Changing the future

Storm made his way towards the hiding spots of the others he thought of what he had seen. 'Applebloom? How could innocent little Applebloom do that?' He thought to himself almost colliding with a stationary Pegasus. Storm stumbled back grimacing from the pain of his dead leg. He opened his eyes and looked at the Pegasus, he jumped back and promptly feel over. Storm was staring Nightmare moon right in the eyes, no, no it wasn't her it was Derpy, Derpy looking down at him in concern.

"Storm, are you alright?" Derpy asked before seeing what was left of his leg, "What did you do to your hoof?". Storm remember what had become of his leg, he jumped up and shouted "BUCK". Derpy looked at him, with her slightly crossed eyes, with a look of concern. "Storm what happened?" Derpy asked again as she helped him to where the others where waiting.

"It's nothing Derpy, I'm ok, really it's fine" Storm replied, wincing as the exposed nerves brushed against the grass. Derpy glared at him, "It's not nothing, look at yourself your a mess" she nodded to his leg. Storm bit back a reply, he did not want to tell her what had happened to her old friend, but he knew it was not right to keep secrets from her. "Derpy... I.. I saw" "Storm! What the hay happened?" said Spike, coming out from behind a statue of an old Stallion with a flowing beard.

Storm was glad for the interruption even if it was from his time with Derpy. "Nothing's wrong with it Spike it's just broken". "Broken? Look at it Storm your missing your hoof" Spike replied. Storm looked at his leg and noticed that Spike was right, apart from having his leg turned into a mess up to his knee, his hoof was cut off from the ankle. 'For the love of Celestria some pony put me out of my misery'.

Zacora bandaged up Storm ruined leg, she tutted as she worked think to herself about how long it would be before she had to perform a funeral for this pony. Storm stretched his leg when Zacora was finished. They started towards the castle again, they opened the large wooden doors. They noise of the opening doors in the silents of the night was almost deafening.

The main hall was completely deserted. They group made there way through the desolate hall. 'Some pony should really clean this place up' Derpy thought to herself as she looked around. The curtains had been torn down, so that the room could be bathed with the eternal light of the moon. Vines had started to grow up and down the support pillars, giving of an old ruin look.

Nothing stirred as they made their way down corridor after corridor. They where looking for some sign of unicorn inhabitants, but there was nothing, not a single thing. Their mission appeared to have failed, all their work, their risk and sacrifices. Storm wrestled with the fact that he had lead them here, here to where their enemy's may be laying in wait. A idea hit Storm with the force of a train.

There was still two unicorns living here, but where?. Another thought hit Storm, if they where to look for these unicorns it would involve him telling the others about what had happened to their friends. He stopped, the others looked at him. "Storm, you OK?" asked Spike looking around nervously. "No Spike, no I'm not" Storm replied taking in a breath "there's something I have to tell all of you".

The door into Celestia's room was thrown open, two ponies walked in and deposited a third on an operation table. Applebloom entered and ordered her "pets" to patrol the castle.

She set about removing Rainbow dashes chest. Almost all of the gears where damaged and covered in blood. Applebloom wiped away what was left of the smashed tube that had been used as a mock heart.

She reached into Dashes corpse and felt around for any loose gears or springs. Her hoof brushed against something soft and wet. She scooped the strange object out into the dull light, that's was produced by flickering torches. She set her find down for closer examination.

"A hoof?" Applebloom exclaimed out loud. A sense of familiarity washed over her. A darkness clawed itself to the front of her mind. 'You know who this belongs to, don't you" the darkness hissed, almost excitedly. "Y..yes master" she replied shacking at the darkness's happiness. The darkness felt her fear, it used the opportunity to creep through the rest of her body. It slid over her muscles and seeped into her veins.

Applebloom began to spasm rapidly, she tried to breath. Her mouth would not respond, she head began to spin and her surroundings went dark. The darkness raced through It's slaves body searching for memories or hints of how she knew this stallion who had slipped through his grasp. It found a sliver of memory, it was only a small part but it was enough.

The memory was of an apple farm. The farm was in ruins, all the apple trees where bent and gnarled. The grounds was dried and cracked,  two ponies stood staring at a patch of muddy earth. Applebloom was there next to an elderly green pony. "What's this my little flower?" the Darkness asked, Applebloom whimpered back "It's Big Mackintosh's funeral".

The Darkness continued to watch the more for a few more moments before moving on.

It moved on to a second memory. This one was set in the Apple orchard, before it was dead. Applebloom was sitting under a tree looking out at a rising sun. An orange mare came and sat beside her, Applebloom moved closer to her sister. The darkness spat at the pair, as they hugged. "Love?" it hissed at Applebloom "What love did you show your sister when you tortured her", it started laughing as Applebloom stammered for an explanation.