panic as he took in a lungful of water and flailed wildly, trying to make it back to the surface. But all around him the world was a turbulent mess of pitch black as he lost sight of which way was up or down and the currents continued to thrash him around. Spike’s vision began to black out when directly in front of him massive blue glowing lines with hundreds of smaller blue dots pulsed and charged towards him, a gaping maw the size of a stadium and full of thousands of razor-sharp teeth opened to engulf him.
With one last weak but desperate struggle, Spike pushed himself away from the oncoming doom, his arms already numb from the lack of breath and his feet no longer feeling, his mind filled with one last thought as he tried to flee.
‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE!’
Suddenly the world around him exploded in booming thunder and flashing lightning again as his head broke the water. Vomiting the water in his lungs, Spike took a deep breath before scrambling once again to avoid the leviathan within the dark.
Beneath him, the mass of the leviathan was so great that it pushed the water before it like a massive up-swell; the tiny dragon kicking through the water as hard as he could to escape the jaws of the beast. But with a mouth wide enough to swallow ocean-liners whole, his efforts were futile at best. Riding the surging up-swell of water, Spike pulled himself as far out of the water as he could, briefly emerging out of the ocean as the leviathan hit the surface.
But rather than breaking through the surface and consuming the tiny speck of a dragon, it was as if it had hit an immoveable wall. Slamming into the surface of the water, the massive beast instead buckled and compressed, blood and gore squeezing out of the sides as glowing lines and veins popped and burst. Chunks of flesh and visceral splattered across the undersurface of the water as the ocean turned greenish black with the remains of the horrific beast spread across the surface of the water.
Flung upwards once again by the impact of the leviathan, Spike choked and gagged as he tried to keep his head above the surface, now treading water within the blood and remains of the predator. Spitting up more greenish black bile, Spike wiped his eyes and scratched at his increasingly itchy scales as he swiveled around, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Gulping for breath, and shielding his face from the falling hail, all he could see upon the ocean were the crashing waves and wide expanse of pulped leviathan. Flinging a chunk of flesh that had drifted too close to him, Spike was about to bat another away when an eye suddenly opened to look directly back at him.
Yelping in surprise, Spike paddled backwards away only to see numerous other eyes open before and around him. Tossed back and forth by the storming waves, Spike occasionally bobbed up high enough to see that all around him the entire surface of the ocean was now staring back at him with hundreds of disembodied eyeballs, all floating upon the surface with him. Shuddering at the sight, Spike tried to splash one of the eyes away from him with a claw, the water and blood doing little to push the nearest eye away from him.
*SCHREEEEEEEEK!*
Pupil splitting apart, needle-like teeth revealed themselves as the eye shrieked at him. Rising out of the water on tendrils of sickly green blood, they towered above the terrified little dragon, their pearly-white jaws flashing in the lightning.
Lashing down, they tore and bit at Spike, though their teeth were no match for his dragon scales. Covering his face, Spike endured the strikes as he was tossed around in the waves, his scales holding up, but between the growing itch and the biting swarm he could feel his body screaming out in agony.
Another wave crashed over Spike just as a shrieking eye sank its jaws into him and he found himself beneath the waters once again. Tumbling beneath the waters, Spike found himself wrapped up in one of the reedy-like stalk of the eye. Clawing at the eye monster, movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention as the massive bulk of a leviathan darted past. Its enormous body slicing through the water at impossible speeds, Spike could see the giant maw of the beast dominating the front of its body as the rest were propelled by 11 thick and corded tentacles behind it. All around it, tendrils of sickly green blood flowed from the surface of the ocean back into the body of the beast. But no sooner had Spike spotted the leviathan, than he was yanked back out of the water and swarmed again by the biting eyes.
“Gyah!” Emerald fire erupted from the ocean as Spike unleashed his dragon fire. Around him, the shrieking wails of the eye creatures filled the air as his flames engulfed and consumed the magical blood puppets.
“Help! Someone help!” Even as the storm born monster burned, a thick choking black smoke whipped about in the fierce winds of the storm around him. Paddling as far away as he could from the burning mass, Spike’s whole body crackled with jolts of pain as the itching on his scales grew in strength. With his mind able to focus his own body again he could feel the thousand searing bites of phantom insects ripping away at him as he continued to desperately keep his head above the crashing waves.
“HELP! Please! Someone help!”
*BZCCCKKTTT!*
Around him, bolts of purple lighting struck the water, blasting giant plumes of steam and ozone into the air.
Flash after flash of lightning exploded around him, the bursts of light scorching his eyes as the entire area was lit up brighter than the noon sky.
“PLEASE! SOMEONE BE OUT THERE!” he cried with tears streaming down his face as he frantically struggled to stay afloat.
Waves continued to crash down upon him, trying to drag him under even as he paddled with all four limbs and waded with his tail to stay high enough to keep breathing, his scales tortured by the bombardment of hail and maddening itch.
*BZCCCCKKT!!!*
He didn’t even have the time to realize what was happening. One moment the world was a chaotic storm of fury and waves, and then with a flash there was nothing.
No sound.
No light.
No heat.
No fear.
No emotions.
Sluggishly, he fought to open his eyes.
Only inky darkness greeted him.
Who was he? Where was he?
Still more nothingness.
Abstractly, he knew he was drowning. Sinking beneath the waves, he recalled the burst of lightning and power that had blasted him and sent him plummeting down into the depths of the ocean.
Some small part of him told him that he should care about drowning. But everything was quiet for once. Even though he couldn’t breathe, his whole body was numb. Numb to the point that nothing felt real. Everything felt so distant, like everything was happening to another person and he was only listening to it in a distant memory of a story.
He wished this would last forever. … His eyes began to close. … Down he continued to sink. … It was beginning to get lighter but he just couldn’t care anymore. Still, his eye lids stopped dropping and through thin slits he could see a ribbon of white light coming up to meet him.
Or was he sinking down to it?
Nothing mattered anymore.
Down he continued to sink, the light becoming brighter as he drew close.
The ribbon of light was streaming out of a room; a room only a story wide, but which seemed to stretch across the length of the ocean. His blurry and darkening vision could still make out a clear glass ceiling to a white corridor, bright white light spilling out from it within the darkness.
Sinking down to the glass, Spike’s descent did not stop as the glass pushed in and molded around him like film of soap. Sinking deeper, the film stretched and elongated until with a soft *pop* he passed through it and fell directly left. Dropping onto a wall littered with broken plates, the world reoriented itself 90 degrees as ceilings became walls and the wall he was on became the floor. Lying flat on his belly, the weight of his body pushed some water from his lungs as it pooled around his open mouth. Some long-forgotten instinct to *breath* weakly struggled to take in some air only for him to feebly vomit more water. Still something in him tried to draw more air into the portion of his lungs not filled with water.
“hhuuurrrk-gktck-cough-Cough *HURKT!*
The tiny trickle of air seemed to tickle something, turning into a cough which then seemed to wake up the rest of his body. With great heaving coughs, Spike hurled up mouthfuls of water, disgorging his insides as his mind re-awoke to sensations. Heaving away, his lungs felt like they were burning as he greedily gulped lungfuls of air while also spitting up more water onto the floor.
Twenty minutes later Spike was panting, propped up by his claws, still leaning over a pool of his own warm retch before finally rolling over onto his back, the crackle of broken porcelain beneath him shifting under his own weight. Opening bleary eyes, Spike slowly sat upright, pushing up from the shattered plates beneath him. Taking in his surroundings, he noticed first the white light. Above him shone the un-naturally bright white light, filling the long hallway with an almost oppressive, blinding sheen. The air itself held a sterile odor to it, like ammonia and soap, matching the pristine antiseptic white that surrounded him. To his right was a smooth featureless wall while to his left lay a wall of clear glass, though not a single reflection nor glare from the lights above marred its surface.
Most curious though, were the broken plates. Gingerly picking up a broken fragment, Spike puzzled silently at the mess around him. Looking up, he tried to make out the end of the hallway, only to the see the corridor continue to stretch on into the horizon. The far end of the passageway becoming blurred and lost in the brilliant white light. Peering behind him, he saw that the other end of the corridor also seemed to lose itself to infinity. As he hesitantly stood up, the shifting and crunching of the ceramic beneath him seemed to become amplified by the echoing walls of the hallway. The grinding sound of the dinnerware beneath him shattering the otherwise tomb-like silence that he found himself in.
“Uh.. hello?” Spike meekly called out, as he slowly spun about, his feet noisily shifting the rubble beneath him. “Um, anyone out there?”
Cold damp silence greeted him.
More scrapping sounds arose as the young dragon slowly began to stumble down the hall.
“…Hello?”
He remembered now; the storm, the leviathan, and then the lightning. Idly scratching at his itching scales, Spike slowly tried to find some reasoning behind his current location.
“I’m lost here… Could someone please help me?”
Even the tiniest whisper boomed loudly through the corridor as the walls echoed each word countless times, bombarding Spike from all sides with his own voice. Still he pressed on.
“Please?”
The smooth walls and glass on either side of him yielded no solutions nor hints. On and on they went, extending on with no seam or crack to break up the dull monotony.
*thunk*
Swiveling his head to the new sound, Spike looked up towards the ceiling. The blinding light hid the true shape of the roof above his head, but he could still hear perfectly fine. And from above him he identified a slow rhythmic tapping. Squinting to see against the light above him, Spike’s eyes involuntarily widened as a long, wicked claw emerged from behind the brilliant white light.
Reaching out, a long spindly limb capped with a bowie-knife sized ragged claw curled back and planted itself into something just behind the light. Another spindly and clawed limb emerged just to plant itself back onto the ceiling, and after that, another and another appeared. Soon, ten such limbs emerged and affixed themselves into the hidden ceiling. From the center of the circle of bent limbs, IT arose.
*RRURRRKKKKTTT*
A long slender neck with no head, covered in yellow bloated skin, came into view. Soon it was followed by a swollen fat sack dangling down from its back as it hung upside down, suspended by the ten long, spindly, arms tipped by those ragged spike-like claws. The stench of ammonia and soap was practically assaulting him now as the creature came into view.
Yelping in freight, Spike scrambled back as the creature crawled along the ceiling towards him. Stopping a few meters away, the fleshy fat sack bulged grotesquely, a clattering sound emerging from it before its tip seemed to pop, spewing a high-pressure stream of porcelain plates to shatter against the floor.
Face twisted in confusion, Spike watched as the creature's neck swung up to ‘face’ him before splitting down its entire length, serrated teeth lining its jagged maw.
“YAAAAAAH!” All thoughts of cold and itch were blown from Spike’s mind as he bolted down the hallway, a harsh shriek and scrambling of claws following close behind him.
Clambering along the ceiling, the creature's long spindly legs quickly made up the distance as it closed in on the tiny dragon and shot out a claw, only for its prey to leap at the last moment.
“UGH! Somebody help! Somebody HELP!!” Spike pleaded as he scrambled on top of the mess of broken porcelain, the sharp pitched squeal of broken china scrapping upon broken china was his only response. Spinning around to keep an eye on the creature, Spike backpedaled madly to try to escape.
*Thuuuurrrrk* rumbled the creature as six of its claws let go of the ceiling and descended, angling themselves towards the dragon.
Confusion and stress tied his gut into knots as Spike faced the barbed appendages. Tears streaming down his face, Spike let loose a blast of flame at the creature rather than wait and test his reflexes against its own. Emerald fire fought to take hold of the damp flesh, but short bristly hairs curled and released yellowish smoke as the rest of its body burned briefly as patches of black charred skin crackled and bled.
*Fwoosh**Fwoosh*Fwoosh*
His breath shallow and panicked, Spike still let loose a quick barrage of fire at the screaming creature.
Waving its claws in front of it, it swatted and slashed but did not come close to hitting Spike as the flames seemed to have ‘blinded’ the eyeless creature. *Hgggggggrrrrrrrrk!* it cried as it backed away, still waving its claws. But its retreat was awkward and stumbling, with so many of its legs waving in a futile attempt to ward off the magical dragon flame. In its haste, a leg must have missed a grasp of hidden ceiling, for it swung awkwardly down, the mass of the creature suddenly jerking away as another claw missed its mark and, in a tumble of gangly limbs, the creature crashed down from the ceiling and onto the floor, writhing on the shifting pile of broken refuse.
Slamming its neck-head into the ground, the creature tried to push itself up as its legs frantically stabbed at the floor beneath it. But the layer of broken plates proved to be a poor platform for the spiked legs as shards of china slipped against each other, the pointed tips of its claws failing time and time again to find any purchase on the ever-shifting floor beneath it.
Dozens of legs shot out, skewering their floundering brethren on the floor as large chunks of meat were torn from the corpse. Raising their impaled prizes back up, long spindly legs bumped against the lights and walls of the hallway as they clumsily tried to maneuver the spikes of their legs to their own mouths, tongues sticking out as far as they could as they grasped at the raw morsels. After a moment of twisting and gasping, the creatures turned towards each other, and with surprising gentleness that belied their unflinching murder of one of their own, began to feed each other. Gently placing the still bleeding flesh of their brother within each other’s mouths.
His stomach turning, Spike slowly backed away from the sound of happy coos and heavy panting that perhaps passed for laughter. Sadly, his steps could not be silent as each step created a crinkle from the porcelain. Two steps in, and all the long neck/faces of the assembled creatures turned towards him, all pleasantry gone from their body language.
Breath hitching in his throat, Spike began to turn when he saw more claws emerge from the ceiling behind him, late comers to the meal and still hungry.
Hungry creatures to the left of him, bloody creatures to the right, Spike backed up against the glass pane separating him from the dark depths outside only for his back to meet with no resistance; the ‘glass’ distorting and pushing out like a soap bubble. Looking out into the darkness, Spike glanced back towards his hunters. Edging forward, the creatures around him seemed to sense his thoughts and together, Spike and the creatures tensed as one.
Shooting a blast of flame, Spike's feet slipped on the loose tiles beneath him, but the burst of fire pushed him back enough to slip right through the transparent boundary. Flinching back, the creatures then leapt after the dragon, slamming into the ‘glass’ with a thunderous clamor. Clawing and screeching they stabbed at the surface, but they may as well been pounding against a thick steel wall as their spikes broke against the barrier. Their cries began fade out though as those that had fallen to the floor were summarily executed, many by the very beings that had been lovingly feeding them moments before.
Turning away from the sight, Spike was assaulted by the sudden cold and pressure of the deep, the itching from before returning even stronger this time. Flailing his arms, the little dragon tumbled in the water, trying to make his way back to the surface. Spinning back around to get his bearings, Spike nearly yelped in surprise as the white corridor he had been in now seemed miles above him, just a thin sting of white stretching out across the darkness. Holding onto his breath, Spike began paddling desperately back towards it. Squeezing his eyes shut, he prayed to the dragon ancestors for a miracle. Opening his eyes, Spike only saw darkness above him as even the ribbon of light was now gone.
Internally screaming in panic, Spike spun around and caught sight of the ribbon of white once again, now though it was even further away and behind him. With confusion and water pressure setting in, Spike yelped, a plume of bubbles spewing from his mouth as the entire ocean erupted in light as a massive eye opened behind the white corridor. Seemingly taking up an entire side of the ocean, the glowing white iris and dark pupil stretched for miles in every direction, disappearing into the darkness of the horizon. Peering closely at the insignificant being before it, the eyes lost interest in him and began to move, massive tentacles propelling it as the continental squid left to search for more substantial prey.
His lungs beginning to burn, Spike ripped his gaze from the mythical creature and tried to orient himself, when his sight fell upon the bubbles he had unwittingly let loose upon the sight of the monstrous squid. Hanging in the water illuminated by the receding glow of the squid’s eye, the air bubbles he had exhaled drifted lazily in every direction; no up, no down, they floated by aimlessly. Swirling his hands in the water desperately, as if he could dislodge the bubbles from their watery prison and follow them back to the surface, Spike’s tears of frustration flowed directly into the ocean around him. The burning pain in his lungs only grew as he frantically chose a direction at random and began swimming with the all the madness a drowning dragon could produce.
Swinging his limbs, an eruption of electric pain seared through his arm, cutting through his frantic struggle, and slammed directly into his brain. The light from the squid was nearly gone now but he could still see oozing to his left and reaching towards him in an amorphous blob, thick legs of red tar reaching up and around him. Even the glancing touch he had made melted the top most layer of his scales. Screaming in desperation and fear, Spike swam away; he didn’t have any direction in mind, he had nothing left. He just had to get away, get away from the acid, away from the monsters, away from all the madness. Paddling his arms and kicking his legs as hard as he could, Spike swam and screamed, his air spent, his muscles were burning from deprivation, and his mind was stripped of any rational thought left but one.
Escape.
Lightning exploded and thundered around him as his head broke the water. Throwing his head back, Spike screamed up into the sky as rain continued to pour down, threatening to drown him at the surface. He didn’t know nor care anymore about that. His lungs heaved as he greedily gulped in oxygen, only to continue screaming as soon as he could. Fixing his eyes on a random direction Spike began to splash and paddle as hard as he could. “Got to get out, got to get out, GOT TO GET OUT!!!”
Waves crashed around him as he swam, walls of water trying to push him back down into the directionless abyss beneath the surface, but Spike forced himself to keep his head above water. Whether it was out of conscious thought, or out of some primal instinct, he could no longer distinguish between the two. Crying as he continued to swim, he suddenly felt himself pulled back, as if the entire world was mocking his progress by negating it in an instant. Yet, just as suddenly, the entire world began to swell and rise. Beneath him the entire ocean began to bulge and heave. Pushed up a kilometer into the air, only to feel the stomach-turning drop as the water fell once again, Spike threw up violently but still kept on swimming.
Dropping down once again, the sky was blocked out momentarily as a wall of water rose to the side of him this time. The virtual mountain of water pointed high into the sky before dropping back down, the dark liquid taking on a grey and slate-like appearance as the water solidified and turned into solid granite. With a crack that drowned out even the thunder above him, the massive mountain of solid rock broke and shattered into a million pieces as they tumbled back down in an oceanic landslide. Seeing untold tons of solid rock cascading and falling his way, Spike could only swim harder as he screamed and flailed his way across the water. The rock surged into the waters around him, blasting the tiny dragon through the air and impacting with a wet smack against a colossal grey column.
Dropping back down into the water, Spike looked up to see what he had hit, only to behold tens of equally colossal elephant legs smashing down from the clouds themselves into the ocean. All around him massive pillars of muscle and thick leathery hide stomped down with an angry vengeance onto the surface of the water. But the water did not take this assault from its sky-dwelling brethren lightly, as long black tendrils grew from the ocean surface and plunged into the pachyderm legs, rushing into them and making them swell and distort until the one he was next to exploded into a shower of lampreys. Flesh-eating sea life rained down around him, one hitting the water in front of the dragon, and lunged straight at him, its circular mouth filled with curved and cracked teeth.
Had he been in his right mind, Spike might have felt fear, but his mind was not right. Overloaded as it was, Spike responded with a deep bellowing roar; something ancient, something old, something that no longer cared about the whims of the universe and instead bent the world around it to its own will.
Tackling the lamprey out of the air, the dragon tore at its head and sunk his claws deep into its thick rubbery flesh. Screeching in anger, the lamprey swiveled around to sink its teeth into the head of the tiny dragon attacking it, only to have a gout of flame shoot straight down its maw. Rearing back, Spike bit down hard with jaws strong enough to crush diamonds, and tore out the belly of the lamprey and threw the torn chunk of flesh into the darkness around them.
Exhausted, Spike collapsed against the body of the lamprey as he cried and caught his breath. Whatever strength he had seeped out of him as his mind slowly came back, too spent to even lose itself to madness anymore. Clutching close the corpse of his foe against the crashing waves and thunderous storm raging around him, a thought came trickling back into his mind through his fatigue and ever-present itching. A tiny but insistent observation that refused to give up until he acknowledged it.
The dead body of the lamprey was floating.
Eyes jolting open, Spike looked again to the dead creature he was holding onto and saw it bob tumble on the surface of the water, but never sink. With a grunt of renewed determination, Spike hauled himself onto the cadaver and began to paddle his morbid canoe across the waters.
Time lost all meaning as he paddled. His throat was dry and hoarse from his screaming, but his gaze never wavered from the distant horizon. The rain turned to badgers that tried to tear him apart before sinking into the waves, and still he paddled. Lightning struck all around him, but still he paddled. The world went mad, but none of it mattered as he continued to paddle. The rain and lightning stopped, an eerie silence fell across the ocean, and still he paddled. Before him, crystal spires jutted out of the water at odd angles, cheerful apparitions just beneath the glassy surfaces dancing and spinning as their rotting forms decayed, and still, he paddled.
The world flicked and then exploded in lightning and thunder, the broken remains of his life boat shattered and sinking behind him once again as he returned to the beginning of his journey through the tempest. Beneath him, Spike could still feel the corpse of the lamprey so he gripped it tighter with his legs and tail and paddled harder.
The world flicked again and colossal elephant legs crashed down into the ocean around him, but still he paddled.
He was underwater again, acid bubbling up around him, he held his breath and paddled.
The scraping of porcelain and broken plates rattled around him as he paddled the dead body of the lamprey down a white endless corridor, above him spindly limbs clattered as headless necks rose out of the ceiling to follow his movements. As slow as it was, he continued to paddle.
The only thing he thought about, the only thing left in his existence, was to keep going.
I NEED TO GET OUT!
“I don’t really remember much of what happened after that”, Spike mumbled into Twilight’s side as he clung to her. “Our maid Cadance said she found me unconscious but still clinging to that rotting sea monster just outside of the magic barrier surrounding Unitopia. She and Twilight’s brother Shining Armor brought me home to Twi’s family and the rest is history.”
Still clutching onto Twilight, Spike turned his face to look at Applejack, his eyes haunted and empty. “All I can really say about traveling through Tempests is: TEMPESTS WILL KILL YOU.” Giving Twilight one last squeeze, Spike leaned against her as he tiredly looked down to his claws. “I-I’m trying though. I’m really trying to not let them beat me. I’m sorry everyone for freaking out again...” His eyes watering in shame Spike closed them tight as Twilight hugged him tighter, murmuring quiet encouragements to her loyal assistant.
“You were very brave Spike, I’m so proud of you,” she whispered.
Grabbing ahold of and gripping the two smaller being before her, Applejack’s wide and fear-filled eyes scanned the now flimsy looking room around her as her large body shivered in muted terror. “THAT’S what we’re about to fly though?! The way everypony just kept calling them tempests I though that’s all they were! Just really really really bad storms!” she cried out in shock. “What sick pony first looked at a tempest and said, ‘Yeah, let’s FLY through one of those in a wooden boat.’? Why isn’t this thing made of steel?”
Rearing back, a brief look of offense crossing her features, Carrot Top took a moment to pat Spike gently on his head before turning back to her companion. “I’m sure that those ancient ponies only wanted to reunite with their lost families and were willing to risk everything, braving the very madness of the tempests to find old friends. I, for one, am glad that, despite the dangers, travel is now possible between the tribes.”
Shaking her head, Applejack squeezed tighter onto smaller companions as she curled into herself, ever weary of any leaks or punctures in the hull. “I get what you’re saying, but those tempests just don’t sound natural at all. And don’t get me started about magical phenomenon and all the nitpicky mumbo jumbo,” she injected as she cut off Carrot Top’s next few words. “What I mean is, that even the Everfree Forest has its own set of rules that it follows. These tempests sound like a completely different thing all together!”
“Well, yes… you’re actually more correct than you realized about that. The tempests really are a different beast all together. And it’s because that they are so dangerous that you need to keep a calm head and not let your fears get the better of you,” Carrot Top acknowledged with a nod of her head.
“I’m not afraid! I’m just being justifiably cautious right now,” Applejack snipped as tried to put up a brave front before her fellow earth ponies. It had always been a point of pride that others could always depend on her in their times of need.
Carrot Top’s only reply to AJ’s bravado was a raised eyebrow as she waved towards the other two companions currently nestled in Applejack’s embrace.
Confused, Applejack looked down to see the final two members of their group being slowly crushed in her forelegs as they both began to turn an even darker shade of purple. “Gah! I’m so sorry about that you two!” Releasing the librarian and her assistant, Applejack sheepishly rubbed the back of her head as she looked away in embarrassment. “I’m uh, really sorry about that. I guess your story really did shake me up more than I cared to admit, Spike.”
Gasping for breath, the two quickly began to recover as a bent over Spike waved Applejack off. “No huh- no problem,” Spike wheezed. “As long as you get now why tempests need to be feared.”
Catching her breath, Twilight nodded along with Spike before leaning up against him for support. “You’re forgiven *huff* Applejack, and don’t worry about the ship. Wood is a natural conduit for magic, no pun intended. The thaumatic tension between the different enchantments and the oak’s natural psych pathways anchoring it all makes the entire structure 43.7% stronger than any steel known to pony.” Raising a hoof, Twilight indicated the ship around them, “Since ancient times, vessels like this one have traveled through the tempetss and survived. The enchantments upon them were produced by some of the most famous and brilliant spell engineers in history. Heck, Spike and I traveled on a ship just like this one to get to Ponyville and it was so safe that Spike and I even fell asleep in our cabin!” she happily concluded, though failing to mention that her cabin had been specially sound proofed and isolated from the outside world. Or that Spike only slept after taking three sleeping droughts and fitfully telling his first encounter with a tempest to a fascinated then horrified Twilight.
Breathing out deeply, Applejack did seem to calm down and gave a little smile to her companions. “Thanks for the pep talk everypony… and you too Spike!” She quickly added as she saw the small dragon begin to frown. “Heh, I guess I just need to trust in the captain and his crew of experienced work-hooves to get us through the night.”
The air seemed lighter as the group smiled and herded closer together, beginning to pull out sleeping bags and other small comfor-.
*Thunk*
Looking at the pile of bulky cloth and metal armor that had been dropped into the middle of the room, the ponies and one dragon looked up to see one of the crew looking back with a flat expression. “I take it that NONE of you actually read the small print on your waivers then?”
Seeing the blank look, he groaned softly into his hoof. “Missy,” he called out, looking directly at Twilight, “from the sounds of it you traveled first class before, private cabin and everything.”
“Y-yes,” Twilight stammered.
“Well dearie, this is LAST class. By signing the waivers you and your group agreed to help out the crew. That means you all will be suiting up and joining the rest of us in dealing with the tempest.”
Traveling Through The Tempest Turns Terribly Troubling
The assembled ponies, and one dragon, looked on with shock at the stallion before them. From his exposed head, they could see his light blue fur and messy green mane, but the rest of him was obscured by the thick diving-like suit that he wore. Thick canvas-textured material with spell arrays woven into the cloth covered his entire body, with hard steel bands wrapping around his legs and barrel. A heavy brass-colored metal collar encircled his neck where one could see the connecting groves for a helmet.
Looking from the stallion to the pile of garments he had tossed into the middle of the group, every being there could see that they were all similar suits to his own.
“If you need help suiting up, just let anypony know,” the crew member stated with a nod of his head. “But you better do it soon, the Captain will be going over everypony’s duties in 20 minutes.”
Gulping down her fear, Applejack took a deep breath and stood tall. Her years of looking after others driving down her growing panic at being told that she would be going out into an actual tempest. Stepping protectively in front of everypony else, she poked at the bulky pile and placed a hoof under one of the iron boot coverings to test its weight. “Won’t it be a bit hard to move around in these suits?” she frowned as the heavy boot dropped down with a thud. “Carrot and I could probably handle this, though I’d like to check out the helmets as well, but I doubt Twilight here could deal with the weight; no offense Twilight.” Applejack apologized to the small mare.
Shaking her head, Twilight agreed with Applejack’s assessment.
“And I don’t think you’ve got something that’ll fit Spike here either,” she continued shifting through the pile.
Looking over Spike, the crew member tilted his head as he considered the young dragon before him. “Yeah, I doubt he’d be able to fill out the minotaur suit we have. Captain Wind Speed will probably just have him working at the engines or someplace else inside, lucky bugger.”
Feeling a leg wrap around his shoulders, Spike looked to see Twilight smile supportively at him. Feeling some comfort knowing that he wouldn’t be in the actual tempest itself, he heaved a small sigh of relief.
“So you think maybe Twilight here could get a job inside as well?” Applejack asked hopefully.
“That’ll be up to the captain, but we don’t play favorites here on the Lollipop. Everypony wants the inside jobs and the crew has been working on this ship for years. Unless she absolutely can’t go outside or somehow has some amazing talent to keep this ship flying, she’s doing grunt work the same as the rest of you,” the crew member explained, his expression neutral.
“But she’d barely be able to move in one of these suits!” Applejack exclaimed. “Why’re they so heavy anyway? Don’t you have anything lighter?”
Grimacing, the crew member shook his head. “We weren’t expecting to have to get specialized pegasus suits until we reached Cloudsdale. Sorry, but this is all we have at the moment. But it’s nothing even an earth pony her size should have any trouble with.”
Blushing bright red even through her fur Twilight looked away as it was now Spike’s turn to support her and wrap an arm around her.
“Yeah, Twilight here is uh…” Applejack began as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. “The ancestors felt that she’d be better off with smarts more than strength and sort of just shifted about everything over in that direction for her.” Applejack supplied as she tried to explain as delicately as she could Twilight Sparkle’s lack of innate earth pony physical prowess in, well, EVERYTHING.
Seeing the incredulous look the crew pony was giving them, Applejack tried to change the subject. “Can’t we try to strip one of these suits down to and make it lighter?”
Scoffing, the crew member looked over Applejack before scanning the rest of the group. His expression dropping once again, he stared at her right in the eye. “You’re not joking, are you?”
Confused, Applejack shook her head no.
Sighing, the crew pony dragged his hoof down his face as he looked back at the group. “This really must be your first time dealing with a tempest. Listen well, you’ll see some really crazy things out there,” he began, Spike nodding his head to his statement. “But nothing will match what the tempest first does to a pony. Once a pony enters a tempest, unless they’re wearing a reinforced level 6 magical hazard suit, they’re not coming out a pony; and that is if they come out at all.”
Eyes widening in surprise, the group looked towards a shocked Spike before looking back at the crew pony. “What do you mean?!” Applejack shouted.
Shrugging, the stallion pointed to the pile of suits on the floor. “What I mean is that the tempests change a pony. I saw one poor soul tear his suit and the next thing you know his eyes turned into tarantulas and crawled out of his head before he could make it back inside. Every pony needs to wear a suit to work in the tempest.”
Looking everypony over, he huffed as he turned towards Applejack once more. “Look, last class or not, we’re all in this together so once you suit up, head to the mess hall. The Captain will have a rundown of what to do in a tempest, and then we’ll have a crew member assigned to stick with you at all times. Just do as we say and help us out and we’ll all make it to Cloudsdale with all our parts attached.”
Watching the stallion make his way back up the ship, Applejack turned back towards Spike while Twilight sat and rubbed her chin as she processed all the new information that she was given. Off to the side, Carrot Top patted Spike on his back as she made her way to the armored hazard suits.
“But your story didn’t cover anything about the tempest changing you,” a confused Applejack blurted out.
Shaking his head, Spike plopped down. “I’m just as confused as you,” he admitted.
“Maybe it’s due to a dragon’s natural resistance to magic,” Twilight murmured as she worked on this new puzzle. “But Spike’s magic resistance isn’t up to level 6 yet, so why would we need level 6 hazard suits? Unless they’re maybe for extraordinary circumstances though…” she trailed off as she continued to mumble to herself various explanations.
“I think Spike was meant to travel through the tempest,” Carrot Top added as she bent down to bite on a suit and pull it towards her. Separating it from the rest of the group she began turning it over to familiarize herself with it.
“What do you mean, Carrot?” Twilight asked as Applejack listened in.
“I’ve heard that once in a blue moon, a pony does get caught in a tempest and it changes them, but not in some horrific way. Maybe they grow a few millimeters, or they grow older by a few days.” Latching on to the zipper tab with her teeth, Carrot Top opened the back of the suit and stepped into it. “Perhaps your scales became a slightly different shade of purple,” she suggested as she looked towards Applejack, who immediately trotted over to help her pull up her suit.
Looking over his arms, Spike tried to find some truth to Carrot Top’s words, but everything looked the same to him.
“It may be something so small that no pony-uh, I mean no dragon, would even notice. But personally, I believe it was your destiny, Spike, to end up in the pony territories,” she said smiling towards Spike before glancing towards Twilight. “Or maybe it was your destiny, Twilight, that he joined you.”
Zipping up her back, Applejack flipped over a flap of heavy cloth over the zipper and pressed the edge of the flap into a long flexible segmented clamp along the suit’s back to seal it before moving onto another set of binding clamps and fasteners. Luckily for her, despite all the seals, everything was straightforward and simple enough.
While Applejack continued to work, Spike and Twilight looked towards each other.
“Nah,” they both replied in stereo.
“It has to be due to awesome dragon magic resistance,” Spike said nodding his head.
“I just don’t have enough to go on right now; maybe I can get a sample of some tempest magic to experiment with to see what really happened.”
“What!?” Spike yelled as he jumped up towards his companion. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard you say so far, and there’s been a lot!”
“Excuse me?!” Twilight yelped in offense.
Staring at the two arguing before her, Carrot Top just sighed as Applejack continued to seal her into her suit.
“Heh, don’t worry, those two are just being foolish, that’s all,” Applejack chuckled as she twisted another fastener into place.
“I know,” Carrot Top agreed, smiling wistfully at the bickering duo.
Three sets of heavy brass shoes clopped across the thick wooden deck of the airship as the three mares, and one dragon rider, made their way from their ‘room’ in cargo hold six to the mess hall. Or more accurately, two sets of heavy brass shoes clopped across the thick wooden deck as the final set dragged noisily across the floor as Applejack dragged a seemingly empty suit behind her. Only when she let go did the neck of the suit drop low enough to reveal the upper portion of the mane and face of the occupant inside.
Raising an eyebrow at the sight, Captain Wind Speed gave a small grunt before turning towards the rest of the crew. A veteran of many years, she and her crew had seen all sorts board her ship. A runt of a dragon and pintsized earth pony were far from the strangest guests she’d ever hosted.
Rough gray hairs coursed through her once red mane as leathered and cracked lips held onto a battered smoking pipe. As her eyes roamed over the crew, she made a silent prayer to the sun for each member to make it to their destination whole.
When the last few ponies shuffled into the room, Wind Speed wriggled her nose as she gave one last puff of her pipe before turning away and flipping the pipe over a ceramic pot, knocking the smoldering embers out and placing the warm pipe away in a drawer.
“We hit the tempest in three hours. Sunny Drops, you take Clay Pidgeon, Burn Out, and Flaming Wreck topside,” Captain Wind Speed’s order was met with some muttered grumbling with an ‘every freaking time’ coming from somepony’s mouth, but the members in question nodded their heads.
“Cross Hitch, you’re in charge of balloon duty. Take Sure Step, Lucky Ticket, Nose Cone, and Wind Breaker with you. You all know what to do, and luckily, we’ve got a full complement of spares. Don’t need to remind you, but I’ll do it anyway; we can get more balloons, skilled ponies are harder. Burn through as many as you think you have too to keep us up.”
Cross Hitch steeled her gaze as she gave a quick salute in response.
“As for our guests,” Captain Wind Speed looked towards the group, the leathery skin around her mouth cracking as the corners of his lips struggled to lift in an attempt to smile before falling back into place, “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I am Captain Good Wind Speed of the Trade Association ship Lollipop Skip, welcome aboard.”
Giving a collective bow, Applejack stepped forward and heartily bumped hooves with the Captain.
“Glad to make your acquaintance, Captain Wind Speed; you can call me Applejack, and these are my friends. That’s Golden Harvest over there, though we all call her Carrot Top.” The mare in question smiled warmly and curtsied as best she could in the bulky protective suit she was currently wearing.
“And this is Twilight Sparkle and her assistant Spike the Dragon; you won’t find a better pair of inventors or spell crafters this side of the earth pony lands,” AJ proudly proclaimed as Spike nervously waved while taking a glance in the direction of the tempest. Twilight, on the other hoof grunted, and strained for a moment, briefly wobbling in her suit before Spike picked up on her distress. Reaching down, he grabbed her front hoof and, with a heave, lifted it up to wave at the captain. A muffled noise came from the mare before she tilted her head back far enough for her muzzle to clear the collar of her suit. “Hello Captain.”
Captain Wind Speed gave a measured looked over to the crew member who had deposited the spare suits to the passengers.
“We never did replace the pegasus suits when Swift Wind left and Captain Anchors Away bought the rest of the spares from us back in Trader’s Falls, forgot about that,” the stallion answered rubbing the back of his head. “We were planning on grabbing some more once we made port in Cloudsdale.”
“Well the situation is what it is then,” Captain Wind Speed sighed as she remembered the deal with her fellow captain. Anchors Away had needed the suits and Wind Speed hadn’t had a pegasus crew member in over a month, and the possibility of picking one up in an earth pony town like Ponyville hadn’t seemed likely. So, acquiring one of the specialized, yet petite, flying suits had not seemed to be an urgent matter at the time. Still, no pony was getting off easy just because of a technicality, not on her ship. “Your friend said you were a spell crafter, that true?”
Squirming around in her suit a bit more, Twilight managed to shimmy her muzzle past the edge of her collar and pushed it down enough so she could talk and look at the Captain at the same time. “Um, yes sir-ma’am, affirmative your Captainship,” Twilight squawked out in what she probably meant to be an authoritative tone as Applejack planted her face into her hoof, with Carrot Top giggling lightly beside her.
“Sea Foam’s variant for fire suppression,” Captain Wind Speed pitched to Twilight.
Eyes lighting up, the small mare eagerly hit back the challenge, “Easy Breezy array with Perfume Dream and Lilac Sky’s arrays overlaid in the second and fifth circles respectively!”
Pleased at the response, Captain Wind Speed tossed out another. “Spell barrier, 100 meter radius, only two spell boards, power source is a 600 thaum quartz battery.”
Spike actually calmed a bit and a smile touched his lips while Twilight gave a toothy grin. “Set up Meadowbrook capacitor #8 at the E12, F18, and A5 positions while putting a #6 capacitor at C18, a #2 capacitor at D12, and #3 capacitors at C4 and G7. Place a Starswirl array in the upper left quadrant with Misty Day array overlaid in the third circle, Somnambula array in the upper right, Fast Strike array in the bottom left, and Miracle Maze array in the bottom right with Lilac Sky array overlaid in the second circle and Turner array in the fourth. Overlay the entire setup with a Shield Wall array on top and you’re good to go with just one spell board.”
Raising an eyebrow, the captain looked over to another crew member, the mare having sat up straighter half way through Twilight’s answer. Galloping over to table she quickly began pulling the materials out of her saddle bags and began constructing the spell array that Twilight had just described. The resulting spell board was a complicated mess of wires and jeweled capacitors but it did fit entirely on one board as Twilight had promised. Hooking it up to a much smaller battery than the one the captain had mentioned, she put on her helmet and pressed her hoof onto the activation plate.
A small perfectly spherical bubble of light-pink magic sprang to life around the spell board, protecting it from the mare’s tapping hoof. Pulling out another device from her saddle bags, the mare pointed a boxy contraption at the magical shield and watched as the main dial on the device jumped once but remained steady at its destination. Looking over the other dials, the mare gave a low whistle.
“Barrier is stable, Captain.”
Though Twilight couldn’t see it, to the rest of the crew the ever so slight relaxing of their Captain’s posture was as clear as a light house beacon of the Captain’s acknowledgement of Twilight. Still, there was one more test…
“Pony, female, advanced age. Lower half bitten in half by tempest hydra.”
Mouth gasping like a fish for a few seconds, Twilight’s mind raced through the scenario presented to her and came up with pitifully few answers. “Uh, uh, uh, uh, stop the bleeding with a Trauma’s Tourniquet…no, wait, that would take too long to set up from scratch… But! You could buy time with a Scarlet Bloom Fire Blossom to cauterize the wound couldn’t you? Unless that killed the pony first. Dammit! Hydra…so Hydra poison…so Posey Pollen’s Poison Purification Pattern with-with-with- ROPE! Poison Pattern with rope to manually tie off the bleeding…but, no, you can’t just tie a rope through a pony’s rib cage you’d need a-a-a-a-a-a …”
All while speaking Twilight’s voice cracked and strained as she pushed her mind harder and harder. Unable to move within her suit she began to first shake and then jostle as she attempted to frantically pace within her suit, mentally reaching for possible solutions. Not seeing any clear solution, her eyes began to water as frustration crept in and began to consume her. Her frantic stuttering was stopped though by a hoof on her shoulder.
“That’ll be all Ms. Sparkle. You did well enough,” Captain Wind Speed assured the younger mare.
“Huh? But-but, wait! I can get the last one, just give me more time!” Twilight pleaded.
Shaking her head Captain Wind Speed walked toward her crew member and the tiny shield spell still merrily humming along. “In a case like that, all you can do it offer a prayer for their safe passage to the Halcyon Fields.”
“Wha…” Twilight stammered, stunned. Off to the side, Carrot Top closed her eyes and gave a solemn nod in understanding while Applejack grimaced as she also realized the nature of the final question.
Tapping the shield with her armored hoof, Captain Wind Speed watched the shield rippled but held strong. “It’s important to see how ponies react when they fail.”
Face twisted in pained disbelief, Twilight grappled with this new information before blurting, “I-I didn’t fail yet! This isn’t fair!”
Shrugging her withers, Captain Wind Speed turned towards the crew member who had built and tested Twilight’s shield. “So what do you think, Lazy Daze?”
“I think I like her,” Lazy Daze replied with a cheeky grin. “Think I could keep her?”
Lightly nipping Lazy’s ear in a light reprimand, “Behave yourself.” Captain Wind Speed turned towards Twilight again. “I don’t care about fair. Fair doesn’t exist in a tempest,” she replied. “Instead, I can see now that when things happen outside your control, you lose your cool.”
“But-“
Hushing the mentally wounded mare, Captain Wind Speed continued. “But you also don’t give up. That’s a good a start as any. You’re still young Twilight Sparkle, but I see a mare who loves to learn, is bright as the sun, and sharp as a tack. Get some life experience under your saddle and I can see you going far.”
“But I don’t believe in unanswerable problems. I know that there’s a solution for something like this,” Twilight mumbled, though not as strongly as she would have just moments before.
“Who knows,” Captain Wind Speed answered, “But until then I’m partnering you and your dragon assistant with Lazy Daze at the mess hall lab. She will show you where everything is and train you in how to deal with tempest related emergencies.”
Watching as Lazy Daze and Spike dragged an unresisting and still suit-wrapped Twilight away, Captain Wind Speed turned towards the large orange earth mare who had introduced the group. “Do you have any experience with airships yourself, Ms. Applejack?”
“Yep, sure do. Did a few seasonal jobs for some smaller transport companies around Ponyville. I’m certified to work on the Clear Sky’s line of airship engines as well as a Dawn Light G470, H235, and J310 engines, as well as wheel-to-spell point piston controls, gauge maintenance, non-magical pressure systems, ship carpentry, rainwater collection and storage plumbing, metal work and forging, and welding. I’m a registered mess hall line cook, have a degree in food preservation and reconstitution, won the Filly Scouts best travel rations award 5 years in a row before retiring, and have clocked in more than 600 hours with a push broom, sweep, scoop, barnacle scrapper, mop, swab, bird shovel, brush, and whisk, related to airship maintenance,” Applejack simply stated.
“…”
“Oh, you probably want to see my knot work as well, let me get to that here,” Applejack continued as she nabbed a length of rope from a side compartment on her suit. Taking the length of rope into her mouth, her tongue and prehensile upper lip were soon at work and within seconds she opened her mouth to display a smartly tied bowline. Giving the length of rope a light toss to move the bowline out of the way she chomped down once again and proceeded to produce an alpine butterfly loop, estar stopper knot, midshipman’s hitch, and a trucker’s hitch. All without ever using her hooves or another pony’s help. “Just don’t ask me to do any sewing, I’m just an ordinary mare and have no head for anything that fancy or delicate.”
“…”
“From the sound of your ship’s engines it’s not anything I’m immediately familiar with,” AJ added as her ears swiveled to the rear of the ship listening to the deep base hum of the engines. “I suppose you’d need something a lot more heavy duty to travel through a tempest than what I’m familiar with. Oh well, just put me anywhere and I’d be glad to listen to what the crew has to say, I’m always up for learning a new skill!”
“… Would you be looking for a more permanent career in the lucrative field of tempest travelers?” Captain Wind Speed finally asked.
Applejack grinned good naturedly, “Nah, I appreciate the offer Captain, but I just can’t bear the thought of being away from my family for any significant amount of time.”
“Pity,” Wind Speed murmured as she thought of where to best place the mare.
“Begging the Captain’s permission, but we’ll take her,” Sunny Drops piped in as he and the rest of the ponies behind him eagerly nodded their heads in agreement.
Shrugging, Captain Wind Speed pointed Applejack towards Sunny’s team. “If you don’t mind the hard work, we could always use another set of reliable hooves dealing with whatever a tempest throws at us.”
Turning to the last member of the group, Captain Wind Speed raised an eyebrow as she awaited Carrot Top’s oral resume.
Her light titter was like the tinkling of silver bells as she waved a hoof at the Captain. “Oh, I might have helped out on an airship before, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I’ve practically forgotten anything that could be of any use. I’m a gardener now and proud of it, so just give me something that needs a steady set of hooves and I’ll do my part to help out.”
“Fair enough,” Captain Wind Speed replied. “Help out Smooth Operator as she relays messages and requests between Sunny Drops team and Lazy Daze. Smooth will have the details of what you’ll need to do.”
With all the crew assignments complete, the ponies on board split off to prepare for their upcoming engagement with the tempest.
The airship glided through the sky with gentle ease. By all appearances things were going smoothly. After Applejack had met up with Sunny Drops and his team, they showed her what her duties were; primarily staying close to Sunny and doing everything he told her to. Soon the rest of the crew had put on their helmets and were waiting for their journey through the tempest.
But as the airship continued on, Applejack’s new companions began to show signs of trepidation. Peering out of the open view port of her helmet into the skies around her, Applejack laid eyes upon the distant tempest. An imposing wall of supernatural storm clouds and lightning. The air itself within the tempest seemed to suck in any light, and the land below it was only briefly illuminated by flashes of lightning, showing brief flickers of scorched earth and ruin. Any other details were still too small to make out from their position.
Making her way behind her, Clay Pidgeon looked over the railing to the ground below. It was an odd blasted and mangled bit of earth that had definitely seen better days as odd pools of bright red water dotted some area and deep blackened scars pitted the terrain. Slowly backing away and shaking her head, Clay Pidgeon galloped to Sunny Drops and, after a brief exchange of words, was soon galloping back into the ship. Flaming Wreck and Burn Out also came to look over the side of the ship and peer at the tempest.
Applejack’s confusion and worry began to grow. As an earth pony, she had lived her entire life alongside and working with others, picking up on their feelings, both spoken and unspoken. A feeling of mounting dread began to build within her as she unconsciously began to synchronize with the crew around her. She had learned of the dangers of the tempest, but her faith in the crew’s experience had helped her deal with the knowledge that she would soon be traveling through one herself. But seeing the crew pace about confused was putting her on edge.
“What’s the matter? Are we in trouble already? We haven’t even hit the tempest yet, right?”
“This isn’t right,” Sunny Drops muttered, coming up from behind Applejack. “We should have hit the tempest by now. We’ve already past all the known land marks already, so why is the tempest still so far out?”
“So… maybe we got blown off course somehow?” Applejack nervously suggested.
Shaking his head, Sunny Drops looked over the barren wasteland they were currently flying over. Spotting a giant purple worm with a pink head and red collar-like frill as it burst from the ground, he frowned. “We’ve been flying in a straight line, and we know all the lands surrounding the earth pony territories. This…this is something completely new. I’ve never seen or heard of this place and I can’t recognize anything below us.”
“SUNNY!” Galloping towards them, Clay Pidgeon stopped in front of the group. “Sunny, Captain’s been going over all the maps and even she says that we should have hit the tempest by now! Nopony can make heads or tails of it.”
As the rest of the group joined in the discussion, Applejack took a step back, her mind going towards the strange artifact tucked away in her saddle bags below deck. It was odd; she could remember with crystal clarity the light and magic infusing her. Her mind opening up, not to power, but to a singular purpose. To dispel falsehood and lies and clear away anything that wasn’t the honest truth of the world. Yet for all she remembered, she could not for the life of her remember anything else beyond that. It had been Twilight and Spike who had filled her in when she had met with them later on how the explosion of magic from her had done more than just knock the wind out of Starlight Glimmer, but had continued on. Through the forest and to the edges of the earth pony lands, and how it had hit the far-off tempests.
Looking at the barren ground below the ship and how it was unfamiliar and twisted, she looked out to the still far off tempests and the wall of clouds that stretched out to either horizons. The magical zone that encircled all of the lands of Equestria, isolating them like scattered islands in an ocean of madness. Only in the Everfree did the tempests ever seem to ebb and flow as it battled the ancient magics of the twisted forest. But now it seemed that overnight one of those islands had done the impossible; it had outright seized territory from the tempest. A strip of land kilometers deep and stretching as far as the eye could see.
Gazing at the vast expanse of barren land, Applejack started to feel faint as the enormity of what she was looking at her slowly began to set in.
New land.
Applejack was from a stable, and old family. She had grown up hearing stories of the bygone days, of heroes and monsters, of magic and miracles, and of the alicorns and the single united land in which all the ponies had originally lived. Such tales had been wonderful bedtime stories for the young Apple family member, but they were just that, stories. Every pony knew that the lands had always been surrounded by the mighty tempests. They were a steady and even reliable, if not terrifying, fixture of everyday life in Equestria. There were the Earth Pony Lands, the Pegasus Fields, the Unicorn Mountains, and all the other lands where creatures of all shapes and sizes dwelt.
And between them all were the ever-present tempests.
It was just how the world was shaped, the very nature of their existence.
And now part of the tempests had been blown away, revealing new lands right in the earth pony realms. In one night, she, Applejack Apple, professional part-timer and local handymare, had claimed what looked to be hundreds of thousands of acres of new land waiting to be tamed and cultivated by fellow earth ponies. And all of it made possible by a little trinket that she had been carrying around and left unattended like an old pocket watch in her saddle bags.
Last week her greatest worry had been about what food to serve at her Granny’s roof-top garden party. Two days ago, her world had been rocked when a mysterious mare had ponynapped said granny. This morning she was ready to set off on the biggest adventure of her life; to stop that mysterious unicorn mare from doing the same thing to another pony, and looking out for her new friends. And right now, she was looking at the results of what was apparently her single hoofedly reshaping the face of the known world.
“Sweet sunshine,” she muttered in numb awe, dropping to her haunches. “What have I gotten myself into?”
The rest of the crew, sans Spike, had come topside to marvel at the new landscape. The captain, with a suit-free Twilight, had taken meticulous notes and measurements of the new tempest positions, along with weather and ground observations. Twilight had wanted to briefly land to gather samples but caution won over curiosity as the captain kept course.
Soon the time for gawking came to an end as the airship did near the tempest. It had taken nearly an hour and a half longer to finally reach it, but now it loomed before them in all its power.
Helmet in place, Applejack triple checked the ports and the moorings keeping the balloon attached to the ship.
Trotting up to Applejack, Sunny Drops touched his helmet to her own. Sunny’s voice came through loud and clear, with only a slight echo as his voice transferred through the solid metal of the touching helmets. “Stay close to me, we just need to keep the deck secure and help out Clay, Flaming, or Burn when they need it. Our job is just to lend a hoof. If you have any problems, just let any of us know and we’ll have you transferred to Cross Hitch’s team for balloon duty and stand by. You understand?”
“Yes sir, I understand sir,” Applejack replied. The scope of what she was involved with had been too much for her to wrap her head around, so instead she focused on doing her best with what was in front of her.
“Good, stay behind me,” Sunny responded before moving his helmet away and moving off, Applejack following close behind. Over the centuries, pony minds had tried to improve the safety of traveling through the tempests, with the sealed suits the crew were wearing now a culmination of generations of effort and ingenuity. But the one brick wall that every engineer and spell crafter had come across was communication. Magic signal casters, long hollow tubes, even a pack loaded with mechanical semaphore flags had been tried and abandoned. The chaotic magics of the tempests tore through any magics cast or signals sent, and tormented oddities focusing on the bright lights and colorful flags that others tried to use to pass along messages between crew members. In one case, a prototype arcane communications relay stopped broadcasting or receiving crew pony voices and instead began flooding the ears of the testers with the anguished cries of centuries of ponies lost in the tempests, still trapped within its grip.
Tempest travelers and other explorers had learned to make do with the reliable but limited communication provided by physically touching the metal domes of their helmets to each other. Each helmet was casted to protect the occupant from the might of the tempest, and any sound waves traveling through one could be picked up and amplified for the receiver by another if they touched. With no distance between helmets ponies had found a way to communicate to each other, albeit limited.
Looking over to Carrot Top, Applejack watched as she followed the mare named Smooth Operator as she made her rounds and marched up to Sunny Drops to get any last-minute updates before turning back to relay any messages to the captain.
Giving one last look at the shielded outer door of the decontamination passage back to the interior of the ship, Applejack stood close by Sunny as the Lollipop Skip finally plunged into the depths of the tempest.
Passing through the dark purple and black clouds of the tempest was as different as day and night. One moment, the ship was traveling at a steady pace in the still air of the new earth pony border, and the next moment, the entire ship lurched as it was slammed off the starboard bow by a massive blast of wind.
Lightning didn’t flash but instead tore through the sky before twisting and writhing in the air, whipping out and incinerating anything in its path like a burning chain whip for minutes at a time before finally disappearing. Only to be replaced by half a dozen more.
Bracing against the deck, Applejack shrieked within her suit as ghostly phantasms of screaming ponies ripped across the ship carried by the tempest winds. Their flailing hooves passed harmlessly through the deck of the ship as well as the ponies on board. An armored hoof waving in front of her helmet tried to distract Applejack’s as she saw Sunny Drops trying to grab her attention before knocking his helmet into hers.
“Don’t let the tempest distract you, keep hold of the deck!”
“B-b-b-but ghosts!” came the mare’s panicked response.
“They’re not damaging the ship and there’s nothing we can do about them. Just focus on the job and we can get back inside!”
Already feeling overwhelmed at the howling vortex of souls surrounding her, Applejack desperately hung onto the ship as she watched Sunny Drops point a hoof over the rail. Placing the other hoof over a valve in his suit’s foreleg, he gave a sharp twist and a small burning flare shot out of a socket and flew into the depths below.
Ducking low to put as much distance between herself and the damned souls shrieking around her as possible, Applejack was transfixed by the writhing apparitions when a deep rumble and low moan powerful enough to rattle the entire airship broke her gaze. Peering over the side of the rail, Applejack caught sight of the bright pink flare as it dropped further down into the tempest’s abyss, illuminating a massive, squat, tear drop-shaped beast. Flat, but wide and thick, it bellowed once again as another flare was shot at it, and Applejack could see pitted leathery flesh covered in black scales. The creature’s gaping maw, as wide as its entire head, opened in irritation. A forest of needle-like razor-sharp teeth illuminated briefly by the falling flares. Six leathery bat like wings protruded from its sides as they flapped slowly, keeping a steady beat. From its back, Applejack caught the sight of dozens of broken pimple-like orifices billowing a white vapor into the air. With one last bellow, the beast, bigger than the entire airship itself, banked left and drifted away, with the screaming mob of pony souls being pulled behind it as they too departed the airship.
A satisfied look showing through the port hole of his helmet, Sunny Drops helped Applejack back up to her hooves and made a pass over the rest ship to ensure the moorings were still secure and that the tempest had not wounded the ship itself in its initial blow. Completing their rounds, the duo opened the outer hatch to the antechamber, where Burn Out and Flaming Wreck were already waiting. Touching their helmets together, Sunny relayed his report to them before they gave a quick salute to Sunny Drops and Applejack, trotting away to do their rounds.
With a push to ensure Applejack made it into the vestibule first, Sunny then stepped in and secured the hatch behind them. Metal ports above and below them opened and within seconds the contaminated magics of the tempest were purged and the inner hatch opened.
Stepping inside the airship proper, Sunny Drops stood still while Clay Pidgeon trotted up and helped remove his helmet. With that done, Sunny turned to keep an eye on Applejack while Clay helped her with her helmet. Gasping in surprise at the difference in temperature from the muggy interior of the suit to the cool air of the interior of the ship, the shock helped break her out of her initial panic as she tried to process what she had just seen.
“What in Tartarus was that?” she yelled.
Coming up and stroking the mare, Sunny Drops nickered lightly to help calm her down. To her other side, Clay Pidgeon leaned in close to help support her.
“You never know what a tempest will throw at you,” Sunny gently explained. “From the looks of it we were fortunate that it was only a dream huffer and not actual vengeful spirits. Keep a cool head and focus on the task on hoof and we’ll all make it out of this just fine.” Slowly leading Applejack forward, Sunny Drops smoothed out her mane as she guided her to a cushion around a small table bolted to the floor off to the side of the room. Seeing that while still spooked the large earth mare wouldn’t bolt any time soon, Sunny took a step back and sat himself down. Clay Pidgeon though remained pressed against AJ’s side to continue to reassure the mare.
“Dream huffer?” Applejack asked as Sunny placed a warm mug of something herbal in front of her.
“Hmm, yeah, that big scaly thing, looks like what would happen if a dragon and a monk fish had a whelp, and then that whelp grew to about half the size of a hoofball field. They put out a cloud of mist from these pores it’s got all over the top its head and body that take on different forms.”
If Applejack had not just seen such a creature she would have had a hard time believing such a thing actually existed. Opening and closing her jaw a few times as her mind tried to catch up to her body and actually put words into her flapping gums, she finally stuttered out, “Wha-wha-what for!? Does it just like going around scaring ponies?!”
“No, sadly, it’s not so whimsical,” Sunny chuckled, Clay stifling a giggle. “That’s how they hunt. While everypony is distracted by the images of dead spirits, ancient cloud dragons, or any other sort of weird illusions it makes out of its mists,” Sunny explained moving his hoof high above the surface of the table, “they rush up from below,” Sunny’s other hoof suddenly popped up from under the table and raced towards the first one, “and they snap up entire ships whole,” he finished with a clang as one armored hoof hit the other.
“Luckily for us, they’re also opportunistic hunters and giant cowards as well,” Clay Pidgeon added from Applejack’s side. “As long as you let them know that you’re on to them then they’ll leave you alone and look for easier prey.”
“Dear ground, why do you ponies do this sort of thing?” Applejack asked as she slowly brought the herbal tea to her mouth.
“Beats working in an office,” Sunny Drops replied with a smile. Seeing the orange earth mare’s leveled gaze at him, he chuckled. “Hey now, a life of adventure, seeing distant lands, meeting new ponies, and waking up every day knowing that today will be different from yesterday, just as there’ll be something new tomorrow, isn’t that bad of a way to live. Plus, you can’t argue that the pay isn’t a big incentive as well.”
“Eh, not like I can go back home after murdering my husband,” Clay Pidgeon shrugged from Applejack’s side.
“WHAT?!”
Laughing out loud, the two crew members slapped each other’s backs as they raised their mugs high into the air and clinked them together. “True that Clay!” Sunny Drops cheered towards the other mare.
“Ah, ha, ha, ha, yeah have some fun at the new filly’s expense why don’t you,” Applejack sulked as she watched the two laugh away.
The ringing of a bell interrupted anything else as Clay Pidgeon slipped on her helmet and trotted out of the cabin. Within a minute Flaming Wreck made his way back to the table.
Standing up, Sunny Drops made his way to a cabinet to grab some hay to snack on while Applejack leaned over to Flaming Wreck.
“Say, Clay Pidgeon really didn’t murder her husband, did she?”
Startled, Flaming Wreck turned towards the large orange mare, “Well, considering I’m still alive I should think she didn’t.”
“Oh, heh, of course. Haha, I figured as much.”
“Unless you meant her first husband,” Flaming Wreck added.
Hearing Sunny bark out a laugh, Applejack just rolled her eyes as she watched Flaming Wreck struggle to keep a straight face. Watching the easy-going comradery of the group and their quick acceptance of her had Applejack smiling as she sipped her tea and readied herself to go back out into the tempest.
“Just keep the mana battery on standby. Crystal’s only got an hour of charge on it.” Lazy Daze instructed from the counter, her head lackadaisically resting on one hoof.
“Roger,” Twilight replied as she mounted the magical battery for the airship’s shield. Spike held on to her back, taking steady breaths as he tried to shut out the sound of the tempest outside.
“Engine room stocked, supplies triple checked, and all systems are ready and waiting. What’s next?” Finally out of the restrictive suit, Twilight was eagerly learning everything she could about the airship from her new mentor.
Lazy Daze, on the other hoof, was happy to have such an eager intern doing all the physical labor for her. Other than casually touring through the ship and pointing out the various inner workings, she hadn’t had to lift or build anything for nearly an hour. Keeping an ear pointed towards the hull of the ship, Lazy Daze slowly closed her eyes and savored a deep breath.
“Uh, Mrs. Or is it Ms. Daze, ma’am?” Twilight asked as she waved a hoof at her tutor.
“Shhhhh, you’ll jinx it,” Lazy Daze lightly murmured, a small smile on her lips as she lowered her head onto the table and stretched her hooves out, relishing the feel of the wood of the counter top.
Looking around the enclosed room that also served as the ship’s galley Twilight tried to puzzle out what she wasn’t supposed to ‘jinx’. “You know, the entire premise of jinxes and bad luck are mere superstitions holding pony society back in fear of being punished for transgressing ill-defined rules and vague misunderstood traditions. Even if it seems scary, I believe that we can’t allow ourselves to hold ourselves back because of-“
*BANG!* “It’s raining fire outside!” Carrot Top yelled through the open portal of her helmet as she burst through the door to the galley causing Twilight to jump and yelp as Spike gripped her back tighter.
Sighing as she pulled herself up, Lazy Daze already had an open cylindrical canister ready and began pulling ingredients onto the counter top she had been resting on. “I blame you for jinxing it Twiggy,” Lazy joked as she pulled open another drawer. “Chemical, radioactive, magical, metal; what sort of fire we looking at here, sexy?”
“Right, sorry, standard non-magical. Light shower, three canisters please,” the orange mare relayed the request from Sunny Drops.
“Com’on filly, time to work,” Lazy Daze nodded to Twilight even as her hooves moved over to the correct components and began dumping them into the canister beside her.
“R-r-r-right!,” Twilight stuttered before running up to the other mare and reaching beneath the counter and pulled out another canister. She placed it upon the counter and was pulling out the second when she felt Spike slip off her back and, with a shaky claw, grab the canister lip as well. Looking over to her assistant, Twilight gave a grateful smile, and soon the two were copying Lazy Daze movements and following her instructions in unison.
Lazy Daze gabbed another piece, like the top of a mason jar but thicker, with a hose built into the top of it and a large handle ring in the middle of it, and began screwing it onto the container. Snorting, she gripped the handle ring in the crook of her hoof and yanked up, extending the built-in hoof pump before flexing her foreleg. Muscles like steel cord bulged and strained as she furiously pumped the container, pressurizing it. Giving the handle ring a twist to lock it in place, she tossed it to Carrot Top before turning to Twilight and Spike.
“Come on, we can do this!” Spike cried out as he and Twilight strained to push the plunger down on their canister.
“YaaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAAaaAA!” The duo screamed and they were jerked up and down by the power of Lazy Daze’s pump action.
“Is the other canister already filled?” Lazy asked as she locked and tossed the second canister to Carrot Top, who caught it and placed it on her back.
Picking herself off the floor and shaking her head to clear her mind, Twilight nodded to Lazy Daze. “Uh, right! It’s already filled with the standard fire-retardant mixture!”
Screwing on the top and pressurizing the canister, Lazy Daze soon had Carrot Top rushing off to deliver the needed supplies.
“Sorry fellas, looks like break time is over. Got to keep on the tip of your hooves if we’re going to stay on top of a tempest.”
When Applejack and first heard of the tempests from Spike, she had been terrified. Her mind had become filled with the terrible monstrosities that lurked within the violet clouds. Creatures similar yet alien to the ones she was familiar with in the Everfree Forest. Yet despite all of that, it hadn’t sunken into her that the worst thing within the tempest, was the tempest itself.
Flailing her hooves as she floated off of the ship deck, Applejack lit an emergency beacon near her head, the bright strobe light catching the attention of Sunny Drops as he slammed his shoes into the deck of the ship, small cleats digging into the wood. Wrenching his foreleg free, he threw the end of a rope towards the scrambling mare before she drifted right into the open maw of the tempest.
Applejack snagged a hold of the rope with her own foreleg and began pulling herself back towards the ship. One moment the duo had been battling literal burning rain, the next moment, Applejack had lost her footing as gravity had decided to suddenly depart.
The ship suddenly tilted upwards and rolled to its side as the winds now tossed the now weightless ship around, its once solid mass no longer able to push back against even the slightest breeze.
“YAAAAAAHHHHHH!” Applejack yelled within her helmet as she lost grip of the rope and tumbled about, soaring straight into the empty sky.
Screaming in terror, Applejack frantically tried to ‘swim’ back to the ship as it became smaller and smaller in the port hole of her helmet. Seeing the ship tossed about like a leaf in a hurricane, she bit down hard on her lip, focusing her mind to a single point of her own pain, banishing all other thoughts as she focused on one goal, getting back to the ship. She could have her mental breakdown later.
Grabbing the strap to the fire extinguisher she had been using earlier, Applejack gripped the nozzle in her hoof and pointed it away from her, releasing the pressurized stream of fire retardant and propelling herself back towards the ship.
Rocketing towards her destination, she weighed her options in the span of a few seconds. The ship was moving too wildly to try to land safely and she was basically just shooting herself with no way to slow down. Should she aim for the balloon? She could hit it, and with it being the biggest part of the ship it would be easy to aim for and infinitely easier on her body to hit that than the hard oak of the ship. But if she hit it and punctured it, what would happen then? Nothing? Now that the ship was weightless was it even doing anything other than acting as a giant wind catcher? Or would the ship still drop because the tempest was just cruel like that and decide that a ship without a balloon should drop regardless because it just hated ponies that much? Would she be caught in the rigging of the massive structure and entangled? Left helpless as the wind tossed the ship about with her now bound in the deflated cloth tomb?
Gritting her teeth, Applejack hissed as she saw the tumbling ship growing as she quickly got closer to it. She didn’t have much time left.
The balloon was too much of a wild card for her to bet on, so what did that leave? The hatches had been shut and secured, and bursting right into the ship and allowing the tempest in was not an option. With grim acceptance, she knew what she had to aim for. Angling her extinguisher one last time she shot for the side of the ship.
Sunny Drops could do little else than hold onto the ship rails as the vessel dropped and was yanked out from under him. He needed to hold on as the ship dropped and then came slamming back up into him. He regretted losing the passenger, but he needed to keep a level head if the rest were to make it through. He grit his teeth as the world was jerked to the left from another mighty gust, and then Sunny could feel something impact hard into the side of the ship even through the thick material of his suit. Looking overboard, he cried out in joy as he saw Applejack clinging to the side of the ship, striking it so hard as to drive the extendable cleats within her own shoes to dig deep into the wood and hold her in place.
Raising a foreleg, Applejack slammed her hoof into the wood just above her head before repeating the process with her other hoof. Bit by bit, the determined mare climbed up the side of the ship even as it was tossed about by the tempest.
Reaching back up to the deck, Applejack grunted as gravity suddenly reasserted itself and the weight of the heavy, rain-soaked suit suddenly tried to pull her back down into the tempest. Giving one last heave, Applejack tumbled over the rail of the ship and landed back onto the deck. Her relief was taken from her though, as a ripple of force traveled up through her hooves. Looking over to Sunny Drops, the two galloped to the other side of the ship to see what had hit it.
Peering over the edge, the two saw a wide swath of darkness coating the lower half of the ship. Before she could make out what had hit them, another sheet of dense black droplets hit the ship, coating much of the side of the balloon, deck, and the two ponies on deck.
Trying to wipe the black ooze from her view port, Applejack only succeeded in moving it around. It took several more rubbings before she could make out anything again, and the first thing she saw was Carrot Top racing towards them. Despite the thick liquid coating, Applejack was able to quickly tap her helmet against Sunny Drops and Carrot Top to make out a muffled report.
“-ith boiling tar, get chemical solvents now!”
No sooner had Sunny ordered Carrot Top then a cloud next to the air ship exploded, a wave of orange flame washing over the ship and igniting the tar.
“Update! Get more extinguishers. Chemical fires. Tell Lazy and Cross to get ready to do a balloon swap. Go!”
Carrot saluted and immediately fell as she tried to turn to leave, only for her hooves to remain firmly in place. The entire deck, balloon, and side of the ship erupted into flames as Applejack tried to rear back from the inferno surrounding her, only to be jerked back down as her hooves refused to leave the deck as well. The sticky thick tar had glued them to the deck, and it was only because of the fires raging around them that the tar was still soft enough for Sunny and Applejack to yank their hooves out one at a time and move forward, lifting Carrot Top up.
Runes across the suit lit up as the ponies made their way across the deck. The internal magic and dense material of the suits kept the heat and fire at bay as the trio moved as fast as they could through the thick clouds of almost solid black smoke the burning tar released. Reaching the outer hatch of the ship, Carrot Top slipped inside as Sunny Drops tapped his helmet against Applejack’s.
“Stay here while I alert Cross Hitch’s team.”
“I thought I was supposed to stick to you like glue,” Applejack replied, yelling as if she needed to shout above the flames even though the roar of the fire was dampened by the helmets.
“Heh, after that stunt you pulled getting back to the ship, I think I can trust you to wait for the extinguishers here without me.”
Giving a cocky smile, Sunny Drops fought through the flames, one hoof pulling up after the other in the still sticky burning tar as he made his way to closest balloon mooring.
Below deck, Twilight and Spike tried to peer through the black sludge splashed across the porthole to figure out what was going on. Spike clung shivering to Twilight and she held him equally tight as her mind struggled to figure out what was going on.
Lazy, though, was beginning to pull some bottles and canisters out onto the table when Carrot Top barged in, her suit pitch black from the tar and charred soot covering it. Yanking open the face porthole, Carrot Top yelled out, “Chemical fires! Extinguishers, as many as you can! Prepare for a balloon exchange!” And with that she collapsed as she struggled to catch her breath.
Tsk-ing in annoyance at the supplies for a powerful chemical cleanser she had been prepping, Lazy Daze shoved most of the materials into a lockable cabinet and set to work grabbing the right materials that she would need. “So much for trying to predict the next crisis,” she quietly mumbled as she grabbed more empty extinguisher canisters while Twilight and Spike raced over to help.
“Spike, get the mono-ammonium phosphate, the silver container over there,” Twilight pointed with her hoof. Working together, the two soon had four extinguishers filled and ready, with Lazy Daze pressurizing each one and strapping them onto Carrot Top’s sides.
With a grunt, the farm mare stood back up, and closing her helmet porthole, raced back towards Applejack and Sunny Drops.
“What was that second thing she mentioned? The balloon exchange?” Twilight asked turning towards Lazy Daze.
Pulling open the lockable cabinet she had shoved the other supplies in earlier, Lazy Daze’s teeth clamped down on a container as she set to work putting everything back in place for the next crisis. “The airship balloons can only take so much before they rupture. Plus, they get too heavy if you try to reinforce them like you do the suits, so they’re bound to be weaker as well. So, if you can’t have one really strong airship balloon, you just make a couple of ‘em. When one gets too beaten up to keep going, you set it free before it completely fails and swap it out with another.”
Rearing back as her eyes rapidly blinked, her mind processing what it had just heard, Twilight Sparkle looked incredulously at the mare before her. “Wait, you release the damaged balloon…”
“Yeah,” Lazy Daze replied, putting away another container.
“Then you attach and inflate a new balloon…” Twilight continued.
“Yep,” another canister went back to its proper location in the upper shelves.
“AND YOU DO ALL THIS WHILE STILL IN MID-AIR!?” Twilight reasonably asked in the appropriate volume one would deem necessary for just such a situation.
“Yeah, you and your little buddy had better get ready to grab onto something,” Lazy Daze chuckled as she put away the last container and pulled a saddle out of a storage cabinet and promptly began squeezing into it. Pushing the thick harness around her barrel, Lazy Daze then opened the side pocket to the saddle and pulled out a slip hook that was attached via a thick cord. Raising her head, she brought the slip hook down onto a guard rail surrounding the work table, securing herself to the ship before wrapping her legs around the table.
Seeing her temporary mentor brace for impact, Twilight was suddenly tackled by a small dragon as Spike slapped a similar saddle onto her and began harnessing his friend.
On the deck, Cross Hitch and her team emerged from the top cargo door and raced to each mooring point. The boots of each member were already coated over with thick grease to keep each pony from getting bogged down in the tar. But even with all four hooves on the deck, there was some slipping from several ponies. Attaching a cable onto an anchor point next to each existing mooring post, each pony on the team soon had all five points secured and were back below decks in 23 seconds, the eight extra seconds it took them to perform their jobs being a testament to the poor conditions up top.
Sealing the outer hatch behind him, Sunny Drops stared out of the porthole while gripping tight onto a pole next to him. Around the room, the rest of his team and Applejack all similarly braced for the balloon switch. Looking out, he could see the still smoking and burning balloon above them, far out of reach of their fire extinguishers. It wouldn’t be much longer until it finally succumbed to the flames.
Below them, Lazy Daze stared at a small crystal light on the wall in nonchalant expectation. Across from her, Twilight hugged Spike to herself while she also watched the crystal, though in much more agitated anticipation.
The crystal suddenly flashed red and bells began to ring across the ship.
And then the world dropped from under them.
Outside, anchor points connecting the old balloon to the ship blew open and released the still smoking old balloon just as the top of a new one was ejected out of the main cargo doors. Cross Hitch and her team were running the blowers at full output as they began inflating the new balloon with precious enchanted vapors and lighter-than-air gasses. But inflating a balloon large enough to carry a ship took time, even with the best equipment bits could buy. And so the ship dropped.
Before it stopped and bobbed back up like a cork pushed slightly under water.
Ports under the ship spewed cloud vapor from front to back. The thick wood of the hull, grown from trees raised on a mixture of water and cloud walking potions and then further enchanted, immediately hit the exhausts and floated above them, cutting through the artificial clouds like a ship through the waves, leaving a swirling wake of water vapor behind them.
Twilight looked out of a side porthole at the cloud mass being generated beneath them, Spike having passed out and now resting comfortably on the floor behind her.
“And why didn’t you tell me about the cloud making machine?” she asked Lazy Daze, who seemed to have left out a few things in her explanation on balloon exchanges.
Grinning playfully at the purple mare, Lazy Daze just rolled her hoof in the air in a dismissive manner. “Oh, you know. Mostly for the laughs.”
“Grr,” Twilight growled. Looking back towards the crystal light, still red, indicating that the new balloon was still being inflated she thought for a moment. “Wait, then why not just turn on the cloud makers first before ejecting the old balloon? Why did we have to free fall at all?”
Shrugging her shoulders, Lazy Daze sat down again and rested her head on her forehooves once more. “The old balloon was covered in sticky tar, want to make sure it blows clear of us first. Don’t want a burning blob of tar and canvas stuck to us after all.”
Frowning at Lazy Daze’s lax attitude, Twilight still couldn’t help but be impressed at the thought of all that went into air travel. She’d definitely no longer complain at the cost of shipping books in from Unitopia.
Well, at least not as much anyway.
Looking out of the porthole, she watched as bluish white mists blew past. Peering further, she could see a faint blue glow to the side of the ship giving the artificial clouds an almost ethereal feel to them. “It sort of reminds me of winter mornings back with mom and dad, when the sun was just beginning to shine over the peaks of the Conclave Mountains.”
Lazy Daze’s head snapping up with a look of terror, while her hoof simultaneously swung down towards the shield activation button, was the only warning Twilight had before the ship was rent open.
Applejack bit down as she was thrown to the side of the inner hatch. She and Sunny Drops had been ready to head back out to do their rounds and check on the new balloon, when the ship slammed back as if it had hit something and the sound of crushing wood filled the air even through their helmets. Grabbing Applejack and pulling her the rest of the way into the hatch, Sunny Drops closed the inner hatch door and threw open the outer door, running out to assess the damage.
All around the ship, a horizontal column of swirling air, like the eye of a tornado but turned on its side, stretched out ahead of them. Traveling down the length of this cylindrical tube of winds, the Lollipop Skip was bathed in a soft blue light even as giant claws of ice sprang from the vortex around them. One dragon-like claw the size of a house suddenly sprang into existence and swung at the ship.
Sweeping across, it hit a yellow barrier of light as the ship’s shields sprang to life. All around the ship other claws formed out of the misty air and attacked, sparks of blue ice and purple light cascading around them.
Rushing starboard, Sunny Drops and Applejack looked over the edge and saw a massive gouge tearing across the ship from bow to aft. Port revealed much of the same. Soon Carrot Top joined them and within moments was running back to inform the relay team with the damage report. Several ponies were now running through the ship alerting others.
The Lollipop Skip was dying.
Touching his helmet to Applejack’s, Sunny Drops gave his orders. “Get below decks; you said you had ship carpentry experience, right? Get below and do what you can!”
Saluting, Applejack raced back into the ship.
“Water tanks one through everything busted! We’ve got about 50 seconds of liquid sloshing around in them and another 45 in the system before the cloud makers are done. Cross Hitch has a little over a minute and a half to finish getting the new balloon up. Engine still secured and sealed in time, no contamination, no ponies lost. Cargo holds 1 through 3 torn open, cargo holds 7 through 9 torn open. Cargo holds 4 through 6 are a little shook up. If we can’t reinforce what’s left of the walls in 4 we may need to just seal it off as well.”
Twilight carried a now awake Spike as she tried to keep up with an animated Lazy Daze. The normally laid-back mare was sprinting through the lower decks relaying messages and damage reports to Smooth Operator and her team as she assessed the condition of the ship.
“Lazy! Captain wants to know the chances of the tempest breaching any of the remaining cargo holds!” Smooth Operator called out.
“Tell her that holds 5 and 6 secure. It’s hold number 4 that’s dicey,” Lazy replied. Blowing out a deep breath, she tapped her hoof in nervous contemplation before turning back to Smooth Operator. “I’m going to try to reinforce it for now. I’ll get back to you if we should just seal it and cut our losses.”
Lazy Daze then turned to address Twilight. “I’ll need you to head on back and monitor the shield array, okay? Keep watch and let your buddy Carrot Top know if anything starts to happen. Captain Wind Speed can let you know through her what you need to do next.”
Reaching out towards the retreating Lazy Daze, Twilight called out, “Wait! I can still help you!”
“Can you move around in a suit by yourself?” Lazy Daze simply asked, not turning around.
Twilight’s silence was answer enough for the both of them.
Both mares’ ears swiveled at the sound of the pounding of hooves behind them, and looked up just as the proud figure of Applejack came into view.
After a brief run down of the situation, Twilight found herself looking over her shoulder in quiet remorse as she watched Lazy Daze and Applejack head down to cargo hold 4, while she and Spike headed back to the safety of the mess hall lab.
Twilight and Spike had returned to the lab in gloomy silence, falling to their seats as they reached the worktable. Hanging her head, Twilight sat in silence as Spike absent mindedly rubbed her back. Sniffling, she had wiped her muzzle as her mind failed to come up with any solution on how to get her suit working under her own strength. Her mind wandering, the words of Captain Wind Speed returned back to her, ‘-when things happen outside your control you lose your cool’.
Twilight felt her helplessness build within her. To her side, Spike felt the muscles on her back tense. With a cry of anger, she raised her hoof and brought it down on the floor beneath her, pounding the hard wood over and over as she vented her frustration on the ship.
“Hey! Whoa, whoa Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked, alarmed at his companion’s actions.
“Losing my ‘cool’ just as Captain Wind Speed said I would,” Twilight bitterly hissed as she slammed her hoof down one last time.
It took a moment but Spike soon realized what Twilight meant. Reaching up, he wrapped his arms around the mare and gently brushed her mane. “Hey, remember, she also said all that other stuff about you being really smart, and that you don’t give up. She thought that you could go really far,” Spike quietly spoke, as he calmed the small earth pony down. “And you know what,” he said as he pulled back, his green eyes meeting her violet eyes, “I think so too.”
Dipping her head down, Twilight wiped her muzzle once more as she pulled herself back together. “Thanks Spike, I really needed to hear that.” Standing up, Twilight made her way to the shield array. “If this is my job now, then I’m going to do the best that I can.” Pausing to take another look at humming array, Twilight rubbed her chin in thought before turning back towards Spike. “I’ve got a few ideas…”
Within moments the two of them were at work, Twilight directing with Spike following, as they focused on keeping the shields up for as long as possible.
Twilight’s determination had even banished much of Spike’s fears, the two soon falling into a comfortable rhythm of work. “Spike take the #5 Meadowbrook capacitor and complete the relay on this board. If we can just alternate the current a bit more, we can stretch out the battery for just a bit longer.”
“Aye aye ma’am!” Spike eagerly saluted as he carried out his task.
The cargo hold was a tight and normally dark place. The air was filled with the smells of a hundred goods, old and new, mixing together in a confusing blend, but remaining clear of any tempest’s contamination. As the two suited ponies entered the hold, they could immediately tell that something had gone wrong within the hold. The flickering flashes and strange violet ambient light infusing the room alerted them that cargo hold 4 had been damaged in some way. Around her, Lazy Daze could see gaps in the wood, split seams open to the outside. Yet despite the tears in the ship, the magics engraved into the wood held still. A translucent glow of film covered the tiny openings and kept the raging tempest from entering.
Lazy braced at the doorway, with Applejack doing the same. The orange mare had no idea what Lazy was waiting for but she followed her lead without question. As the seconds ticked away, Lazy did not move from her position, the two mares stock still in crash positions waiting for some timer to run out. Trusting in the experienced mare, AJ kept hold until she saw Lazy Daze nod her head and squeeze the door from harder.
The ship jolted but returned to steady flight a moment later.
“Looks like Cross Hitch did it; we won’t die by plummeting today,” Lazy Daze joked as she pressed her helmet to Applejack’s. Reaching back into her saddle bags, the magnetic lock on her hoof boot connected with a rectangular device. Switching it on, two antennae slowly spread open a touch, but remained mostly closed. Sweeping the room once over, Lazy Daze kept one eye on the device and the other on her surroundings.
Once she had returned to her starting point, she breathed a slight sigh of relief and touched her helmet to Applejack’s.
“Alright big mare, no contamination, so everything’s holding so far. I’ve got boards, nails, and sealant. We’ll look for cracks and seal them. Hopefully we’ll get this done before the charge wears out on the shield generator. After that it’ll be up to lady luck.”
Nodding her head, Applejack followed the other earth pony around the hold as she pulled out a large syringe. Lazy held it over a small crack while Applejack gently pressed down on the plunger. Angling the nozzle around the crack, Lazy Daze put the syringe back and took out a board. Snatching up some nails with the small magnet on the tip of her own hoof boot, Applejack then tapped them into place before stomping hard, driving the nails into the wood and sealing the crack.
This routine repeated, though several times Applejack would need to pull out a saw or knife to trim the wooden boards to fit tightly against seams and against the ribs of the ship. Bit by bit, the walls of the ship were patched as well as they could be. Many times, Applejack needed to unsecure the tied down crates to reach breaches that hid behind the cargo itself, before then restacking the crates.
Still, even with Applejack’s strength and skill, the process was slow going, and all too soon the hour was up. But even as Lazy Daze braced herself, no noticeable change happened around the room and the remaining ambient light still remained the light violet hue of the ship’s shields. Glancing at Applejack, the two shared a slight knowing smile and went back to work.
But even with the shield holding, the tempest was not done with them yet.
Outside, howls of rage carried through the sky as a clan of winged badgers tore and bit against the shields of the ship. Tooth and claw attacked, seeking some weakness against the shields, only to be cut short as the tempest thundered. Arcs of lightning struck, scattering the sky badgers as the ship was knocked side to side from the force of the impacts.
The shields held against the barrage, but that mattered little when the world flipped upside down. Suddenly finding the Lollipop the wrong side up, Captain Wind Speed bit her lip as she blasted air straight out of the port cloud maker nozzles. The mighty burst of air knocked the ship to its side as it rolled off of the balloon rather than impacting it straight on. They couldn’t afford losing this one as well now that the cloud makers were exhausted of water. Luckily, they could still be used as maneuvering thrusters in a pinch.
“WHHAAAAAAAAAA!” Back in the hold, Applejack fell towards the ceiling before tumbling across the walls, unsecured crates from a pile she had been moving smashing into her thick suit as they broke open and shattered across the room.
With the world right side up again, Applejack got back up on shaking and unsteady hooves. Gasping for breath, the work mare quickly looked around the room for her new partner. Only to see Lazy Daze casually letting go of some cargo straps holding another cargo stack in place and picking up where the duo had left off.
‘I’ve got to figure out how she does that,’ Applejack promised herself before she turned away and took in the damage. Scattered around her were the remains of five broken crates, the very cargo the rest of the crew were risking their lives traveling through the tempest to deliver.
Before her were puddles of white liquid, while open tins leaked golden yellow soft paste, warmed by the room temperature air around them. Seeing the broken bottles of milk and tins of butter spilt across the floor brought Applejack to a stop. Ponies were risking their sanity and souls for half a bit’s worth of groceries.
Mouth agog at the sight, Applejack looked around herself at the rows and rows of stacked crates. Surely they all couldn’t be carrying the same things, right?
Shaking her head and deciding to think about it later, the mare proceeded to place the unbroken bottles and jars into a crate that only had its top break open while she quickly sweep up the broken glass into the crates that were still somewhat in shape to get them out of the way while she and Lazy Daze continued to work.
The pounding of hooves caused her to look up as a helmet practically smashed into her own.
“Keep the butter separate from the broken glass! We can still sell it!”
Applejack looked over to the crate containing all of the still usable goods before waving her hoof towards the open and spilt tins of butter, their semi-liquid room temperature contents already spilling across the dirty floor.
Grabbing an intact jar and using its lid to scoop the butter off the floor and back into the tin, Lazy Daze shoved another jar into Applejack’s hooves as she proceeded to scoop up more of the golden mass off the floor, flicking larger glass shards out of the butter when she could. Reaching down, she also quickly righted some of the larger broken bottles and, with a rag, soaked up as much as she could off of the floor. Plopping down, Lazy Daze squeezed the rag between her forehooves, a dirty stream of milk filling a broken but mostly intact bottle.
Flabbergasted at the display, Applejack stomped up to the other mare and knocked her helmet to hers. “Now see here, this is just plain unsanitary! It’s not worth the pocket change if some pony gets sick or hurt from this.”
Rolling her eyes, Lazy Daze continued scooping. “Not like we won’t tell them where this has been,” she replied to Applejack’s confusion.
“But then why-“
“A little heat to sterilize it and some straining for the glass and gunk and it’s still usable. Pegasus ponies will still pay top bits for this stuff, so it’s our duty to save as much of it as we can.”
A sharp knock to the side caused both mares of hit a stack of crates before Lazy Daze hurried up her reclamation of the cargo.
Still disbelieving of the sight, but in too much of a hurry to get the job done and back to patching the sides, Applejack shut her mouth tight and did as she was told. Within moments the two were done and were back to reinforcing the weakened hold.
Nailing the last board into place, Applejack stood back while Lazy Daze took out her thaumatic meter again to do another scan. Once that was done though, she took out another device, a circular copper gauge, and pressed it against the wood of the ship itself. Sliding it across the room and floor, she kept her eye on the needle before nodding and placing that device away. But following that came yet another device that she placed in the center of the room, a stout square box with wire leads coming out of it. After attaching each wire to various sections around the room, she took out yet another device.
In total, the mare took over half an hour to run seven different tests before looking at the read out of the last device, her shoulders finally relaxed, and sinking down onto her haunches. Popping locks on her helmet, Lazy Daze breathed a sigh of relief as she slumped up against a stack of cargo crates.
Taking off her own helmet and looking around the room, Applejack began restacking the last pile of cargo back into place.
“You sure you don’t want to take the captain up on her offer?” Lazy Daze playfully asked as she smirked at the working mare.
“Nope,” Applejack replied as she tilted a crate over a bit so she could angle her head under it. With a grunt she lifted the crate, and, balancing it on her head, placed it on top of the stack in front of her before biting down on a rope to begin securing the stack. “To be honest, I think what you all do is crazy. I really couldn’t imagine myself living a life where I’d be battling monsters or risking my life week after week.”
“Eh, not like we do this every week,” Lazy replied. “Most of the time we’re just doing normal deliveries inside a territory, or odd jobs around town when we have to,” she added, earning a slight pique of interest and a rise of an eye brow from Applejack as she set about working on the next stack of cargo.
Slumping over to her side, Lazy Daze laid out across the floor, savoring the fleeting feeling of calm before the tempest hit them with another distortion of space and time. “Though this is probably it for the good ship Lollipop here.”
Turning to look as she continued to work, Applejack stacked another crate. “What do you mean? Ship seems to be holding up pretty well now. Once we get to port can’t the captain start on repairs?”
“We lost six out of nine cargo holds,” Lazy replied lackadaisically, almost as if she were simply commenting on different plate colors. “And the center hold, hold 5, is for spare balloons and ship parts, so really we’ve only got two holds left. Nope, six busted holds, all four water tanks for the cloud machine, and nearly every rib and support beam from stern to aft on both the port and starboard sides of the ship… Yeah, this is probably the last flight for this old gal.”
Twilight and Spike stared in agony at the flickering mana crystal powering the shield array. As if they could will more power into the crystal by staring at it hard enough, the two silently whimpered as the crystal quietly dimmed.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything else we can do Twi?” Spike asked as the best but last defense of the ship began to flicker out.
Twilight Sparkle didn’t have anything left to say. She had already tried every idea, every energy-saving measure she could use. Feeling a sick nausea well up from the pit of her stomach, all she could do now was hope that what they had done would be enough.
And with that, the crystal went out and the ship was once again hit by the full fury of the tempest.
The ship rocked once more as gale force winds slammed into it from the starboard side. Lightning and thunder crackled in full violent cacophony. Outside the port window, bloated leeches slapped against the enchanted glass and wood of the ship before, writhing in pain, they gave one last horrific shriek and exploded. The thick viscous acid within them coated the outside of the ship and beginning to eat through the outer hull.
“Spike!” Twilight yelled as she turned and galloped towards the galley table/lab work bench they had been using. Pulling out various base powders and solutions, the young genius began preparing an acidic neutralizing mixture with Spike scampering after to help her.
The pounding of hooves revealed Carrot Top as she raced down to them. “Twilight, we need –“
“Something to neutralize the acid, on it! But Spike and I will need some help loading them into the canisters.” Twilight cut in as she and Spike began tipping the large bowl she had been working with.
The sound of two more sets of hooves announced the return of Applejack and Lazy Daze. With four ponies and a dragon working together they quickly made short work of the task and Applejack was once again galloping as fast as she could up top with three full canisters.
“Sunny!”
Looking over his shoulder at the galloping earth mare, Sunny Drops smiled beneath his helmet as he gratefully took one of the canisters from Applejack and passed the other to an already suited Clay Pidgeon. Pointing to Applejack, he pointed to his helmet before pointing again to the hatch door. Nodding her head, Applejack quickly affixed her own helmet back on before heading out with the other two outside.
The deck of ship was covered in thick green slime that smoked as it slowly devoured the ship. Staring up, Applejack cursed as she saw the new balloon the other team had so painstakingly put up was already being eaten through. With no cloud machines, any other balloon would need to be launched while in freefall. And nopony there was looking forward to seeing which was faster: Cross Hitch and her team, or the ground as it rushed up to meet them.
The three ponies worked quickly, with Applejack racing ahead to start at the tip of the balloon, Clay Pidgeon running to the back, and Sunny Drops immediately starting at the center. There was no time to think as all the assembled ponies quickly hosed down the entire starboard length of the balloon.
The high pressure within the canisters shot a white foam high into the air, the wind actually helping them for once as it pushed every last drop back onto the ship, and pushing along the contours of the balloon and across the top of it.
Keeping an eye on both the balloon and her surroundings, Applejack was the first to see it; a greenish mist directly in front of the ship. As the winds tore around them and flashes of lightning illuminated dark shadows being tossed about the tempest, this cloud stood still. A gently floating mist in the middle of a hurricane.
Keeping her spray pointed towards the balloon, Applejack ran towards Sunny. Tugging at his suit, she pointed directly towards the cloud. She could not hear a word he said without touching their helmets together, but from her view portal she could see his lips mouth a very unflattering word. Pulling her close, he clanked his helmet against hers. “Spray what you can and then run!”
“But if we miss even one spot on the balloon-“
“No time to explain! Just spray and run!”
Keeping his own sprayer on the balloon, Sunny Drops galloped off to warn Clay Pidgeon. Heart racing, Applejack looked up to see large sections of the balloon still smoking, the thick material holding for now, but not knowing when it would finally give out. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she raced back to complete her job. Everypony on the ship was counting on them to get this done. She could not fail them now. Keeping a steady hoof on the nozzle of her sprayer, Applejack meticulously covered every square meter of the front of the balloon and made her way back towards Sunny Drops. She could see Sunny and Clay had almost finished up with their own sections and soon the two would be able to help her.
‘Just a little more,’ Applejack thought as she neutralized the acid on the balloon. Glancing over, she could see the ship turning to avoid the cloud, only for the cloud to split in two. One part drifted directly in front of the ship and blocked its path again, while the other finally decided to acknowledge the winds blowing against them and was pushed away.
Applejack could imagine the loud curse the captain must have given as the ship then jerked in the other direction, the cloud keeping course and moving against the wind.
‘No time to sightsee! Keep working!’ Turning back to the balloon, Applejack could see that only a little strip of balloon remained to be coated. Already, Clay Pidgeon and Sunny Drops were working their way towards her, the two covering the bottom and upper portions of the balloon in tandem.
She wasn’t sure what the sudden chill down her spine was, or what made the hairs on her back suddenly raise, but Applejack spun around to look at the green cloud that had tried to block their way when the ship had jerked port to avoid it.
Staring back at her, a dozen set of eyes within the cloud looked back.
A clang of metal-on-metal and the shout of “Run!” echoed through her helmet as Sunny Drops struck his helmet against hers and pulled her towards the ship hatch. Behind them the cloud rode the cross wind and sped towards the trio.
Clay Pidgeon was already moving, but looking up, Applejack could see a large spot they had not hit with the foam.
A single spot.
Planting her hooves against the deck, Applejack stood firm against Sunny Drops, pulling at her and continuing to spray. ‘Ancestors, six seconds, just give me six damn seconds more!’ she prayed as she finally finished her work.
Letting herself fall against Sunny Drops, the two tumbled towards the hatch as the cloud hit the ship. Bouncing onto their hooves despite the heavy suits, they sprinted towards Clay Pidgeon as she held the hatch open and the ship was enveloped. Flowing over the sides of the ship and across the deck, the cloud and its eyes focused on the two retreating figures.
Galloping at full speed, Applejack could already see the cloud begin to cut off their path to the hatch. Ducking her head, the large mare yelled as her desperation pushed her forward. Running to the side of Sunny Drops, Applejack swung her head under his barrel, and, with a heave of all of her earth pony strength, tossed Sunny Drops right into the hatch, hitting Clay Pidgeon and sealing the hatch behind them just as the cloud over took it.
‘At least they’re safe,’ Applejack thought as she slammed into the outside of the hatch. Hunkering down, the large mare tensed her body in preparation of what this new horror could bring. With any luck it would pass over the ship before it could do much to her suit and to-
“YEEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!” Applejack screamed as searing hot knives of green energy tore right through her level 6 protective suit as if it were tissue paper. Her vision filled with green as the cloud rushed into the compromised suit and filled her helmet. An immense crushing grip snapped her spine in half immediately, while her skull was pushed back into her shoulders as her body was forced to collapse in on itself by overwhelming brute force.
Below decks, an orange light burst into life from the confines of a saddle bag before disappearing.
Appearing within a bloody suit on deck, the light exploded out, the green cloud within the suit burning away instantly as an orange gem in the shape of an apple set in a golden gorget touched the tortured flesh of the pony within.
Applejack wasn’t aware of much at the moment except for the feeling of warmth. A friendly warmth that filled her to her bones. It spread through her body and gave strength to weakened limbs. And through it all, it carried one honest truth.
She was going to be alright.
The swirling maelstrom of the tempest fell away as the ship passed through its borders and wall of white pillars greeted them. Beyond them, fields of white clouds stretch out into the distance where, framed by the golden sun, a city of white and rainbows stood proudly.
Standing back up on her hooves, the orange light around her faded away as Applejack’s helmet fell off and she beheld the Pegasus Fields for the first time.
*BANG!*
“Applejack!”
Almost flying out of the hatch, Twilight Sparkle and Carrot Top embraced the mare as she stood dumbfounded. Her body healthy and whole, but her mind still stunned at everything happening around her.
“We made it out of the tempest, AJ! You’re not hurt are you?” Twilight cheered as she looked over the orange mare wearing the tatters of a protective suit.
Coming up behind them, Sunny Drops and the rest of his team looked in awe of her. Circling the large orange mare, Sunny could only shake his head in disbelief at the sight before him.
“You have to be the luckiest mare I’ve ever seen! We must have passed right out of the tempest at the same moment the smooze-cloud tore your suit!”
Looking at the element of honesty now hanging from her neck, Twilight and Carrot Top shared a look of realization.
Slowly, mechanically, Applejack’s head turned towards Sunny Drops before looking beyond him at the horizon-spanning wall of dark purple clouds that defined the tempest they had just flown through. Bringing a hoof up to touch the gorget around her neck, Applejack finally let her eyes roll back as she collapsed, completely out cold.
