*** Chapter 2 ***

Applejack turned furiously in her bed, a pain-stricken visage hinting to what lay in the depths of her mind. Her brow glistened with sweat and she was breathing heavily, the frown on her face twitching erratically. In her dream, she could hear the echoes of somepony screaming.

"Rainbow Dash..." she moaned quietly.

Her eyes shot open immediately, and she could see only black around her and her bed. She rolled out of it, and landed on something solid in the darkness. A quiet, yet firm stallion's voice rang in her ears, seeming to come from every direction.

"Applejack. I need your help." it said, almost pleading. Applejack jumped, and looked around frantically to find the source. Unable to see anything but black, she shut her eyes tightly and shook her head.

"Must be havin' one o' them 'lucid dreams' Twilight mentioned once," she muttered. "It'll go away soon, I guess."

"No, Applejack, it will not. And this is not a dream, so-to-speak. This is a vision, something I want- no, need- you to see." it called out, more serious than before.

"I'm not so sure about that... Who are you, and why am I here?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"You are here because your friends cannot be. Not even the Elements can help..." the voice seemed saddened, which only annoyed Applejack more, not having answered her first question. "Only you are able to help me save Equestria now."

"I still don't know who you are!" she yelled. She flinched when she heard quiet echoes of her voice. What's going on here? she thought.

"I know why the disappearances have been occuring as of late, Applejack. It's the same reason your rainbow-maned friend is no longer with us."

Applejack drew in a sharp gasp and froze. The disappearances...and Rainbow Dash? She furrowed her brow.

"Yes, your beloved Rainbow Dash. Such a pretty one, too, I've heard." The voice seemed to mock her now, only making her furious.

"Ya still haven't answered my question," she spat. "Tell me who you are. Now."

"My name..." the voice called out, sounding slightly nostalgic, like it almost missed using its own name.

"My name is Mortal Coil. I'm speaking to you now because the recent disappearances are not just coincident. Every single pony who has disappeared in Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville has become victim to a group of murdererous ponies." The voice paused, and Applejack felt a chill travel up her neck, as if somepony were breathing on it. Suddenly, the voice dropped to a whisper, and spoke into her left ear. "All of which are connected to you."

Applejack couldn't believe what she had heard. Murderous ponies? That was just something out of the scary stories she'd heard as a foal. Nopony in their right mind would ever even attempt to kill in Equestria. Well, there were still ponies not in their right minds...

She shook her head in confusion. "Connected to me? H-how?" She asked, her voice laced with fear.

The voice said nothing for a moment, as if in thought. After what seemed to be an eternity, it spoke.

"I... I will show you. It is for the best. "

"Show me?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I will even allow you to see your precious pegasus' last moments." The voice's mocking tone resumed, ending in a bitter chuckle.

Hearing this, Applejack stepped backwards. "No... No, I can't watch that!" she whispered, her voice quickly rising to a shriek. "I'm not going to watch her die! I won't! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

Before the voice could speak to her again, she quickly turned around and sprinted into the absolute darkness. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew she had to run away. Run away, just like she had been for months. Run away from the truth. Run away from the despair that her forbidden love was taken from her without so much as a chance for goodbyes. Her legs burned horribly as her bed grew smaller and smaller out of sight, but she ran as if her life depended on it. She almost thought it would.

Suddenly, a loud rumble thundered in the darkness. It shook the ground she ran on, shook her down to her very core, and soon she was stumbing over her own hooves until she was unable to stand up. As it grew louder, almost deafening, Applejack felt an intense pressure on her whole body, almost crushing her to whatever it was she was standing on. As she collapsed, the darkness began to redden, first as the color of blood, then into a blindingly vibrant red, making Applejack stop and cover her eyes. She heard a loud scream, one she recognized as Rainbow Dash's voice. Suddenly, everything turned became deathly silent, and Applejack was violently ripped from her dream.

***************

Applejack sat straight up in her bed, panting heavily and drenched with sweat. She looked outside her window to see the light of Luna's moon sneaking past some scattering clouds. Shivering, she curled up into a ball and shut her eyes tightly, hoping that she hadn't made any noise in her sleep to wake the other ponies in the house. The lack of hoofsteps approaching her door told her it was safe, and she sat up, her heart pounding. She tried forming a thought, but her ears were ringing too loudly for her to concentrate. Exhausted, she slid from her covers, silently opened her bedroom door, and slunk downstairs.

"Maybe a drink will help me clear mah head, " she muttered quietly, rubbing her sore eyes. She trotted towards the kitchen and gently retrieved a glass of tapwater from the sink. As she reached for it, she jumped as she saw something move out of the corner of her vision, quickly dissolving into the darkness of the house. She paused, and then thought the better of it. I'm still panicked from that dream, she thought, reassuring herself. I'll be fine.

While taking a hesitant sip from her glass, she turned her head towards the direction she saw the silhouette move, and instantly regretted the action. She froze to the spot as she looked into the eyes of somepony stepping towards her in the light of the kitchen window. It was a faded crimson unicorn, with a shaggy black mane. He appeared harmless at first, but when she looked into his misty gray eyes, she had to fight the urge to scream in terror. She couldn't understand what it was about him, but looking into them made her feel like she was staring into the largest hole imaginable, a hole so massive nothing could hope to escape from its dark clutches. They looked so lifeless she might have thought he was blind, were he not looking right at her. He stepped forward to her, and smiled as if he had just seen a long lost friend.

"Applejack," he said quietly, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "When are you going to realize that this isn't a dream anymore?" At that moment, Applejack slowly set her glass in the sink and began to back away. Her thoughts were a blur beween utter panic and strange curiosity.

"How did you know what I was thinkin'?" she choked out, the words put forth with much effort.

The stallion turned to the side, allowing her a glimpse of his flank. She saw that his cutie mark appeared to be a faceless pony head, but with a third eye in the center of its forehead. The head was also circled by several squiggly black lines that appeared ritualistic. She looked back into his eyes, which were focused somewhere outside the window.

"It's my talent, you could say." He chuckled bitterly, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. He frowned at her, making her flinch. What was it about him that scared her so much? Any other pony would have been bucked in the mouth, or would suffer the wrath of an awoken Big Macintosh. And yet, she felt like she needed to be alone with him, unbothered.

Still, she steeled her nerves for a moment and stepped towards him, matching his frown. "I don't know who the hay you think you are, but ya need to stop yer jokes and get out of here before I call my brother in." She grinned slightly. "Or, better yet, deal with you myself."

The unicorn sniffed, and narrowed his eyes. His horn glowed very softly, and he turned to her. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked mockingly.

In an instant, Applejack turned around and bucked him in his jaw hard enough to fracture his skull. That is, she would have, had she not been staring him in the face mid-kick and actually connecting with thin air. Stumbling, she backed away from him a few paces, startled. He opened his mouth to speak, but she charged at him quickly, intending to headbutt him in the chest. There was a small *whoosh* as he disappeared just before she connected, and she struggled to avoid running into the counter and knocking over the block of knives perched on it. She turned around, and saw the stallion behind her once again. He looked at her as a parent would a little filly who was having a tantrum: frustrated not out of anger, but out of pity.

"Are you quite finished?" he said nonchalantly. "I can keep doing this, but I know you're familiar with teleportation spells."

Applejack was already busy attempting to buck him a second time mid-sentence, but when she heard the sound of his spell being cast, she turned around without thinking and instinctively grabbed a large knife from the nearby block. In a blur, she closed her eyes and swung her head wildy. Her eyes shot wide open when she heard a sickening *shunk* instead of the knife slicing through thin air. She looked to her left of her head and saw the majority of the blade embedded in his left eye socket, blood pouring from the new hole. His mouth hung open, and his other eye looked dumbly towards the ceiling. She backpedaled away from him and the knife, allowing him to fall forward and send the rest of the knife into his head as he hit the ground. She felt her stomach turn in sickly knots as she watched the handle supporting his lifeless head become drenched in dark red which formed a large pool on the floor. Just as she began to fully realize the repercussions of her actions, she saw his body twitch. Once, twice, a third time. It spasmed slowly, and a small noise left his mouth. The twitching steadied quickly as the noise turned into breathing, and then into raspy laughter.

"Instinct. The least predictable element of a pony's mind." Applejack's mind reeled as the words escaped the unicorn's lips, and a horrified look spread across her face as his limbs slowly moved and lifted him up off of the ground. A soft red glow passed through his horn once more, spreading to the knife to silently remove it from his skull. The gouge in his eye had stopped flowing, and began to slowly repair itself, showing the same skill found in Equestria's best hospitals. He observed his blood on the knife solemnly, as if he might forgive the knife for its transgression. The look he then gave the transgressor, however, was full of malice and impatience. Applejack was left speechless and powerless as she watched the last of the misty orb return to its original state. She didn't move when he slowly turned towards her; she didn't scream when his magic removed all the knives from the block and pointed them all at her; she didn't breathe when he magically forced her to the ground and placed the tips of the knives to her throat.

"I will not tell you again, " he rumbled. "I need your help. You can choose not to help me, but only after I have shown you your full responsibilities." he stood over her, glaring at her down over his faded red snout. At that instant Applejack snapped. She shrieked uncontrollably, putting every bit of force in her toned body she could to try and escape his magical grip.

"BIG MAC! HELP! HELP ME!" The unicorn's ears perked up as he saw a much larger stallion start barrelling down the stairs at him, teeth bared and eyes full of protective rage. Quickly, he jumped out of the way and shot a bolt of electricity from his horn into Big Mac, who turned to charge again. He lost speed quickly, and struggled to get up after falling at the unicorns hooves. His struggling faded quickly, and Applejack's eyes welled up with tears as she saw him let out a powerful sigh of defeat.

"Big Mac!" She wailed. She vainly hoped that the others wouldn't have heard and come down, but she only cried harder when she noticed Big Macintosh had stopped moving. "BIG MACINTOSH!!!"

She turned her gaze from her brother lying on the ground to the unfazed unicorn, tears streaming from her eyes and body convulsing in full-on throbs. She gasped when she saw that his horn and eyes were glowing, much like her friend Twilight's during intense spells. As her vision became clouded with the same red she had experienced in her dream, she managed to scream out one final question.

"Who... WHAT ARE YOU!?!"

The unicorn stepped over to her and touched his horn to her forehead, a miserable look on his face. She could no longer see anything but red, and felt as if she were falling into a void. One last voice called out to her as trickles of black began to replace the redness.

"I am truly, very sorry. Sorry for what I have done to you, what has happened to you in the past few months, and most of all for the truth I am about to show you."

Author's Note

I had a sudden urge to write; don't expect me to publish these chapters so quickly!

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