Chapters Eighteen long years she had waited for this day, she still couldn’t belive it had happned she had almost given up hope. When Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had gotten theirs 8 years ago she thought for sure she would be next. However as the years went by her hope started to wane. But clear as day to her, there on her flank, was a cutie mark.
Applebloom didn’t even have an idea as to what it meant, seeing as it had just suddenly appeared while she was walking back to Sweet Apple Acres from Ponyville.
She stared at the mark on her flank, it was three small black dots in a triangle all connected to eachother by thin black lines. She ran a hoof over it, half excpeting it to wipe off.
When it didn’t a wide grin spread across her face. She had done it, she didn’t know exactly what yet, but she had found her special talent, her destiny, her fate.
She sprinted the rest of the way home.
Big Macintosh and Applejack were sitting at the table when the front door burst open and Applebloom rushed in tripping over herself and smashing into the table.
Both Applejack and Big Mac sat stunned for a moment before Applebloom jumped to her feet as if nothing happened and squeaked excitedly.
“I DID IT I FINALLY GOT IT!”
Applejack was the first to snap out of her shock “Applebloom what in tarnation are you doing burstin through doors, if one of us had been standing there we coulda been hurt!”
“Applejack! Didn’t you hear me! I GOT MY CUTIE MARK!”
Applejacks look of dissapointment turned to joy at the news ans she swept her sister into a hug, Big Mac mearly stood by and smiled at his younger sister.
“That’s great Applebloom, I told you it would come,”Applejack said “ all in due time.”
“Eeeyup”
“So what is it lets see!” applejack said waiting for her sister to turn and show off her new mark.
Applebloom turned and let Applejack get a good look at her new source of pride and happiness, Applejacks smile faltered for only a second but her body went ridged and her pupils shrunk.
“That’s… that’s great Applebloom!”
Applebloom after years of living with her sister, was one of the few people who could tell when her sister was lying on the rare occasions that she did.
She gave her sister a scrutinizing gaze “Applejack, you know I can tell when your lying whats wrong”
Her sister looked around frantically before responding “Uh… I err…. I just remember Twilight needs to talk to me.”
Before Applebloom could retort, the orange mare had zipped out the door, dissapearing in a cloud of smoke. She hadnt even run towards Ponyville, instead running headlong into the orchard. Applebloom turned to her older brother, who was looking down at her with a saw expression on, instead of his usual passive bored look.
“Whats wrong Big Mac? Why did Sis run away like that.”
The large stallion walked slowly over to her and placed a large hoof on her shoulder. He stared at her for a little while, as if trying to take a mental image of her. Finally he took his hoof off her shoulder and started walking to the door, where he stopped and turned to look at her.
“Applebloom I need you to stay here, Do not, I repeat do not go wandering off. I need to go find your sister.”
With that Mac turned and walked out into the orchard.
Applebloom sat for a long time, the sun was lowering in the sky and she was growing impatient. This was not the reaction she had expected from her Siblings. She didn’t expect them to get so weird and run off, and she didn’t even get an explanation. Furthermore, the event had caused her brother to speak in full scentences, that meant something was wrong, very wrong.
Growing tired of sitting in the kitchen, she decided she had waited long enough and trotted over to the door.
Pulling it open she headed out into the apple orchard in search of her brother and sister.
She had been walking for around 10 minutes when she heard it. A soft crying, she moved towards it and when she found the source she almost couldn’t belive it herself.
Applebloom had hardly ever seen her sister cry, she seemed to always have a smile on her face, it took a lot to make her cry. Sure she had cried from joy and laughter on many occasions but, even when Granny had died she had witheld from tears.
But there she was sitting next to Macintosh sobbing profusely into her brothers shoulder. Big Mac just sat there with his hoof around her shoulder letting her cry away.
“A- Applejack?” Applebloom squeaked “whats wrong?”
Applejack looked up from her brothers shoulders at Applebloom and then looked back to Big Mac, and he nodded. Applejack got up and walked over to her sister drawing her into a large hug. Applebloom sat in her sisters embrace for a long time before Applejack let go and looked down at her still crying but much softer.
“Ahm sorry Applebloom, I know you must be mighty confused right now, and you must have a barrel full of questions b- but, I aint the person with the answers…”
“Applebloom,” Big Mac called over to them.
Applebloom looked past her sister over to her brother who was patting the ground next to him.
“Come over here we need to have a talk.”
Applebloom looked back to her sister who only wiped away her tears and nodded at her sister stepping aside to let her walk over to Big Mac who was looking at the ground.
“Whats going on Big Mac whats the matter?” She asked she was close to tears herself.
“Applebloom… there is something you need to know, we wanted to keep you innocent, we really did but… but now it seems we don’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean?” She asked staring at her brother.
“Do you know where we are?” he asked still looking at the ground. She followed his gaze to the two stones that were embedded in the ground at their feet.
“This… this is where Ma and Pa are burried,” she said gazing down at the stones.
“It’s time that you learned what happened to them.”
“But Big Mac I already know, the fire the year I was born, it burned down the barn, and- and well….”
Big Mac closed his eyes and there was silence for a long while, Applebloom grew close to asking another question before he opened his mouth.
“You had another brother.”
Applebloom stared up at her brother studying his face for any signs that he was lying. She stared dumbfounded at him when she realized he was telling the truth.
“what do you mean I have another brother!” she exlaimed “where is he! Why havent I met him!”
She then looked down at the graves and grew silent. Suddenly realizing the way Big Mac had chose his words. She had another brother, HAD past tense. But there were only two grave stones here and why would they keep something like this a secret?
Big Macintosh slowly continued his story “His name was Great Oak, Ma and Pa named him after the first tree they had planted here” he gestured to the large Oak that was beside the gravestones “He was very much like you, he was adventerous and had a thirst for knowledge that no amount of books or experience could quench. I looked up to him with all my heart he was a good soul. However he never seemed to find his place, he could exceed at a great many of things but never found one that truly pleased him. When he was seven I remember hearing Ma and Pa talking worridly about him never finding his cutie mark but I shrugged it off, because that was impossible. So he grew older, andwhen I got my mark our parents grew worried again because Oak still hadn’t gotten his, they expressed their concerns to him but he simply laughed it off.”
Big Mac paused and looked over to Applejack and smiled a sadly.
“He did get his one day, it was actually only three months after you were born. Out of the blue on a summer morning it appeared, he was estatic, he had no idea what it meant or why it had appeared but nothing else mattered to him in the world. That day was amazing he took your sister and I into town and treated us to a day off from the farm. When we returned home later that night the lights were on in the kitchen, Ma and Pa were talking loudly with another person, it sounded like they were arguing. We heard a loud voice yelling about how it was Celestias orders and that if they refused to cooperate then the punishment would be severe. Oak went over and checked the window to see what was going on.”
He paused again, he closed his eyes and was silent for a moment.
“I will never forget the look of fear he had on his face when he came back to us, he told us to go around back and to go upstairs and get you and bring you out into the orchard and wait for these people to leave. I listened to him and brought Applejack around back and upstairs to your room, we heard Oak walk in and the room went silent, the loud voice we heard earlier yelled out for them to seize Oak. We took you from your crib and carried you downstairs you slept the whole way out into the orchard.”
Applejack walked over to the two of them and put a hoof on her brothers shoulder. Big Mac was staring off into the orchard, a stone cold expression on his face.
“I went back…. I left you two in the orchard and went back to see if I could help Oak…. When I was walking back I heard the screaming, it was Ma she was yelling crying out Oaks name, when I walked over the hill I saw Ma and Pa out front and Five other ponies in black armor. They were standing in between Oak and our parents. Two of them placed a bag over his head and threw him into a cart that had arrived while we were out in the orchard. At this point Ma was hysterical, she lashed out at what looked like the leader, his armor had gold trimmings instead of red. She struck him, he shrugged it off and I thought he was going to make nothing of it.”
He paused and looked down again at their mothers grave. The Sun was beginning to set.
“he killed her… I saw it happen, he drew his blade with magic and cut her open right there on the street. Pa rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground but it didn’t matter she was already dead. Before he could even scream out in agony he killed Pa too… . The leader looked up and saw me on the hill and started to walk towards me. I was frozen with fear, I couldn’t run when he had closed the distance between us he lowered his head to my level and looked me in the eyes. Those eyes, ill never forget them black as the pits of hell themselves. He looked at me fore a few moment before he turned around and barked something to the other ponies with him. They picked up Ma and Pa and dragged them into the house. He then turned back to me and spoke
‘When they ask what happened hear, you will tell them there was a fire… you will tell them that you escaped with your life but your brother and parents…’ he paused as a twisted smile came across his face ‘were not so lucky…. If you tell every one what happened here though…. Then there might be another fire, and this time you wont be so lucky”.
He turned and walked away from me, the two ponies that had brought Ma and Pa into the house were walking out towards the cart too, when they left one of the unicorns summoned a fire and lit the house and barn. I sat there… for hours, I didn’t know what to do, when help had arrived they asked me what happened…. And…. And I told them there was a fire…”
Big Mac was looking down at the graves now. The clearing had grown silent. Applebloom was shocked, her mind was reeling with the new information.
“Big Mac… I- I don’t understand why are you telling me this.”
The silence seemed to stretch on forever as she waited for her brother to respond. He slowly turned his eyes to her, his face racked with sorrow.
“The mark that appeared on Oak… it- it’s the same one that you have now,” he looked back towards the ground, almost like he couldn’t bare to look at her anymore.
Applebloom reeled away from her brother in shock, then the realization sunk in and she started to sob and hyperventilate
“W-Wh- What!”
“Applebloom please,” Big Mac began, tears forming in his eyes. “just calm down let me talk.”
“ARE THEY GOING TO COME FOR ME!” she screamed , her breathing only increasing in rate, she was starting to get light headed, why didn’t they tell her about this before, what was happening this couldn’t be real!
“Now Applebloom calm down and jus bre-“ but Applebloom had shut out the rest of the world and had curled into a ball and begun to sob profusely. The three ponies sat in the clearing for a while longer but Applebloom didn’t stop crying. She didn’t notice when Applejack put her on her brothers back and they started back towards the house, the sun was setting.
When Applebloom had calmed down and had become aware of her surroundings again she noticed she was in her bed. Applejack and Big Mac were sitting in the room talking to eachother. She pretended not to notice and stayed curled in a ball listening to them talk.
“Mac I cant bare ta lose her”
“I know AJ but this time we know they are coming, we can be ready… we- we can hide her”
“Mac these ponies killed Ma and Pa, we don know what they will do to get to her!”
“What do you suggest AJ? We run? And if we run then to where, like you said they seemed pretty determined last time whats to say they wont chase us?”
There was a moment of silence. She could feel both of there gazes on her.
“Then what should we do,” Applejack asked.
Applebloom heard hoofsteps as they started to move towards her door.
“We know they’re coming so we stay and we fight,” his voice slowly faded out as they headed down the stairs. Applebloom sat in her bed and her mind reeled with the events of the day. She felt sick to her stomach, her parents, murdered! Her brother taken from them! A brother she didn’t even know she had. Why didn’t they tell her!
She closed her eyes again and replayed Big Macs story in her head feeling tears come to her eyes again, it would happen again. They would come and Big Mac and AJ would attempt to fight them off, She was confident in her brother and sister but these ponies according to Big Mac had been the soldier type. They would most likely end up killing them both and taking her.
No. She could save them! She quickly got up from her bed and walked over to her saddle bags, She could run! She stopped as she walked past the mirror taking a good look at herself. How had her life changed so quickly, she looked at the mark on her flank and felt a wave of nausia come over her.
Shaking the memories of today out of her head she looked back into the mirror. She tied her long red hair back into a ponytail forgoing her large bow for a red ribbon almost the same color of her hair. Turning away from the mirror she went to her closet and grabbed a dark brown cloak that she wore when it was especially chilly on the farm.
She then walked over to her door and cracked it open to listen. She could hear her brother and sister moving around downstairs.
“We could tell Celestia!” she heard her sister say over a loud scraping noise, she assumed was from furniture being moved over the hard wood floors.
“Nope.” Big Mac responded “The last time they were hear they said they were on Celestias orders remember?”
“We could Tell Twilight!” Her sister said, fear and stress punctuating ever word.
“AJ, Twilight is Celestia’s prize student who do you think she would believe and even if she did who do you think she would side with.” Her brother said “Its best we take care of this ourselves, no need for others to get hurt.”
Applebloom closed her door. She had heard enough her brother and sister were going to face the mysterious ponies by themselves. They would lose and she would be taken, she walked over to the window and opened it, they would die unless she could save them.
She turned back to her bed and started knotting her bedsheets together, she could go and run, and when AJ and Big Mac went to check on her they would see she had run. They wouldn’t need to fight the ponies then, they could explain they didn’t know where she was. She could save them!
Applebloom threw the knotted rope out the window and tied the other end to her bedpost. She peered over the edge, when she had been a little filly this had seemed like the largest drop in the world, now it almost seemed unessicary to have a rope.
She grabbed onto the sheets and hopped out the window sliding down until she hit the ground. Once she landed she looked back up at her window, she sat for a moment filled with sadness as she realized this might be the last time she ever saw it.
She could hear her brother and sister shifting around more furniture in the house and it snapped her back out of the flood of memories she was experienceing. She was doing this for them. She was saving their lives.
She heard a distant shout barely audable over the scraping of furniture. Turning towards the road to the farm she could see what looked like torches heading towards the house.
The fire arched through the air, Appleblooms eyes widened as she realized they were not torches but infact large fireballs. A explosion ripped through the air as they made contact with the house and fire spread along the roof and upperfloor, inside she could hear Applejack scream.
She turned back to the road in time to see two armored ponies running at full sprint towards her. This wasn’t supposed to happen why were they burning downt he house! She was right there they could have taken her and left, the two ponies barreled into the shocked Applebloom slamming her into the ground.
She felt ropes being tied around her legs and felt herself thrown over one of the ponies backs that had tackled her. All she could do was look at the house and scream out her brother and sisters name.
The two ponies started to move away from the house ignoring the screams from their new protesting prisoner. As they moved away from the house she turned and looked, there in the glow of the burning house she saw them. They really were black as the pits of hell, the tall unicorn pony stared down at her from behind the black and gold helmet as she was dropped at his feet she could only sit there sobbing. Finally she got the courage and looked up into the cold black eyes.
“w- wh- why?” she sobbed.
The pony leaned down untill he was at eyelevel with her “Well you see, we brought our magus with us-“ he said pointing a hoof at a unicorn pony who's coat and eyes matched the blood red armor he wore “- I didn’t want him to make the trip and not get to burn anything now did i?”
The pony returned back to his full height and turned to the others. “Bag her and throw her in the cart, we still have three more to collect, lets move out!”
Applebloom was sitting horrified on the ground still sobbing. The next thing she knew a bag was over her head. Followed by a sharp pain in the back of her skull, she sat their for just a moment still sobbing out her siblings names before she fell forward after being struck again and let her conciousness slip away.
Applebloom woke up.
The blankets of her bed were not around her, and she could feel the cold nipping through her fur.
It was dark even though she knew she had her eyes open she could not see, there was something over her head, she tried to bring a hoof up to pull it off but both her hooves had been tied together. Raising both up to her head she yanked at the bag but it was tied securely around her neck.
She heard hoofsteps and the rattling of cart wheels, there was a noise of wind flapping through some sort of fabric, she felt the gentle bobbing of a cart over the land as it moved she assumed down a road somewhere. But where were they going, what was she doing in this cart, her mind felt slow and foggy, she could feel the memories but they were eluding her for now.
She squirmed around trying to loosen the ropes that bound her hooves and found herself bumping into another object. She pressed against it with her hooves and found it to be another pony.
Applebloom recoiled from the contact, the pony on the other hand, from what she could hear, didn’t move at all. She felt around again and found another, and another pony all similarly tied up and bagged. She scooted back to where she thought she had started out and tried to remember, and then it all came back to her.
She cried.
“Are… are you ok?” a soft feminine voice spoke off to her right and Applebloom turned her head in the direction.
She remained silent, listening for a while to the wind and hoofsteps of the ponies pulling the cart, had she been hearing things?
“Is… is anyone else awake?” the soft voice spoke again.
“Hello? whos there?” Applebloom responded hesitantly.
“My… my names Boomer,” Boomer replied.
“your not…. One of them are you?” Applebloom asked a sudden hostile tone taking hold of her voice.
“Oh… no no, I was wondering the same about you when you woke up but then well… um then you started crying.”
“Oh…. My names Applebloom” she said slightly embarassed that Boomer had heard her.
A long silence followed the two mares having nothing to talk about, being tied up and having a bag over your head really wasn’t a situation which small talk was common in. Applebloom was the first to break the silence.
“where are you? Maybe we can help eachother get free.”
“Im… I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, someone was struggling earlier and they came back and knocked him out.”
As if on que the cart stopped and Applebloom heard hoofsteps and armor clinking as somepony moved towards the back of the cart. She heard a flap being opened and the noise of the wind increased, so they were in a covered wagon she rationalized.
A voice from the front, and outside the wagon, called over the wind towards the pony now looking in the back,“What are ya doin Lance, we still got one more to get before we head to Sol.”
A voice from where Applebloom had heard the flap open responded gruffly “I thought I heard one of these buggers waking up “ Applebloom could almost feel his gaze pass over her as she lay as still as possible. “we don’t want any of them causing trouble before we arrive now do we?”
The voice from in front yelled back, “well make it quick man im freezing my tail off. God damn fucking mountains who the hell would live all the way up here.”
“yeah yeah keep your pants on Gate” Lance said, Applebloom heard the flap close and let out her breath.
Suddenly the flap burst open and she heard lance yell, “RAHHHHHHH!”
Applebloom tensed up but did not cry out in surprise, Boomer on the other hand, at least she assumed it was Boomer, let out a squeak.
“Gotcha” She heard a loud thud and felt a vibration through the wall of the cart on her side.
She heard the flap close and heard Lances footsteps return to the front of the cart. After a few moments the cart began to move again and the noise of icy wind blowing through the flaps was once again the only noise she could hear.
A voice drifted from the front of the cart it was Lance “So who the hell are we looking for up here?”
“A pegasus grey coat black and white hair, shouldn’t be to hard to spot with all this fucking snow.”
“Are you sure we already have eight in the back, and my legs are killing me, I don’t think I have ever seen this many appearing before.”
“The commander seemed pretty pleased with the news.”
“More fodder for the – wait you see that?”
There cart stopped and she heard the two ponies unhitch themselves from the cart.
“Is that him?” she heard Lance inquire.
“Who the fuck else would be up here”
“well lets get him!”
“Wait… we don’t want him to run, neither of us have wings and I don’t want to return to the commander without one.”
“Well whats the plan then.”
Applebloom heard the hoofsteps in snow as the to ponies moved away from the cart their voices becoming indistinguishable from the flapping of the cloth cover. They were going to get another one, someone else was about to end up in this cart. She made up her mind and opened her mouth.
“RUN!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs “RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”
“FUCK!” she heard Gate yell.
“Hes taking off! After him!”
Applebloom heard the sound of armor clanking as the two ponies set off across the snow. Once again the only noise Applebloom could hear was the cloth in the wind. Minutes passed, she wondered if the pegasus had taken her warning or merely taken off out of curiosity, she hoped that he had run.
The clanking of armor returned to her ears as the two ponies approached the cart again.
“Damnit, I thought you had taken care of them Lance!”
“I did! I slammed her head into the wall and she was out like a light it has to be another one!”
Applebloom heard their armor walk by the cart and around to the back, She heard the wind grow louder as the flap was opened.
“Alright which one of you fucks yelled!” Lance screamed into the back.
Applebloom lay their silently, praying that they did not investigate any further. She felt the cart shift as one of the ponies got into the cart and she heard another thud and felt the cart shake again.
“Hey! Hey! What the fuck do you think your doing?” she heard Gate yell.
“Double checking” another thud.
“Lance stop if they arrive brain dead it will be both our asses in the hole” another thud this time closer to Applebloom.
“Do you think I fucking care, we lost one! Were going to get hole time anyway.” A loud thud sounded right next to her right ear.
“Lance seriously man lets not make it any worse than it has to be!”
Applebloom felt two hooves around her head and closed her eyes. suddenly the bag was ripped of her head, she resisted the urge to open her eyes. She could feel Lance’s hot breath on her face, it smelled awful.
“Fine,” His voice was even more loud and gruff without the bag on her head, his hooves released her head and she fell back down onto the floor of the cart “but if I hear a single damn noise from back there im going to crack all their skulls.”
“Fine, fine now can we please the the hell out of these mountains?”
The cart shook as Lance made his way to the back and exited, the flap closed again and the sound of armor moving was once again heard passing by the side of the cart. She heard them hitch themselves in and the cart began to move again.
Applebloom opened her eyes, Lance had forgotten to put the bag back onto her head and she finally got a look at her surroundings, She was in a covered cart as she suspected with multiple other ponies strewn around.
There were seven other including herself, only four others had their bags removed also, Two of them were unicorns, one female with long soft yellow hair and a light blue coat, the other was a stallion with a dark blue coat and his mane was a lighter blue color. The other two bagless ponies were earth ponies, one of them, a mare, had a dark brown mane and a orange coat that reminder her of her sister, it sent a fresh wave of greif through her.
Then she saw it, the orange mares cutie mark, it couldn’t be. There on the mares flank were three black circles all connected by thin black lines, Applebloom looked to the other ponies in the cart and saw the mark repeated on their flanks too.
Questions filled her mind, this was impossible cutie marks were supposed to be different, she had never heard of a pony having a identical cutie mark. What did these marks even mean?
One of the bagged ponies across from her stirred slightly and let out a moan, it was a yellow pony with a bright green tail. Applebloom froze, listening for the two guard ponies. The cart continued moving however, the two ponies pulling were wrapped up talking about who hated the cold more
Applebloom scooted closer to the pony.
“Are you awake?” she whispered.
The pony in question, stirred sleightly again, letting out another quiet moan. Applebloom reached over and gave the pony a small shake. The bagged pony suddenly sat up straigter and let out a gasp.
Applebloom quickly threw her front hooves on the bag where she hoped the ponies mouth was. Hearing a muffled exlamation she was pleased to find she had guessed right.
“I’m going to let go, and you have to be quiet,” she said the next words a little louder making sure the pony could hear her. “otherwise they are going to come back here and there will be trouble for both of us.”
All she received from the bagged pony was silence. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and removed her hooves from the ponies mouth placing her tied limbs back on the floor. Silence. The pony was sitting absolutly still as if waiting for her to make the first move.
“My names Appleboom,” She whispered.
The pony merely sat perfectly still, giving no inclination as to weather or not they had heard her. She waited a few moments, remembering how distraught she had been when she awoke.
“Whats your name?” She asked after wating a minute.
“None of ya business,” Came the blunt reply, he sounded like one of the many ponies she had met when going into Manehatten with her sister. “Ya gonna take this bag off my head?”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Applebloom said. She was amazed with how calm this pony was.
“Where the hell am I?”
“I don’t know”
“Where are we going?”
“I.. I don’t know”
“Great I’ve been kidnaped with Captain Oblivious.”
Applebloom almost wanted to knock him out again herself.
“How long have we been moving?”
“I’m sorry I really don’t know, I only woke up myself a few minutes ago.”
“Damn…”
Silence once again fell over the cart. Applebloom was once again the pony to break it.
“Just out of curiousity, why do you want to know?”
“Isn’t it obvious? So when I escape from these bastards I have a general idea how far I have to go untill Manehatten.”
So she was once again proved correct in her assumptions, the stallion was infact from Manehatten. She looked around at all the other ponies, she didn’t recognize any of the bagless ones from Ponyville. So where did they come from? How long had they been travelling to this Sol place that Gate had mentioned.
“Hey, Applebloom I got a plan,” the stallion said. “you get the guys pulling the cart to come back here and ill surprise them, they’ll never see it coming!” the stallion let out a soft chuckle.
Applebloom stared at the bagged head of the pony. “Seriously?” she said quietly.
“yeah, seriously im a tough guy, these dudes are just some hired thugs from a rival gang probably trying to ransom me off for some money to my friends.”
“Seriously??” was all Applebloom could say.
“hey if you don’t do it I will,” the stallion took in a deep breath.
Applebloom lunged across the cart and jammed her hooves back where she had last time. A muffled yelling was all that came out from behind her hoof. The cart slowed for a second, but continued moving .
Applebloom was furious “did you not hear what I said earlier! They were smashing heads back here before you woke up, do you WANT your brain turned to scrambled eggs?” she hissed at him.
Suddenly the flap opened and one of the ponies looked in, he was a skinny pony, underneath the armor she could see a black coat and violet eyes, the helmet hid his man. He stared at Applebloom who had her hoof firmly jammed into the center of one of the bagged ponies faces. A slow grin formed on his face.
“hey Lance stop the cart,” The pony she now determined was Gate “you were right we got two back here, why don’t you come and do your thing?”
Gate retreated from the flap the cart stopped and where gate had popped through another stallion appeared. Lance was the exact opposite of Gate, he was almost as large as Big Mac, his tan body clamering through the flap followed by his dark brown shaggy tail. He grined, his crooked teeth showing underneath wild dark blue eyes.
“well well, you must be the screamer,” he put a hoof on either side of her head and smiled his crooked smile again, and brought his face close to hers. “you’re not going to enjoy this… but I will”
Applebloom felt her head jerk to the side with alarming speed, her body was lifted off the floor and she made contact with the side of the cart. She slid down the side and Lance stepped over a pony and stood above her.
“You shoulda just stayed asleep.”
He raised his hoof up over her head, she closed her eyes, she felt it slam into the side of her head and once again she felt the blackness take a hold of her mind.
“Sweed Celestia… what the hell did you do to them?” a voice rang out, Applebloom was slowly drifting back to reality, as if someone was yanking her out from unconciousness. “this one was almost impossible to wake up.”
She heard Lances voice, “I dunno sometimes I don’t know the extent of my own strength.”
Applebloom cracked open her eyes, she was lying on her side in the mud. She was against a wall in what appeared to be a massive courtyard, tall black stone walls about twenty feet high enclosed it. There was a large closed gate on the opposite side and doors dotted the side walls. She looked up and around outside the walls she could see similar black stone towers rising above the walls behind them a large rectengular keep rose. They must be in a fortress of some kind.
The courtyard was barren, except for three ponies, Lance, and a purple unicorn were standing infront of her. Behind them near the center of the courtyard was a massive being, she had to close her eyes and open them again to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. A massive brown stallion with electric blue hair stood next to a bonfire, his legs and front hoves were covered in long scars, he was removing what looked like small pieces of metal from large black bags. Then throwing what he didn’t take out into a large bonfire that was next to him. She stared at him, suddenly the giant looked up and made eye contact with her, she looked away quickly.
She turned her attention to the purple unicorn and Lance. The unicorns horn was glowing, and Applebloom felt thought process speeding up and the pain in her head slowly subsided. She studied the unicorn taking note that her cutie mark was also three black circles with lines connecting them. She looked down the wall to her left, the rest of the ponies from the cart were all there. They had been lined up along the wall their back right legs chained to it, she felt a shackle around her own back leg.
“there you go,” the purple unicorn said, she turned back to Lance who was standing behind her glaring down at Applebloom. “that’s the last of them go tell the lieutenant that they’re awake.”
Lance mumbled something about rank, but turned and headed to one of the doors on the side wall still grumbling.
“listen up ponies,” the purple unicorn said, when Lance had walked through the door, adressing the group, “the Lieutenant is going to come in and explain whats going to happen, you are all to listen and not, I repeat NOT talk back. I might know a thing or two about medicine but I cant anything to serious, so its best to keep him in a good mood.”
“Where the fuck are we!” the same pony applebloom had talked to last on the cart blurted out, after seeing Lance leave he had resumed his tough persona.
The unicorn walke up to him and looked him in the eyes very seriously. “I know your type, and im warning you, for your own good you’ll shut the hell up and wait for the lieutenant to get here.”
The yellow pony looked her in the eyes not flinching at all, but he didn’t open his mouth to retort.
“that’s better now you’ll all sit here and wait for the lieutenant,” she eyed the yellow stallion one more time. “quietly.”
With that the purple unicorn turned and walked towards one of the door on the side wall, she turned and looked back giving the yellow stallion another hard look before heading through the door. The ponies were alone in the courtyard with, the giant pony who was still standing next to the fire, he had stopped going through the bags and was watching them with light red eyes.
Applebloom took the time to look around the courtyard again this time taking time to notice more than the general things. Off on the right wall she could see training dummies lined up. There were arrows sticking out of them along with plenty of burn marks on them.
Closer down the wall near where they were lined up there was a large square pit of sand. it looked as though it had recently been raked because the sand was perfectly flat with little lines going through it.
On the left wall was a large rack with training weapons, they must be in some sort of training ground area.
She brought her eyes back to the center where the monsterous pony was still standing looking at them. He was easily one and a half times the size of her brother, she only assumed this beause he was halfway across the courtyard but looked as larg as any of the ponies standing next to her. She looked up into the stallions face and quickly looked away when their eyes locked again.
One of the doors on the left wall suddenly burst open and a white unicorn stallion came trotting through, his armor was the same black as the guards that she had seen last night and, the ones that pulled her cart, it covered his cutie mark. The trimming on his armor was a dark green not the red from the guard ponies, or the gold color from the pony she had met when she was taken. She shuddered at the memory.
The white pony walked towards them and cleared his throat, his voice was smooth, there was a air of superiority that was carried with it.
“This-“ he waved a hoof around to the walls and towers “is Sol. None of you have probably ever heard of it, and for good reason too.” He paused and walked down the line of ponies in front of him.
“My name is Lieutenant Check and I am in charge here at Sol, I serve under Commander Steel Gaze, many of you may have met him when you were… acquired. Sol has been here since the dawn of ponies, it was the first settlement that Celestia established, it was also the first to be forgotten. Under her rule we lived a harsh and strained existance, she knew our kind would not last long in this land. So she sought out a new safe haven for our kind. In order to do this though many creatures had to be displaced, many races removed from their homes. Our fearless leader Celestia cast them out into the Reach.” He pointed his hoof over towards the gate.
He paused and looked at the ponies in front of him. He looked each one of them over before turning around facing towards the fire.
“Can any of you tell me WHY you are here?”
The ponies against the wall looked back and forth between each other, Applebloom continued to look at the back of the white pony’s head. When the silence had stretched on for more then ten seconds Check turned and faced the ponies again.
“You can speak, this isnt a prison you know,” He let out a harsh laugh.
“Because you’re an asshole and abducted us,” the yellow pony from the cart spoke up.
The lieutenant’s face went stone hard at hearing these words and he walked infront of the yellow stallion. He looked at him for a few moments before smiling.
“It’s nice to see we have a jokester! You remind me of someone…” he put a hoof to his chin and stood thinking for a moment before he smiled again “ah! Yes that’s it! One moment.”
The lieutenant turned and walked towards the middle of the courtyard and stopped next to the giant pony and the black bags. The lieutenant barked something to the giant pony and the giant moved over to the bags. Taking one down off the pile and placing it in front of Check.
The lieutenant opened it and rummaged through it for a few seconds seeming to struggle with something inside it. Finally managing to get it free he lifted it in his magic and began to walk back over. From what Applebloom could tell it was just a dented old piece of metal.
The lieutenant closed the distance between them and dropped the metal in front of the yellow stallion and Applebloom got a good look at it. It was a Helmet, but it was like no helmet she had seen before, it had three blades on it one that crested over the head and two on the side, one of the side blades was bent at a strange angle and the helmet had some dents and even a few holes in it. Appleboom could see what she only guessed was blood on the helmet around the holes.
The yellow stallion looked at the helmet “The fuck is this?”
The lieutenant laughed again, “why this belonged to who you remind me so fondly of, as you can see” he gestured back towards the black bags “he wont be needing it anymore, as he will soon be becoming a pile of ash. So I thought I would give it to you! Seeing as new armor is hard to come by.”
The yellow pony’s eyes widened as he look down at the battered helmet in the mud before him. “your fucking joki-“ he never got to finish his sentence as the helmet was lifted by the lieutenants magic and the back of it rammed against the side of his head.
The lieutenants voice took on a new angry tone “Listen here, we already established you’re the jokester here. From now on I don’t want to hear another word out of your mouth unless I ask for it, otherwise a more dangerous part of this helmet might become close friends with your face.”
The yellow stallion still rubbing his face shrank back a few inches, nodding his head furiously.
“Good…” the lieutenant closed his eyes and recomposed himself, he opened his eyes and smiled. “Now to answer my own question, you are here because you fit no where else. You see when Celestia moved us to her new utopia we still fought amongst eachother, we squabbled over jobs and titles, ponies became upset because they just didn’t know what to do with their lives, so our glorious leader gave us cutie marks.”
The lieutenant’s horn lit up again, the yellow stallion shrunk back again. However this time the magic surrounded his armor and it was lifted off him momentarily, revealing his cutie mark to be a sun much like Celestias with a Sword in front of it. He placed the armor back on himself and continued talking.
“You ponies however…. Do not fit, you are sad miserable creatures that could not find your fate, so… fate had forced itself upon you. If you cannot join the glorious society that Celestia has created for us, you will sacrifice your life to serve and defend it. You are here to become one of the Fateless, a pony that could not find a place. You might as well accept this news because you cannot change it, fate has spoken.”
The lieutenant walked back down the line towards Appleblooms end before stopping to continue his speech again.
“You will train, you will learn, and you will serve. If you step out of line you will be disciplined, depending on the infraction the punishments vary in severity, We will not hesitate to kill someone who tries to retaliate.” He paused a moment to let those words sink in. “in Six months time you will be grouped together into squads consiting of three earth ponies two pegasus and one unicorn, you will then be lead by a senior officer to your place of service where for the rest of your life you will defend our glorious Celestias land and the ponies that reside in it.”
With that last sentence guards emerged from the doors on top of the walls and took positions at the parapets.
The lieutenant turned and looked at the ponies standing against the walls, he lit up his horn and Applebloom felt the shackle around her leg release and fall to the ground.
“You will spend tonight in the courtyard,” He looked up at two of the guard ponies on top of the gate wall and nodded, suddenly the gate started to creak open. “The gate will be left open, if you do not feel you belong here, and you feel that fate itself is wrong… feel free to run” He paused. “However, if you do run, know that we will find you, and we will kill you.” He stared at the ponies with a cold gaze, before suddenly he smiled again walking over to one of the doors on the side wall he had come out of.
“Well with that I bid you goodnight, you might want to stay close to the fire” he gestured over to the large bonfire in the middle which the giant pony had resumed throwing the black body bags onto again. “it tends to get a little chilly at night.” And with that he walked through the door.
Applebloom looked over towards the fire, The giant pony had just thrown the last of the bags onto the fire and had turned around and was staring at the group of ponies. They all huddled closer together… this was going to be a long night.
As Luna’s moon rose into the sky Applebloom could feel the temperature start to drop. She was huddled together with the other ponies she had been chained with. No one had said a word since the lieutenant left, instead they were all cowering under the gaze of the giant pony.
The large brown stallion continued to watch them before, giving them all one last look up and down, he turned and lay down next to the fire, his back towards the group.
“I am NOT going over there,” A female voice rang out from the group. Applebloom looked towards the source, it was a dark blue pegasus, with a purple mane.
“I- I don’t know its getting pretty cold… we could just go sit on the otherside of the fire,” The soft voice that Applebloom recognized as Boomer spoke up. Finding the source she saw it was a dark purple unicorn with a long light green mane.
“Fuck that I don’t want to be eaten,” the yellow stallion spoke up sitting down and crossing his front hooves. “I say we run, if we all go they wont be able to catch us all.”
All the ponies looked over towards the gate, Through it they could see very large dark trees.
Boomer spoke again, “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”
“Who asked you?” the yellow stallion turned on her, Boomer cowered underneath his gaze.
Applebloom spoke up for her, “Everypony just calm down, I think Boomers right we can all go and sit on the otherside of the fire.” She cast a glance at the giant pony who was now completely on his side his side slowly rising and falling. “It looks like hes asleep so if we are quiet we can-“
The yellow stallion cut her off, “ and who put you in charge, hell we had a chance of escaping in the cart and you didn’t even help me then!”
Applebloom turned and looked him right in the face, “That’s because you're plan was stupid! It ended up getting us both beaten!”
“Only because you didn’t go along with my plan!” The stallion sat back down and once again crossed his front hooves, “look that lieutenat guy said we could run if we wanted, and if that means we can get the hell out of here then im going to take it.”
The yellow stallion rose to his hooves and started towards the bonfire. “If anyone else wants to be free, then you're welcome to come along, they wont be able to catch all of us!” He stopped and looked back at the group, when no one stepped forward his confident expression wavered for a moment. “Well fine! Ill be better off without anyone!”
With that he walked past the group and headed in the direction of the gate, he gave the sleeping pony and the bonfire a wide berth. Stopping once more at the gate, he turned and gave the group one last glance before dissapearing into the darkness.
“good riddance,” the Dark blue pegasus said, walking over and sitting down next to Applebloom. “The names Stormbane, yours?”
“Applebloom.”
“Well Applebloom, should we move over to the fire?” she asked, she jerked her head towards the other ponies behind her. Applebloom turned and looked at the group noticing them all watching her expectantly. She turned and looked towards the fire. The massive pony was still slumbering next to it.
“Umm yeah sure, lets all move over to the fire… quietly.”
The group rose to their hooves and the seven ponies began a slow walk over towards the fire. The closer they got the louder the crackling of the fire grew, Applebloom soon realized that there was really no need to move silently as the fire masked any sound they made.
When they had gathered around the fire Applebloom turned back to the group, noticing all their eyes upon her. She sat down and all the others followed suit. Great, how did she become the leader.
Silence fell over the group once again, eventually a few of the ponies lay down and closed their eyes trying to get some sleep. Boomer came over and sat down next to Applebloom.
“um… thanks for sticking up for me… I mean you didn’t have to,” she said quietly.
Applebloom smiled at the mare, “it was no problem the guy was an idiot.”
“Do you think he will be ok?”
Applebloom turned and looked towards the open gate, the darkness stared back. The shadows in the trees seemed to come alive and move as the wind blew the branches back and forth.
“I really don’t know,” she said.
“I hope he never comes back,” she heard Stormbanes voice say.
Applebloom turned back to the group to see the purple pegasus walking towards them.
“Most of these ponies are scared for their lives, and a stallion like him wouldn’t help any of them.”
“Y- you're not scared?” Boomer said.
“Of course I am, don’t be rediculous but right now we need to be as strong as we can, if not for ourselves for them” she pointed a hoof at a few of the other ponies who were sitting together talking quietly amongst eachother. “Right now all we have is eachother.”
Applebloom nodded.
“What do you think is out there?” Boomer asked, she was staring at the open gate.
Both Stormbane and Applebloom looked over to the gate, all three of them stared into the blackness. A voice from behind them snapped them all back to reality.
“I might be able to answer that,” A male voice that was almost as soft as Boomers spoke out.
The three mares turned to see a dark red unicorn with a light pink mane and yellow eyes looking at them.
“Enlighten us,” Stormbane said skeptically.
“Well you see… my father he used to tell me these stories he heard from his father and so on and so forth.” The pony took a seat in front of the three mares. “We used to laugh at them, the stories he told, they seemed so rediculous and silly.” He paused and looked at the ground. “But now…. Now they have taken on a new meaning, each one of them a fresh nightmare in my mind.”
He looked up at the three mares and they could see the fear in his eyes.
“He told me stories about Celestia and how she fought for our homeland agains changelings, dragons, griffons, any mythical creature you name it Celestia would not rest untill any threat to ponykind was either cast out or extinguished. Of course when I was younger I thought how could these stories be true, Celestia was a kind and loving pony, she wouldn’t do those things…. But this place.”
He looked up at the walls and shuddered.
“This place just makes the stories all to real.”
“S-s-so theres dragons and manticors out there!” Boomer squeaked she was now lying on the ground her hooves over her head, shaking slightly.
“Nonsense,” Stormbane said before the red unicorn could continue, “Like he said those were just stories his father told.”
Applebloom looked down at Boomer,”Even if there was, were inside a fortress with guards, you have nothing to worry about.”
Their reassuring remarks did little to stop the small unicorn from shaking, Stormbane and Applebloom glanced at eachother, both of them could see the fear in eachothers own eyes. They had both seen the helmet that the lieutenant had placed at the yellow stallions feet.
Silence fell over the group for a few moments again before Applebloom turned back towards the red unicorn, “whats your name?”
“Slate.”
“Mines Applebloom, and this here is Stormbane and Boomer, its nice to meet you.”
Slate chuckled, though his face remained grim, “yeah sure is nice.”
Behind them the gigantic pony stirred slightly, they all froze. The pony however rolled over onto his other side, let out a snort, and continued sleeping.
“Alright well I think its best if we get some shut eye,” Stormbane said, eyeing the sleeping pony across the fire. “before someone wakes the beast.”
Applebloom heard the other two murmur in agreement as they all lied down to sleep. Applebloom lied down but she couldn’t sleep her mind was still full of so many unanswered questions.
She couldn’t help but think about the yellow stallion and if, in his own idiotic way, had been right. Would they have been able to catch them all?
She rolled onto her back and looked at the sky, while you could see many stars in Ponyville the amount that littered the sky here must have doubled the amount, she wondered if luna had something to do with that.
She glanced to either side of her, Boomer had already fallen asleep, she didn’t know what to make of this pony. Boomer reminder her of Fluttershy, the way she acted, and spoke. Applebloom didn’t know if keeping her around would be a good idea, she would end up having to protect her and- No what was she thinking! That would be cruel, Boomer didn’t ask for this fate none of them deserve to be alone here. Applebloom decided that she would watch over Boomer, maybe if anything being together could make this place a little less worse.
She turned her gaze to Stormbane, She liked her. She didn’t know what it was about her but she was a strong pony, not physically, but she wasn’t going to let anyone break her. She would be good to have around, Applebloom figured she should make as many allies as she could.
Lastly she looked at Slate, She didn’t know what to make of this stallion. They had only said a few words to eachother, but he did seem to know stories about this place. Maybe tomorrow she could work him over for more details, She would have to do it away from Boomer though, that mare had looked like she was going to faint when he talked about dragons and manticores.
She sighed, again turning her head towards the heavens. She wondered about her family, she couldn’t supress the awful feeling that both her siblings were dead, but she still could hope. She imagined what they would be doing, they were looking for her, and they would find her… she sighed, no, no one was coming to get her, no one even knew where this place was.
She rolled over onto her front and put her head on her hooves. She wondered how Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle would take the news. It would probably crush them, she felt tears coming to her eyes. Would they miss her? She cursed herself for thinking such stupid questions, of course they would, they had been best friends! She felt a wave of memories coming on.
She shook her head, no, she couldn’t keep doing this to herself. She had to stay strong, she had to focus on the present, as far as everyone else in the whole of equestria was concerned she was dead… she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She looked up at the towers and walls that surrounded her.
Suddenly she felt a fire burn up inside her, no she could find a way… she could take this place apart from the inside out. She grinned to herself, she could do it, she just needed to work hard and do it secretly, she looked at the ponies around her, she would need people she could trust.
She made up her mind, for her families sake and for the other ponies here and their families too she would destroy this place, she would find the pony they called Commander Steel Gaze… and she… she would kill him. The thought felt strange in her head, she felt her mind trying to wrap around that idea, she had never thought of death before, let alone being the one to cause it.
Sure when Applejack had gone on adventures with Twilight she had worried, but only that AJ would get hurt, she didn’t think anything could ever kill a pony, in fact she had never even heard of a pony being killed. She sighed and once again rolled onto her back and stared at the sky, she would have to change. If she wanted to survive she would have to reinvent herself.
She lay there staring at the sky and closed her eyes, she must have lain there for a couple hours for when she opened her eyes the moon was low on the horizon. She let out a frustrated huff and closed her eyes, she wanted to fall asleep, and new she would regret it if she didn’t. However she just couldn’t, she rolled onto her side and looked across the fire, the massive pony was still slumbering peacefully. She felt slightly envious of his easy slumber.
She wondered how he had gotten so large, was their some sort of giant species of pony that lived out here beyond this fortresses walls? Curiosity got the best of her.
Appleblooom got to her hooves and slowly inched around the fire, which was down to burning embers, trying to get a closer look at the giant pony, she got around about halfway around the fire before she felt something tug on her tail.
“What are you doing?” Stormbane hissed, she apparently couldn’t sleep too and had seen Applebloom get up.
Applebloom turned and put a hoof to her lips shushing her. “I just wanna get a closer look.”
Applebloom felt Stormbane release her tail.
“your funeral,” she heard her hiss.
Applebloom continued around the fire, which was silently crackling and popping, untill she was only a few feet away from the giant brown pony. She looked at his legs which were covered in long winding scars, some of them looked fresh. She looked at his flank and was surprised to see the three black dots on his flank, so he was once in their position.
She slowly inched around him wanting to get a better look at his face. As she crept around him he gave a snort, she froze up, half expecting him to get up and squash her underhoof. Instead he once again shifted into a more comfortable position and continued sleeping. She let out a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding. She inched past a pile of the bladed helmets she had seen him removing from the bags earlier, most of them were in similar condition to the one that had been dropped before the yellow stallion.
Finally she was standing near his head, his face was worn and tired looking. His mouth was twitching and his eyes were moving beneath his lids. She stared at his face, suprisingly he looked familiar, she couldn’t quite place it though. She leaned closer deep in thought.
Suddenly the fire let out a loud crack, the massive pony’s eye flung open and Applebloom let out a squeak. She quickly retreated backwards and stumbled over her own hooves. She fell backwards and noticed she was falling towards the pile of bladed helmets that the large pony had stacked. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain that never came, instead she felt something clamp softly around the scruff of her neck.
She opened her eyes, her face was inches away from one of the blades. Twisting her head around she could see the large pony had softly bitten the back of her neck and was keeping her from falling into the pile of helmets. She was amazed that he had been able to get to his feet so fast, he must be extremely agile for a pony so large. He lifted her slowly into the air away from the helmets and set her down in front of him. She sat before him staring up at his face, She felt like a filly again, he towered over her.
The pony didn’t say anything, only stared at her for a long time. She could only stare back, she opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t seem to find any words. Slowly he stepped past her and looked towards the group, Stormbane she noticed had lain back down and was snoring loudly.
The large Stallion looked from sleeping pony to sleeping pony before stopping and raising a hoof pointing it at each pony in turn. It looked like he was silently counting to himself.
Suddenly he turned and walked towards the wall that had the weapon racks lined up on it. He walked down the line of racks before coming to a halt infront of a large metal door, it was the only door that looked big enough for him to fit into. She wondered how she had missed it before. There was a large dial on the front of the door and she saw him fumble with it for a few seconds before hearing a click.
The door swung open and he dissapeared inside, he emerged seconds later, fully armored in a suit of the darkest black metal she had ever seen. The light didn’t even reflect off of it, it seemed to absorb every single ray of light that touched it. On his back a heavy warhammer was strapped across his back. He looked back at her from underneat the black helm, and stared for a moment.
For just a brief second his face softened out of is permanent stony expression, before once again hardening. He then turned and walked out the gate, disappearing into the dark trees beyond it.
She sat on the ground where he had placed her her mouth hanging open just slightly.
“What… what was that” Applebloom turned to see Stormbane looking out the gate where the large pony had dissapeared before. “I though for sure you were going to get pancaked after he put you down.”
“I- I don’t think hes evil… I think… I think hes one of us.”
“Bullshit, theres no way he could have fit on a cart.”
“That’s not what I mean… I think, I think he feels sympathetic towards us.”
Stormbane stared at Applebloom for a moment, carefully chosing her next words, “And what… what makes you so sure.”
“The way he looked at me, just before he left, he almost seemed… sad?”
“I think your sleep deprived girl.”
Applebloom looked over at her, “im serious!”
“Ok! Ok! I believe you… sheesh”, the purple pegasus rolled her eyes, “so whats the plan…”
Applebloom stared at her, “What do you mean?”
“Oh come on, you cant be this oblivious. Last night the others looked to you for guidance, you’re the leader so whats the plan?”
Applebloom thought back to earlier in the night, she had been working on a plan, but she didn’t know how this place worked, what happened here, she only had an end goal in mind. “I’m… I’m working on one.”
“Sounds good to me captain,” Stormbane said giving her a mock salute.
“Don-“
A Scream peirced the air. Both mares whipped their heads around towards the sound, it had come from out past the gate. The other ponies had all woken up with a start, Boomer had stood up abruptly and started to run, however she quickly stumbled over her own hooves and was now face first in the dirt.
Applebloom walked over to her and helped her up, the Moon was beginning to lower on the horizon and they could see the sun beginning to rise.
“Oh… um thanks Applebloom,” Boomer said.
“No need to thank me Boomer”, Applebloom smiled back at her.
“What in Celestias name was that?” She heard Stormbane exclaim from behind her. “What the hell could make a pony scream like that.”
The other ponies around her were asking similar questions, looks of fear plastered upon their faces. Applebloom closed her eyes and tried to put on her best brave face.
“Listen up everypony that scream came from pretty far away, so what ever it is cant be that-“
Another scream stopped her speech, this time it was much louder and the pony screaming sounded as if they were in excruciating agony. Boomer started to cry. The other ponies were backing away from the gate, the guards on top however seemed to pay no notice to the screams.
One of the ponies in the group yelled out, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” the Unicorn, a dark blue stallion with light blue hair, proceeded to run towards the back wall and shrink against it. The other ponies in the group besides Applebloom, Stormbane and Slate ran to the back wall with him. Boomer stayed too but only because she seemed to have forgotten how to use her legs.
The three standing ponies stood in front of boomer and stared into the blackness past the gate, they braced themselves for whatever horror that might come from it. Was this part of their training were they going to eliminate the weak on the first day?
The moments stretch into minutes, every so often they would hear another ear splitting scream, they were getting louder, which meant that the pony and whatever was causing them to scream was getting closer.
Stormbane flared her wings, the guards on the top of the wall took notice of this however and suddenly there were crossbows suspended by magic next to each of them.
Applebloom took notice of this, “hey storm I don’t think wings are such a good idea.”
Stormbane looked over at her and she nodded towards the top of the wall, Stormbane took notice and slowly lowered her wings back to her side. “great…” Applebloom heard the mare mutter to herself.
“Do we have a plan?” It was Slate asking.
Another scream rang out from the forest, they could hear something now moving in the trees.
“im working on one” Applebloom said looking around, she spotted the fire and looked back at Slate. “Slate! When it comes through the gate and I give the signal I want you to use your magic to send the fire at it, try to drive it into one of the corners, Stormbane I need you to keep it distracted for as long as you can, I figure its time I tested out my applebucking on something besides trees” she shook out her back legs.
Another Scream this time she could hear a loud crash as somthing collided with a tree.
Both the other ponies nodded in affirmation. “Got it!” they said together.
The three of them stood in front of the fire and prepared themselves for whatever came through the gate. They waited for what seemed like an eternity before they saw it.
“There!” Stormbane yelled.
Applebloom tensed, running out of the forest was the yellow stallion from last night, he had multiple cuts along his arms and face and he was bleeding profusely from the wounds.
He let out another earsplitting scream as he flung himself through the gate, losing his footing he fell onto the ground, he rolled over and continued to scoot away.
“STOP PLEASE STOP! Look im back! I came back!” the yellow pony screamed into the dark trees, then the three ponies in front of the fire saw him.
The massive pony emerged slowly from the shadows, his massive hammer was clenched in his teeth and the blades of his helmet dripped with blood, he slowly walked towards the yellow pony.
“NO! please look! LOOK! Im back inside the walls! Im back inside the walls!” the yellow stallion was now sobbing.
The giant pony walked slowly up to the yellow pony who had reduced to a small shaking pile.
The yellow pony looked up at the behemoth, having lost his voice he weakly croaked, “p-please, I came back, look please just fucking look were back inside the wa-“ the sentence was never finished. The armored pony had raised the hammer and brought it down, there was a sickening crunch as the steel of the hammer met with the skull of the yellow stallion, Applebloom heard a squeak as Boomer fainted. A silence fell over the courtyard.
The three ponies in front of the fire were stunned, The giant pony lifted his hammer out of the bloody mess with a loud squelch. He then leaned his head down and bit onto the yellow stallion’s tail. The massive pony began dragging the corpse towards the ponies, They quickly moved aside, Applebloom draggin Boomer by her tail much like the dragged the stallion.
Paying no attention to Applebloom and the others he walked past them and stopped before the fire, he then lifted the corpse up, and dropped it onto the coals. Slowly the body began to ignite and the large pony turned and locked eyes with applebloom. His face was expressionless, he stood looking at her for a few more moments before he walked back to the large silver door and opened it again.
When he came back out his armor was off, he walked back over to the fire which was now burning fiercly, lay back down, and fell asleep.
The silence stretch for what felt like the second eternity that day, Applebloom looked over her shoulder at Stormbane and Slate.
Stormbane looked at her with a serious expression, “Still think hes sympathetic…”
Applebloom let her gaze fall to the ground, escape had just gotten a lot harder.
Applebloom looked into the fire. Where the yellow pony had been was now just a smoldering crater of ashes. She turned her gaze to the pony that had put him there, he was sleeping peacefully.
She felt confused, true she had disliked the yellow pony, but to see his life ended so quickly, and without a hesitation… it had been a shock to her.
“You ok?” Stormbane was staring at her, they had moved back to the wall with the rest of the group.
Most of the ponies had a sick expression on their faces. Some had actually thrown up and were now sitting shaking, staring off into the distance.
“Y- yeah, I’ll be ok,” Applebloom stammered, she forced herself to look away from the fire.
The sun was beginning to rise and she could feel its warmth on her side. She looked up to the sky, pausing to take in the colors of the sunrise. She then turned to look at Stormbane.
“Did he deserve it?” she asked quietly.
Stormbane looked down into the fire, she stood staring into the fire for a while before responding, “no one deserves this…”
Applebloom nodded and they both stood, watching the fire burn out in the morning light.
A door on the far wall burst open and the lieutenant trotted out. Along with the regular armor that he wore, he had a long sword strapped to his back.
Trotting out behind him came three ponies, Two she didn’t recognize, one a unicorn the other a pegasus, but the third was Lance. He gave her a crooked grin when their eyes met.
The lieutenant stopped in front of the ponies, counting them, “so I see we are missing one” he paused and looked at the fire, “A shame too I really was looking forward to having a laugh with him.” The lieutenant chuckled before composing himself again.
“This is Dawn, Flint, and Lance they will be showing you how things work around here. The rest of the Fateless are going out on scouting missions, there have been reports from command that a large number of changelings have moved up into our area.”
Lieutenant Check turned and walked past the fire, stopping before the gigantic pony, “OAF!”
The large pony opened his eyes.
“Get your lazy ass up and bring this armor to the smith, I want it melted down and reforged into new sets.”
Oaf rose to his feet, towering above the lieutenant. Without a word he seized the ends of the the tarp that was underneath the armor. His massive hooves tied the tarp ends together suprisingly quick. He then slung the entire bag over his back, and proceeded towards the gate.
The lieutenant turned to look at the three ponies that had come out of the door with them, “Flint you're in charge” Lance frowned at this but did not speak up, “if any of these foals give you trouble…. Well you can show them where they will end up.”
“Yes Sir!” The large brown unicorn pony said.
“Good, on that note, I don’t even want any reports of trouble when I get back! Or you will be joining whoever caused the trouble in the hole you hear me?” the lieutenant said staring at Flint steely.
“Yes Sir! Understood Sir!”
With that the lieutenant turned and walked back over to the door on the wall, opening it he gave the group one last look before the door slammed and he was gone.
Flint, the unicorn the commander had put in charge, stepped forward.
“Alright Dawn you go get these ponies some training gear, its time to suit up and get to it.”
A few minutes later Applebloom found herself standing with the other ponies in her group. They were lined up on the side of the sand pit that was in the far corner of the courtyard.
Applebloom couldn’t watch, the pony in the sand was shaking with fear. Training as it turned out was letting Lance attack them, and seeing how well they could defend themselves. So far no one had landed a hit on Lance, and he was enjoying laying each of them out.
They were wearing a set of sparring armor, the leather armor fit snugly over her body and the metal helmet was a little to big for her. The blades on the helmets were not sharp. They were rounded off at the top and tips. However Applebloom had a feeling they still hurt after watching others be mauled by Lance.
Applebloom was next in line, she looked to the pony in front of her. Boomer was looking as fearful as ever, Applebloom felt sorry for her, the little pony wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Boomer,” Applebloom whispered.
The shaking mare turned to look at her, “W-w-what?” she barely managed to stammer out.
“Trade places with me.”
Without hesitation the little pony zipped behind Applebloom in line. Applebloom smiled for a moment, and then realized what this meant. Turning her gaze back to the sand pit she saw Lance, standing over the now battered pony in the sand.
Lance turned to look at the line, seeing her next he smiled.
“Next,” Flint called out, he was standing on the side of the sand pit. Flint was the one that started and ended the fights. So far he hadn’t let the fights go to far, for one of the ponies the fight had actually ended after Lance laid one hit on him.
As the pony in the sand hobbled off to the side Applebloom slowly trudged to the center of the sand pit. She stood before Lance and looked up into his eyes. He smiled that crooked smile and took a few steps back and lowered his head slightly.
Applebloom spread her legs slightly and lowered into a partial crouch. After watching the first few fights she noticed that Lance would just charge in head first. If she could manage to roll or jump out of the way she might have a chance of landing a hit on the stallion.
“Begin!” Flint yelled out from the side.
As Applebloom expected Lance lowered his head and began a charge towards her, she quickly jumped to the side only moments before Lance barreled past.
Closing her eyes she turned her back to where she thought he would be and raised he back legs. She imagined herself back in the orchard, she could picture herself standing in front of a large hideous tree… she was going to buck this ugly tree in half. Her back hooves lunged out, however she never made contact with Lance.
Turning her head she could see he had lowered himself to the ground, almost instantly after missing her. He shot out a hoof from his position on the ground, connecting with one of her forehooves she fell forward onto her face.
Lance rose to his feet and prepared to kick at her on the ground. Applebloom rolled to the side hearing his hooves come down in the sand where she was a moment ago.
She rose to her hooves and turned to face Lance once again, she barely had time to move out of the way of a buck he had sent in her direction. When his back hooves had connected with the ground he used his front hooves to spin himself around.
The side of his helmet made contact with hers, the lose fitting helm went flying off of her head. She stumbled backwards her head ringing. Lance, began to bring his head back to land another hit.
Applebloom managed to duck under it and quickly put all of her force into a headbutt that landed on Lance’s chest. She heard him let out a gasp as he stumbled back a few feet.
Applebloom took advantage of his momentary incapacitation to retrieve her helmet. Turning she saw that he was once again charging at her full tilt, it was to late for her to jump out of the way and she braced for impact.
He connected with her side and she felt the metal bumps on the helmet send stabs of pain up through her side. Lance lifted his head after feeling it make contact causing Applebloom to be sent flying into the air.
She landed on her side in the sand and Lance walked over he raised a hoof and prepared to bring it down.
“Enough!” Applebloom looked over to where Flint was standing, he had a smile on his face. “Good job!”
Applebloom rose shakily to her feet, Lance leaned in close.
“You're weak, just like the rest of them.”
Lance walked past her, and when he was behind her he turned and made one more remark.
“Soon you’ll be dead, just like the rest of your family.”
Applebloom reacted without thinking, she raised her back legs once more and let out a buck that would leave Big Mac’s jaw hanging.
She felt her hooves make contact with the metal of the helmet, and she felt it buckle under the force of her blow. She stood for a moment, shocked at what she had done.
Slowly she turned to look, she expected to see Lance lying on the ground. Instead he had merely stumbled backwards a few paces.
Lance spat out a tooth along with some blood, “Oh…. You're going to regret that.”
Lance lowered himself into a pouncing position and prepared to leap. Before he could get off the ground a glow of yellow magic surrounded him and she heard Flint speak up.
“ENOUGH!” He strode across the sand pit towards the two of them. “Lance go see Patches and get that fixed up. Dawn you’re in charge here until I get back.” He then turned and stared down at Applebloom. “You… you’re coming with me.”
With that Applebloom felt his magic encase her and she was lifted slightly off the ground, they headed towards one of the doors on the wall and Flint opened it and they passed through it.
When they had passed through she felt his magic release her and she fell to the ground. They were in a room with cells along the walls in the middle of the room was a wooden table, it had leather straps that looked as if they were for binding a pony down. Next to the table were a series of sharp knives and other instruments she didn’t think she wanted to know were for.
Flint turned to look at her, she was surprised to see that instead of a furious expression he wore a smile, “That… was fantastic.”
Applebloom looked up at him surprised, “What?”
“Oh you do not know how much I have wanted to lay that guy out, and seeing you land that hit.” Flint smiled as he remember the incident.
Applebloom again looked at him stunned, “You're not angry?”
“Not in the slightest…. “ His happy expression faded, “however, I cant let you off without punishment.”
Appleblom felt fear seep back into her mind, looking back towards the chair.
“You heard the lieutenant, im sorry, but you’re going to get hole time.” Flint walked over to the back of the room where a wooden frame with a tarp wrapped around it was lying on the floor.
Gripping the wooden frame in his magic, Flint raised it off the ground. When he had lifted it Applebloom got a look at what it had been covering. There in the floor was a black hole. Applebloom walked over and stared down into the blackness.
“Listen,” Flint began. “If it were Lance in charge you would be down here for a whole week, but lucky for you im in charge so you’ll be let out in two days. Not all of us are as heartless and evil as Lance. He wasn’t always that bad but this place has a way of twisting your soul.”
He paused and then, with his magic levitated a rope over to where they were standing.
“Grab on to this.”
Applebloom just stared down the hole.
“Look either you grab the rope and get in the hole, or we both are in it for a week.”
Slowly Applebloom took the rope in her mouth and felt Flint’s magic once again wrap around her. She was lifted over the hole and then felt his magic release her, she dangled by the rope and felt herself slowly being lowered down into the blackness.
Applebloom felt her hooves hit the dirt and she released the rope. She looked up the hole and watched as the cover was placed back over the opening. She was alone in the dark.
Applebloom did not know how much time had past. She had spent the first hour slowly feeling around the inside of the hole. There was quite a large amount of space down inside it.
While the neck of the hole was directly in the center of the celing the floor was wide and open. She guessed she was probably twenty or twenty five feet below the ground.
After she had explored the hole, she felt herself become exhausted. She hadn’t slept the entire night and the fight had taken a lot out of her. She lowered herself to the floor and closed her eyes.
She heard a door slam, after closing her eyes she had fallen asleep. She couldn’t tell for how long, the darkness never changed.
She moved closer to the center of the hole and stopped when the sound became clearer, she must be standing directly under the hole. She could hear struggling and then she heard a voice. It was Lieutenant Check.
“Strap him in.”
She heard more struggling as somepony moved closer to the hole, she remembered the chair and assumed that’s what they were talking about.
“You two leave us, go get the commander. Tell him we found him.”
“yes sir!” she heard another voice respond. She heard hoofsteps and a door open and close. There was silence once more.
Applebloom strained her ears to hear what was happening above. She could hear somepony breathing very heavily.
The silence was interrupted by the door swinging open. She heard some pony walk in.
Then she heard it, the voice of the commander, she shrunk back at the sound.
“Ahhh, so you finally join us here mister….. Grey Scale is it?”
She then heard a voice that was neither the commanders or the lieutenants. The voice sounded strained and broken.
“F… Fuck you”
“Oh now Grey theres no need for such language… you know you wouldn’t be in this position if you never ran.”
There was silence again.
“Listen, all I want to know is why you were so far north… not many ponies venture up that way nowadays. I was unable to be there for your pick up… well because when we arrived at your house, you weren’t there. I had to teleport to Canterlot and request a impromptu meeting with Celestia herself."
There were hoofsteps as the commander walked around to another position in the room.
"Needless to say she was quite displeased with our failure but… she has a student who is quite adapt in magic. With her aid we were able to get a general location of your whereabouts. So I sent word to the guard that I had left behind to send two men after you and bring the rest with them.”
The commander paused again before continuing.
“So ill ask you again, what were you doing so far north.”
She heard a spitting noise followed by Grey’s voice, “You can’t make me talk.”
She heard the commander chuckle, “Grey my dear boy… we have no way of making you talk…. Screaming however.”
She heard a loud thunk as something, she assumed, connected with the wooden table. She heard Grey scream, it eventually faded into coughing.
“Heh… is that the best you can do?”
There was a pause before the commander spoke again.
“It really was silly of me to not send a pegasus guard on your capture, I did not estimate that my guards would be so… incompetent.”
There was a pause once again.
“Do you know how easy it would be to ensure you never flew again? It only takes two cuts… trust me I have done it before… But alas that would be a waste of such a talented flier as yourself. As my guards tell me you took out quite a few of them before they grounded you.”
The commander paused once again she heard hoofsteps once again and the commanders voice got louder.
“No…. removing your wings would be a waste… better to break you.” The commander laughed. “Ah yes! You grit your teeth and glare at me now, but in time you will break… they all do.”
She heard hoofsteps walk away from the hole and heard the door open. Once again the commanders voice echoed across the stone room.
“Check… remove his primary flight feathers, we don’t want him flying for a while. When you have finished toss him in the hole.”
“Yes sir!”
Applebloom heard the door close and heard hoofsteps once again. Lieutenant Check’s voice sounded down the hole.
“Hes right you know…” She heard the lieutenant grunt followed by more screams from Grey. “They all end up breaking.”
Another grunt and more screams from Grey.
“We once had a pony, massive stallion, you probably saw him on your way in.”
Grey let out another scream.
“He was rebelious, fought us every step of the way.”
Grey could no longer scream and let out a quiet gargling noise.
“But the commander persisted, and though he has become little more than a mindless oaf, he broke.”
The lieutenant let out another grunt.
“In the end he succmbed to the commanders will, as will you.”
Check let out another grunt, Grey did not scream this time however, he must have passed out.
“There we go, that should solve our little flying problem for a few weeks.”
Applebloom was blinded as the cover of the hole was lifted and light shone down on her. She heard straps being unbuckled and then what she assumed was Grey’s body was floating above the pit. Suddenly the magic holding him was released and he tumbled down the hole.
The pony landed with a heavy thud on the dirt floor, the cover was replaced.
Applebloom stared at where the body had landed, she had company.
Red took a step outside and pushed his blonde mane out of his face. The sky was filled with dark clouds. He didn’t know what it was about the weather pony in Ponyville, but she seemed to make it rain a lot.
His horn lit up and he reached out for the cloak he kept on the hook by the door. He draped it over his light blue body, he would need it if the rain started to fall.
He began his walk towards the outskirts of town, he was on business. Red wasn’t sure what to call his line of work, some called him a theif, others a stalker. He didn’t mind the names though, it paid good and as far as he could tell no one else was as good as him.
Long ago he had been in Celestias school for gifted unicorns. Dwarfed in skill by another purple pupil, Red soon gave up on the idea of becoming affluent in all magics. He instead focused on a subclass of magic people knew very little about.
Essence, Red seemed to be able to feel everyones essence at a very young age. It wasn’t common knowledge that every pony, no matter earth, pegasi, or unicorn, carried a magical signature uniqe to themselves. But Red, Red knew about these since the day he first used magic.
He had discovered it when he had been separated from his mother at a summer sun celebration in Canterlot. He could feel however her essence lingering in the air. Concentrating on the feeling and the essence he was able to follow the trail she had left behind and find her.
His Cutie Mark had also appeared that day. It was a black sillouete of the front half of a pony, the rear end was dissipating into a cloud of multiple colors.
When Red had decided to leave the Gifted Unicorns school he had focused on this feeling, he soon found that he could pick out and follow traces of not only people but objects too. This lead him to open up his own service as a procurer of items or information.
As he continued to walk down the street he paid no notice to the dirty looks the other ponies gave him. He didn’t blame them when your work was in subterfuge and deceit it was hard to make friends. It didn’t matter that most of them had requested his services at one time or another.
Today however he was on a mission, he had recived a very strange request in from of a letter. Attached to the letter was a large pouch of bits, it was more than he had seen in his entire career. The note however was a simple one.
“Meet me at the edge of the Everfree Forest, 10 AM tomorrow. We will talk there. Consider this payment as a incentive.”
There was no signature. However Red was stallion of money, and if more bits were involved he would be there. He trudged past the square where a Pink pony was bouncing around, he had been given a job once to try and track her down and figure out the source of her implausable energy. He had only ended up with a headache.
He stopped and stared up at clock in the town square. It was still very early in the morning, only Seven. He decided he could get himself a coffee. Trudging past the Pink pony he made his way into Sugar Cube corner.
Mr. Cake was the one behind the counter when he walked in. Red trotted up to the counter.
“Hey Red what brings you here?” Mr. Cake asked nervously.
Mr. Cake always acted nervous around him. Red figured it must be because he thought Mrs. Cake was having Red spy on him.
“Relax Cake im just here for a coffee, make it black please.”
“You got it.”
Mr. Cake turned and walked into the back, leaving Red alone, or at least so he thought.
“You know I never understood why ponies say make it black, coffee is more of a dark dark dark dark brown!” a loud cheery voice sounded.
Red slowly closed his eyes. He had hoped the pink pony would have stayed outside a bit longer, at least until he had finished his coffee. Slowly he opened his eyes as he turned to face her.
“Pinkie.” He said acknowledging her presence.
She stared at him smile plastered on her face, before slowly studing him she took on a more serious expression. She leaned in close.
“Ohhhhhh I get it, your under cover, got it boss.”
“No… im not im just here for my coffee.” He said closing his eyes once more. He heard a shout from Mr. Cake and his eyes snapped open, Pinkie was once again standing before him with a steaming coffee mug in hand.
“You mean this coffee!”
Red looked back and forth between the coffee and her, he could feel a headache coming on.
“Yeahhh… that’s the one” He slowly lifted the mug off her hoof and trotted over to a table in the corner.
“It was nice to see you Red!!” she sang from behind him.
He sat enjoying his coffee for a while, Pinkie had dissapeared into the back and Mr. Cake had come back to the front, he was staring with a bewildered expression at Pinkie in the back.
Red thought back to when he was asked to investigate the pink pony. He was amazed to find that her essence was everywhere.
He could only hypothesize that Pinkie was everywhere, all the time, however she could only be visible in one place at one time. Each new moment she could be in an infinite possible amount of places. So theoretically she could at one moment be before you and the next be miles away. It really did hurt his brain.
He shook the thoughts from his head and turned back to his coffee. The morning passed and he spent the first hour just enjoying the silence, a silence that was interrupted by a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane. This was the local weather pegasus Rainbow Dash.
She spoke in her tomboyish voice, “Hey Mr. Cake is pinkie here?”
Mr. Cake opened his mouth to respond. Pinkie Pie came out of it.
“Here I am!!!”
Rainbow Dash took a few steps back before regaining her composure. Mr. Cake on the other hand slowly raised a bottle of hard cider to his mouth as he retreated into the kitchen. Red could hear him mumble something about it being ‘to early for this.’
“Hey Pinkie, The girls are going to visit AJ in the hospital today, they wanted me to swing by and tell you.”
“Omygosh! She woke up!?! This means we can have a-“
Rainbow Dash put a hoof in Pinkies mouth, “No, no parties. She just woke today and shes not feeling a hundered percent. We just need to be there to… let her know what happened and all.”
Pinkie Pie nodded, the permanent smile that usually clung to her face dropped away for a moment. It returned however in just a few moments.
“Ok! ill be sure to be there!”
“Alright sounds good Pinkie, well I gotta go get this rain storm started. Seems nopony can get things going without me… shoulda been raining hours ago.”
With that the Cyan pegasus bolted out the door, Red watched her leave. He had heard about the fire, it was terrible news, Sweet Apple Acres was the only provider of apples within a hundered miles.
Red sighed and got up from his booth. He decided to get a start on his walk before the rain actually did start to fall. Trotting out the door he wrapped his cloak around himself and pulled the hood up. He cast a glance up at the clock, it was eight thirty, he had time to spare.
He totted down the cobblestone path that lead towards the outskirts of town. When he reached the part where the stones turned to dirt he could feel the first drops of rain start to fall. Looking up he could see a group of pegasus moving from cloud to cloud giving them punches and kicks to start the fall of rain.
He quickened his pace as he continued down the road. In the distance a sign came to veiw on the side of the road. It was Sweet Apple Acres.
He had heard reports of the damage and even seen a picture in the newspaper. None of those did the horrific scene justice.
The fire apparently caused by a gass leak, had exploded a large section of the house leaving nothing but rubble, the rest had been burned down to the foundation. The fire had spread onto the grass from there and then to the trees the blackened ground was dead and lifeless.
He felt chills run up his spine as he walked past. It was an awful site to behold. The fire had apparently taken two lives a young filly and a older stallion. The last pony AJ as they had said back at Sugar Cube Corner had survived.
She was found under some debris unconcious, according to the papers she had been in a coma for almost three days. He could only imagine the how horible it would be to wake up to the news.
The forest was only a little ways past the blackend farm. Red wondered why there was even a path to the forest if it was so dangerous. Coming cose to the edge he sat down and waited, he stayed alert knowing that danger was just on the other side of the trees.
He sat in silence while the rain continued to fall. A few minutes passed before he thought he heard hoofsteps through the falling rain. It was coming from inside the forest.
He turned to look as suddenly the figure of a pony appeared from out of the forest. It was a large stallion he wore a hooded cloak like Red. His coat was a dark red color and his tail was orange but turned black at the end. His legs were wrapped in bandages.
Red looked up at the face under the hood, green eyes stared back at him from underneath. The pony then removed his hood and Red got a good look at him. Even though the stallion had a large burn across the right side of his face, and his right ear was missing. Red still knew who it was, for he had seen the pony in town selling apples before.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” was all he could manage to say.
Big Macintosh looked at him for a while before responding.
“Eeeyup.”
“I don’t understand, why are you out here? Why don’t you tell-“
“Listen Red I didn’t call you out here to ask questions”
Red closed his mouth and listened. Big Mac continued.
“I need your help… I need to find someone, no questions asked…. Don’t worry I didn’t lie theres more pay in it for you.”
Red thought about it for a moment. There was clearly something more to the fire on the farm. Otherwise why would Big Mac have stayed hidden, didn’t he know what this would do to his remaining sister? He looked at the stallion, they had never truly been friends but he could see there was pain in his eyes.
Red lifted his hoof and extended it to Macintosh, “Deal.”
Big Mac lifted a large hoof and they shook, After Big Mac walked past Red down the road away from the forest.
“Follow me,” he called back to Red.
Red turned and followed Mac down the road. They came to the gates of Sweet Apple Acres and Big Mac turned and walked through the gates.
Red stopped before the gate, the place looke even more ominous in the pouring rain. Hesitantly he stepped onto the blacken grass and continued to follow Big Mac.
Big Mac had walked up to the side of the burnt house and was standing before a large part of a fallen wall. He turned to Red and spoke.
“I’m gonna need you to lift this a little bit, once its high enough I can get under and lift.”
Red nodded and reached out with his magic, he had never been the strongest levitator so the corner of the wall rose slowly. Once it was a fair bit off the ground though he felt the load get easier.
He opened his eyes and saw Big Mac underneath the wall pushing against it. Sweet Celestia he must be strong, even with injuries like that.
When the wall had been lifted Red could see what it had been covering. There was a door in the ground, it must be a cellar. Red could only wonder why Big Mac needed to go down there.
The large stallion opened the door and trudged down into the cellar. Red waited up top not wanting to intrude on whatever Macintosh was doing. However soon Big Macs voice carried up out of the cellar.
“Red? You comin?”
Red walked over to the cellar and looked down, it was dark. Slowly he crept down the steep stairs. The cellar was damp and to his surprise there were no barrels of cider as he was expecting.
Instead there were boxes and odd assortments of objects and things. Big Mac was at the far end, he had lit a lantern and was looking inside an open chest.
He removed two pairs of saddle bags and started to place things into one, Red walked closer and sat nearby.
“What is all this stuff?” He asked.
Big Mac didn’t look up from the chest, “When we built a new cellar by the barn, we moved some things from the attic to here. This chest contains things from when our family first settled here, maps, documents, but that’s not why I needed to get in here.”
Big Mac was took the last of the large books in the trunk out and then reached down onto the bottom. He pulled out a long object wrapped in cloth, he placed this object carfully onto the ground at his hooves and reached back into the chest.
The next object he took out was a machette in a leather sheath, this he tossed over to Red. Red caught it in his magic and stared at it, the sheath had a strap on it that could allowed it to be situated on his back.
“You’re going to need that,” Big Mac said before reaching in and taking a hatchet out of the trunk. He then proceeded to put on a set of the saddlebags he had removed earlier.
The bags were different from the ones Red saw ponies normally wearing. There was only a bag on the right hand side. On the left there was a loop that Big Mac dropped the hatchet into.
On the top of the strap there was another loop that allowed him to slide the wrapped object into place diagonally across his back. After he had the bags on he began to sort through the books and papers on the floor putting some aside.
“Who exactly are we looking for?” Red asked, eyeing the machette once again.
Big Macintosh looked up from the papers, “Someone very important to me… look im not going to lie to you Red. It will get dangerous I can almost gaurentee it, I know we never really had much of a friendship or anything like that…. But I really need your help.”
Big Mac stood and walked over to one of the boxes on the wall he pried it open and lowered his head down into it. When he turned he had a large bag in his mouth, he lowered it to the floor in front of Red’s hooves.
“Money wont be a problem, I can pay you more when the job is done.”
Red looked down at the bag, it was large, he liked this. Danger wasn’t something he was very afraid of, his work usually put him in the line of fire of other ponies. He had had his fair share of death threats.
“I’m going to need something that belonged to the pony, to know which essence to track.”
Big Mac walked over to another one of the chest on the back wall. He opened it and Red could see that it was filled with random assorted fabrics, he removed a large pink ribbon.
He walked over to Red again and place it at his hooves, “will this do?”
“Yep, you got everything you need down here?”
“Give me just a moment… I’ll meet you outside.”
Big Mac handed the other saddle bag he had pulled out of the chest to Red. It was very similar to the one that Big Mac was wearing. Only the bag on the right side was empty, and there was no loop on the top of the strap where Big Mac had placed the covered object.
Red also slipped the machette over his head and was pleased when he saw it rested nicely on the left side of his body. He lifted the ribbon in his magic and began to trot towards the stairs out of the cellar.
He turned at the foot of the stairs and looked back towards Big Macintosh. The large stallion was staring down at one of the open books, he leaned over and removed a piece of paper from it and placed it in his bag.
Red turned and started up the stairs, he wasn’t a hundered percent sure that he knew what was going on here. The pay was good though, that’s what he kept telling himself. If the large stallion wanted to keep his goals a secret well then Red didn’t see the problem with that.
He sat waiting on the blackened ground for Big Mac. Finally he heard heavy hoofsteps as the stallion emerged from the door in the ground. The stallion now had small metal boxes strapped into loops on the left side of his saddle bag strap.
“So you can find them just with that?” Big Mac asked looking down at the ribbon that was on the ground.
“Well this is just so I can get a read on which essence is theirs. Unlike regular residual magic from spells, essence lasts forever. So anypony that has ever been here has left a sort of invisible mark here.”
Red lifted the ribbon in his magic and closed his eyes.
“With this though. I can match the essence of the object with the ponies essence you want to find…”
With that Red concentrated on the ribbon feeling the familiar prickling across his skin as the magic seeped out of him into the air. Opening his eyes he looked up at the ribbon slowly he felt his vision start to fog.
He had heard the other magic students describe how he looked when preforming his magic. His eyes would frost over untill they became a solid white color. It wasn’t the impressive glowing white that some extremely powerful unicorns experienced when dealing with master level spells.
His spell would blind him, but at the same time he could see just fine, the world dissintigrated into wisps of color. He could see Big Macintosh’s form as a large red wispy form, a trail formed off of it down into the cellar.
If Red focused, the rest of the colors would dim, and only the Red of Big Mac would stay in his vision. He could see it extend back out of the cellar and off to the gate of the orchard. There was more all over the orchard but it was easy to tell which were the most recent seeing as he had the stallion beside him.
He turned his gaze to the ribbon he held in his magic, it gave off a soft yellow glow. He focused on the essence, it was a strong one, he often felt the feelings and senses he got from the essence could describe a pony to him without actually meeting him.
Where Big Mac’s essence had been strong and powerful, this one was alive, free it lashed out in all directions. He broadened his focus keeping the thought of the yellow essence in his mind.
Then he saw it, it was all over the orchard, trails of the yellow essence were everywhere. He concentrated harder, while essence never truly faded from a place, it did grow weaker over time.
Some of the yellow was faded and dull, others were still wisping about, then he saw it. It was still lashing about, it was next to the rubble of the house, he concentrated on it. Instantly he felt fear, shock, and horror seep into him from the yellow substance.
The essence lead off out of the orchard, when it reached the front of the house however it became placid and flat as if the pony leaving it behind had fallen asleep.
He was about to release the magic when he noticed something, there was a dark black essence that was surrounded by smaller grey ones. He focused in on this essence and pulled away almost instantly, the black filled him with fear, as though it were pure evil.
It was not all he noticed though, the black essence… it had been here before.
Red release the magic and felt his eyesight truly return to him. He looked towards Big Mac, what was he hiding.
Big Mac spoke when he noticed Red looking at him, “And?”
“I know where to go.”
“Where.”
“Last I can tell the pony was headed north.”
“Excellent,” Big Mac smiled slightly, it was the first time Red had seen his expression change this whole time. “Listen I want you to go into town and get some provisions. When you’re done meet me back down in the cellar.”
Big Mac, reached into his pouch and brought out a small bag of bits.
“Don’t worry this isnt part of your pay,” He said as he placed the bag of bits on the ground in front of Red.
Red lifted the bag in his magic and placed it in the pouch on his side. Turning to leave he heard Big Mac call to him.
“I’ll be waiting.”
He trotted out the gate to Sweet Apple Acres, he let his thoughts wander back to the black essence that he had felt a minute ago. The feeling he had gotten from it, he shuddered, there was definitely something more to this story that Big Mac wasn’t telling him.
What, had he gotten himself into.
Grey hadn’t moved. Applebloom had sat in the darkness of the hole for almost thirty minutes waiting for him to stir. She could hear his soft breathing coming from the exact place where his body had fallen.
Slowly getting to her hooves she crept to blackness where she last saw him. Her hoof bumped into another ponies, she stopped.
Grey didn’t make a noise, instead he continued to lie there unconcious. She reached a hoof out and found his body. She felt along feeling her hoof pass over a wing, the feathers were sticking out at random directions and a few of them were wet. She pulled back realizing that this was most likely blood.
Taking a deep breath she reached back towards him. She found his chest and gently gave him a shake.
He let out a moan. Applebloom sat down staring at the place where he was lying. She had meant to save his life, instead she made it worse. She felt tears well up in her eyes.
She quickly got a grip on herself, this was no time to break down. Reaching forward again she put her hooves under his front legs and began to drag him to a side wall of the hole.
He let out a soft moan again as she dragged him across the dirt, he was suprisingly light. When she felt her back legs hit the dirt wall she dragged him up to it and propped him up against it.
She shuffled back a few and sat down, staring at the blackness where Grey was now propped up.
She stared at the black space where he was, she had so many questions. She also had so many apologies she wanted to make, she couldn’t help but feel that his situation was partially her fault.
She waited.
It was impossible to tell how much time had passes when he stirred. It was hard to tell in a black hole. The first thing she heard was a shuffle of wings, the next was another moan.
“ohhhh fuck…” she heard him groan, his voice was almost as deep as Big Mac’s. Though it was nowhere near as rugged or rough sounding.
She heard him sigh, and waited for him to say something else. Then, remembering that they were encased in total blackness, she realized he probably thought he was alone down here.
She got to her hooves, and what happened next she didn’t see coming. Suddenly she found herself pinned to the ground underneath two hooves.
“Gotcha,” She heard Grey spit out. “Who the fuck are you and where am I?”
“A-Appleblom,” she managed to stammer out, “This is the hole, please don’t hurt me!”
She felt the pressure of the hooves lift up as Grey leaned back.
“You…. You’re the one that screamed….” He said quietly.
Applebloom didn’t know what to say, his voice had a hint of shock in it. There was silence between them for a moment, Applebloom was the first to break it.
“I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry…. I thought I was helping.”
It took a moment for Grey to respond.
“You did, if you hadn’t screamed they would have gotten the drop on me. I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I had if it weren’t for you…”
“But your wings… the-“
He let out a chuckle and she heard his wings shuffle again. She felt the pressure lift of her chest as she heard him sit back against the wall, “This? This is nothing, if you knew what I have been through… well you’d be laughing too.”
“And what have you been through?” Appleblom asked hesitantly curiosity getting the best of her.
“I… well….. I’d rather not burden you,” He said she could hear the strain in his voice.
“Oh… ok.” She found her self staring at the black place she assumed Grey was sitting. He didn’t seem to like talking that much, she noted after they had been sitting in silence for quite some time.
“So… where were you going?”
Once again it took a moment before Grey responded.
“I’m not so sure I want to tell you…”
“Oh come on, we’re down here in a hole…. No ones going to hear you.”
“Look… Applebloom, there are things that I would prefer to keep to myself you hear? Now can you please just drop it?”
“Ok ok….” She waited a few minutes, she couldn’t help herself and asked another question.
“Where are you from?”
“Nowhere.”
Applebloom sighed, he really wasn’t going to tell her anything.
Grey hearing her sigh spoke again, “No im serious, I have never had a real home… I mean, once when I was little.”
There was a short pause before he spoke again, when he did there was a great amount of sorrow in his voice.
“Things… things didn’t work out so well.”
Applebloom waited for him to continue, when he didn’t she decided to talk about herself.
“I don’t have a home anymore…” She looked towards the ground, a tear ran down her cheek.
“They took my family from me… they took my life,” She closed her eyes and let the pain in, she hadnt realized how long she had been keeping it out. She felt herself begin to cry.
Suddenly she felt a hoof on her shoulder, she heard Grey’s voice again, “these ponies… they will get what they deserve, im going to make sure of that.”
Applebloom sniffed and wiped her eyes, “How? I have been trying to think of a way out of this place since I got here.”
Grey’s hoof left her shoulder and she heard him stand up. She felt a prescence walk past her, she heard his hoofsteps retreat to where the center of the hole was.
He spoke as he walked, “Applebloom, if there is one thing that im good at. It’s surviving. Once we get out of this hole, you and I can work together to find a way out of this place.”
Applebloom turned to look in the direction of the voice, “you mean you’ll help?”
“Well only if you help me in return… once we get out of here, I need to head back north.”
“Why?” She asked once again.
There was silence. His response was slow and measured, as if he was thinking it through as he spoke, “Look, if we get out of here and escape… I will explain everything. But priority one for now is an escape plan.”
She heard him shuffle around on the ground for a moment.
“Ah! Here we go.” She heard him say pleased. “I think its about time we got some light down here.”
She heard him grunt and suddenly there was a small beam of light coming down through the hole in the dirt ceiling. She saw his shape move out of the light and something came down the hole and thunked on the ground.
She walked over to it and looked down at it in the dim light, it was a rock. She looked back up the hole, in the tarp there was now a small hole where Grey had thrown the rock.
“A little better no?” She heard his voice speak from beside her. She turned to look at him.
She could just barely make out his features in the dim light, he was a solid stone grey color, his spikey hair started out white and ended in black tips. His eyes were an electric blue, they seemed to look straight through her.
“Y-yeah.” She said.
He smiled at her, “So how did you end up down here?”
She frowned as she thought of Lance, “I bucked a guard in the face.”
“Really? A little filly like yourself...” She glared over at him and saw he was smirking.
“I’ll have you know I can take care of myself,” she stated.
“I don’t dobut that, the way you defended yourself a few minutes ago eliminated any thoughts that you were weak and helpless.” He chuckled.
Applebloom couldn’t help but smile just a little bit, it felt like she was talking with her friends back in Ponyville. Then she looked away from him and remembered where she was, her smile quickly left.
“So how long are we down here?” Grey asked her.
“I don’t know, I have no idea how long I’ve been in here for…. Flint said he would let me out in two days.”
“Im assuming I wont be joining you when you leave.” He said his expression dropping into a grimace.
“I really don’t know…”
Grey stood and spread his wings, turning his head he took a look at them in the dim light. “Damn they really messed me up…”
He lifted a wing closer to his mouth and began to shift the feathers back into position. He grimaced when he moved one that was covered in a large amount of blood.
Applebloom watched, she felt helpless watching him suffer. “Is there anything I can do?” She asked.
“Nah, they just removed the primaries. They would normally fall out when they are ready… but seeing as they wernt” He let out a groan as he moved more feathers back into place.
Applebloom sat in the middle of the small dim pillar of light and watched as he continued to fix his wings, “I’m really sorry… “
“Look Bloom, can I call you Bloom? It’s really no big deal.”
“How can you say that! Look at you!” She gestured to his bent and battered wings.
“Seriously I’-“
Suddenly light burst down the hole, Applebloom turned to look up the light blinding her for a moment.
“Hey Applebloom, its me Flint,” A head appeared over the side of the hole. “look im sending a rope down, you grab a hold and ill pull you up… ONLY you.”
A rope fell down the hole and landed next to her, she cast a glance over to Grey. His blue eyes peirced back at her through the dark where he was sitting.
“Go ahead ill be fine,” he said giving her a small smile. “Ill see you topside.”
Flint yelled down from above them, “Hey! Hurry it up down there.”
Applebloom turned to Grey again, “I know you told me to stop, but I really feel awful…”
She bent her head down and picked up the rope in her teeth, feeling it tighten she felt herself lifted off the floor. She cast a look towards Grey, he sat there watching her rise into the light. Before he passed out of her veiw he raised a hoof and gave a small wave.
Applebloom felt her hooves hit the solid ground above, Flint looked her up and donw.
“You good?” he asked her.
She looked up from the hole, she had been staring down into it for a while.
“Yeah… ill be fine.”
“Listen, it’s the last thing I wanted to do. But if I hadn’t I would have been the one down there with you…”
Applebloom nodded silently, Flint walked over to the door and opened it to the courtyard.
“Alright, well your group is over by the forge, you're on armor duty today.”
She glanced one more tim back at the hole, Flint had just lowered the tarp back over it. She then turned and trotted over to the door and walked out, Flint followed.
“The forge is outside the gate, take a right… oh and don’t run… I think you learned why your first night.”
Applebloom grimaced, the memory of the yellow stallion becoming fresh in her mind. She nodded and walked through the courtyard. She looked around, there were more ponies out walking around.
Most of them wore the full suits of armor that the guards wore. The metal was painted black with red trimmings. Some were off in a corner sparring, others shooting bows at the training dummies.
She made her way out of the gate and stood looking into the forest. Freedom was before her... she could almost hear the forest calling to her. She almost thought about making a run for it, she turned her head and immediately was glad she suppressed the thought.
Standing next to her was Oaf, the massive brown pony was looking out into the forest also. He was wearing the black armor, his helmet however was off it was hanging off the handle of his hammer.
He turned his head and stared down at her, again for just a breif moment his face was not the hard expressionless mask. Instead his eyes looked filled with fear, his face was an expression of great sadness.
Suddenly if becoming aware that she was staring at him the mask returned. He turned his body to the side and gestured down the wall of the fortress. Applebloom looked where he was pointing and saw a small open air tent with smoke billowing out of slits in the roof.
Underneath she could see Boomer, Stormbane, and Slate, along with the rest of her group. She looked up at Oaf, he nodded at her, She slowly began her walk down towards the group.
“Applebloom!” she heard Boomer squeak.
Stormbane looked up from a helmet that she was sharpening and smiled. Slate looked up from the billow he was pressing on and nodded at her.
Applebloom stood under the tent watching the ponies work. Oaf suddenly appeared next to her and strode by into the tent. He took his place in the middle of the action and grabbed a pair of tongs and removed a plate of metal from the coals.
Applebloom didn’t know what to do, she stood motionless where she had stopped. Oaf after striking the metal a few times replaced it back into the fire. Noticing Applebloom he pointed at her then to a grindstone next to Stormbane.
She trotted over and sat down at the machine, Stormbane handed her a helmet.
“So what happened to you?” She asked as Applebloom took the helmet.
“I got put in a hole, and before you ask its exactly what it sounds like.” She said.
“That’s it?” She asked skeptically.
“Well, I met another pony down there, his name is Grey.”
“Oh! Is he the guy they brought in all tied up?”
“I don’t know, they hurt him pretty badly then threw him in with me.”
“Was he a grey pegasus?”
“Yeah”
“Then that’s him, did you talk to him? Whats he like.”
Applebloom looked up from the helmet she had begun to sharpen on the grindstone. She stared at Oaf, he was paying no attention to their convorsation. He was busy once again pounding the metal into a new shape.
“I think he can help us…”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he’s definitely on our side, he told me he wants to get out of here.”
“Are you sure, the more people we have in on this the more likely someone will find out.”
“I trust him…”
“You barely know him!”
She stared at Stormbane skepticaly.
“I barely know you!”
Stormbane was silent for a little while.
“Fine where is he anyway? Didn’t he come out with you.”
“No they left him in the hole, “ She looked towards the ground and frowned, “I’m not sure how long he’s going to be down there.”
The two mares continued to grind the helmets in silence for a few moments. Applebloom thought about Grey, was Stormbane right? Would more ponies be risky? Grey had seemed so sure about himself though. No, she was sure she could trust him, Stormbane would like him, they just had to meet.
She turned her thought towards the helmet she was grinding. Her thoughts returning to the first night and how she had planned to take the place apart from the inside. It would be easy to break the helmet, it wouldn’t be that hard just put it the wrong way on the stone and the blade would be dulled in seconds.
Would it really be worth it though. She would most likely be punished and they would just re sharpen it. She looked over to stormbane who had finished with a helmet and was placing it on her head.
Applebloom stared at her, “Ummm what are you doing?”
“Trying it on, duhh.”
“Why?”
“Well I have to make sure it fits don’t I?”
“Wait you mean… this is our armor?”
Stormbane turned and laughed at her, “Yep, sorry they used my measurements for your armor. I think it will fit you ok though.”
Applebloom looked down at the helmet, the blades she had just been sharpening gleamed back at her.
“But why do we need armor… we haven’t even been trained yet!”
Suddenly Lance’s voice sounded from behind her, “Oh well you're going to need this for your training.”
Applebloom whipped around, Lance was standing at the edge of the tent smirking. One of his front right teeth was missing. Applebloom began to rise up from the seat she was on.
“Relax,” Lance said, “I’m not hear to kick your ass… ill leave that to the bugs.”
Applebloom narrowed her eyes at him.
“What do you mean?”
Lance smiled his crooked grin, “Well you see… recently a nearby changling hive has moved, when they leave the walls of their hives begin to dissolve. The fluid that is left behind is extremely volitle and when met with extreme friction or heat becomes… quite explosive.”
He trotted closer to the two mares sitting at the grinding stones.
“Well you see, we use this fluid to create explosives. And when the commander heard that a hive had been abandoned so close and so recently he immediately requested we retrieve the substance.”
He was very close to Applebloom and she could smell his rotten breath on her face.
“But you see… volunteer squads were hard to come by, so I offered up the idea of sending the new recruits. It would be a valuable training exercise and if any of you died…. Well It wouldn’t be that big of a loss.”
He lifted a hoof and gave her a shove laughing.
Suddenly Lance was stumbling backwards, Oaf had come out of nowhere and was standing in between Lance and Applebloom. Oaf raised one massive hoof and gave lance a shove, he tumbled backwards and fell on his back.
Stumbling to his hooves he gave Oaf a glare, the massive pony stared back menacingly. Lance turned his gaze to Applebloom and smiled once again.
“Good luck on your mission recruit,” he turned to walk away. “You're going to need it.”
As Lance retreated into the distance, Oaf slowly turned and walked back to the center of the tent. He resumed pounding on the metal. Applebloom stared at him for a moment before turning her gaze down into the helmet in her hooves.
The empty eye holes stared back at her. She looked over at Stormbane who had removed the helmet from her head and had returned to sharpening the blades.
Slate walked over to the two of them, “hes not serious was he?”
Suddenly Flints voice was heard over the pounding of metal. The ponies once again turned to look, Flint was walking towards them fully suited up in his armor.
“Oh he was serious allright, Oaf we have a new pony that needs a set of armor.” Flint walked over to the center of the tent and removed a piece of parchment from a bag on his side. “Make sure its ready by tomorrow.”
Flint turned to look at the rest of the ponies in the tent, “Alright everypony listen up, your group has been assigned the task of retrieving a highly volitle substance from an abandoned hive.”
He paused for just a moment taking in there frightened expressions. Lowering his voice he continued in a more casual manner.
“Look Lance was just trying spook you guys. The scouts have already confirmed that it is abandoned so no worries. And besdides myself and Oaf are going to be accompanying your group, seeing we need the big guy to pull the cart.”
Applebloom turned to look at the large brown pony who was still flattening metal with a hammer. She wasn’t sure having him with them made her more comfortable. Flint continued, returning to his commanding voice.
“Alright, I want you all do be suited up and ready by dawn tomorrow. Is that understood!”
The group of ponies nodded. Flint turned and walked back towards the gate.
Boomer trotted over to where the three ponies were standing.
“Oh my goodness,” She squeaked out. “This sounds awfully dangerous.”
Applebloom looked over at Oaf who was bending a piece of metal in his hooves. Going out into the forest with a massive emotionally unstable pony? Dangerous? Boomer had no idea.