My Baby Sister

It was a grey, desolate morning and the first in a long while Apple Bloom witnessed without curtains to obscure it. She’d been up early, though not as early as Applejack. Her sister slept shorter and shorter, her smiles got a more pained look to them as time went on. The mare didn’t notice it herself, but Apple Bloom did.

She gazed at the outside world and saw how much it’d changed. Ponyville looked like a ghost town, with the monsters all still asleep. No fire burned, no pony walked the streets. Empty houses and lonesome ruins in between. Above it all, clouds of a dark grey were carried forward by an unnatural, chaotic wind.

They were like a bandage, with the blood of the wound they sought to conceal seeping through. It looked like the gash on Applejack’s leg, but so much more worse. A bright shine, like the sun’s light tried to fight through the layers hiding it away. A red, horrible Tear in the middle of their beautiful sky. She heard it hum a ghostly melody and felt a fire start within her. It felt so warm, so welcoming, as if it wanted to goad her back to sleep.

Apple Bloom didn’t, though. Instead she looked as the clouds moved towards an unknown direction. She couldn’t follow them, but her eyes could follow the light. It went in what came close to a line, reaching all the way from one end of the horizon to the other. And the end she was looking at was where Canterlot stood. Sadly, it was obscured by the morning mists, or maybe luckily. The filly wasn’t quite so sure herself.

Twilight said that it all came from Canterlot. That’s why Princess Celestia and Luna were gone, but what had happened still eluded them and Twilight herself didn’t seem to care. Her mind was focused on one thing, though she did appear to meals more often now, to chat with Applejack.

Applejack, who’d grown into a more worrisome state as time progressed. They were running out of it and if there was one pony where it was especially visible, it had to be Apple Bloom’s sister. She clung to the bandana in the dark of the night, whispering words to herself. Apple Bloom had noticed after a while that they were song lyrics and then, that they belonged to the sky.

The flames would appear soon enough and then her sister would be gone. She felt a bitter taste in her mouth. Bile, blood and strawberries.

At least she didn’t have that much time left, either.

Behind her, Twilight quietly moved across the room, finishing some sort of ritual circle by carving runes into the wooden floor. Yesterday she’d asked Applejack and Spike to take all the books downstairs. Apple Bloom had slept between the works of a large variety of equestrian philosophers, which had been kind of nice. In a egghead sort of way.

It was all for a greater purpose, she knew. She turned around and looked at the one-eyed alicorn draw her lines, notepad floating by her side. Each movement with the knife was carefully articulated, of course it was. Twilight was a pony who knew many things, but the one thing where nopony could best her at was magic. This spell she was preparing would work, of that Apple Bloom had no doubt.

What she did doubt was that it would go smoothly.

Sometimes, when she turned around at the wrong time, she saw the wards outside flicker. Sometimes, when she looked at the wrong moment, she caught a glimpse of Spike nervously gazing outside, watching for strange movements. Sometimes, yes, only sometimes, but it was enough.

Time was flowing ever on. She and Applejack hadn’t spent all that much time here, yet it seemed like their journey might find a happier end than she originally thought. Surviving just from one day to the next would pay off. Wearing these stupid diapers, indulging her sister’s make believe, everything would pay off and they could return to their normal lives.

Apple Bloom stared at the symbols on the ground. They made no sense to her, of course, but they were her hope that she might soon get her body back in shape. Not just hers, Scoot’s and Sweetie’s, too. They’d all be together again.

Everypony would be fine.

She tasted blood and bile, needed to make a conscious effort to taste the strawberry taste the rubber left behind. It made her cautious, though she wanted to be optimistic. If her days as a Cutie Mark Crusader had taught her anything, then it was that nothing ever went according to plan.

“Twilight?” she asked.

“Hm?” came the lazy answer of a unicorn who wasn’t really listening to her babbling.

“What’ll this ritual do?”

“Save us.”

“But how?”

“You’ll see.”

The tip of the knife scratched the wood, the sound filling the air. The old wood of the library endured every cut with stoic indignation, if wood was able to feel anyhow. There would be no further elaboration, Apple Bloom understood. She looked down to the floor, wondering what would be.

Twilight looked up for one moment, continued on, sighed and then looked up again. “It’ll bring everything back. It’s all a bit complicated, Apple Bloom, but, it’ll work. Look me in the eyes.”

Apple Bloom looked at her. Her face was as much a victim to the rot as Apple Bloom’s own, though she kept the pacifier out more often than the filly did. The horrible cut, short mane didn’t do the once so diligent princess any favors either. Yet her confident smile should’ve at least inspired the filly to believe.

Two eyes, like amethysts, looked at Apple Bloom, they were cold, distant and dead. They weren’t the same eyes she remembered, the ones that always glimmered with curiosity, had a laughter of their own in them. They were eyes of a pony who didn’t care if she succeeded, a pony who’d given up long ago.

They were eyes she’d seen in a reflection of herself, somewhere far away, where she’d also seen golden scales and water shattering like glass.

“I’m going to save Equestria. No matter the cost.”

There the words were again. She’d heard them before, both out of Spike’s mouth and Twilight’s. They never sounded like a promise to the person they were talking to, however. No, they were a statement.

Large magic couldn’t come without a cost, after all. And without the Elements of Harmony, without the strength of the sun above, what was left to give the powers to save them all?

“Don’t,” she muttered half-heartedly.

Twilight probably didn’t hear her and just continued her work. She’ll sacrifice herself for all of us and I don’t even want to stop her, Apple Bloom thought, eyes transfixed on the old pony that had once only arrived in this town and walked right into an Apple Family Reunion.

She wouldn’t be there for reunions to come and she knew it. The detached, mechanical way Twilight’s arms moved, the off-hand glances at the notebook, she knew what she was going to do. Still, Apple Bloom wondered what she was thinking, what Spike was thinking?

Blood and bile, most of her teeth were gone and she knew that time was running thin. Should she try to talk to him, could she even do anything? The filly didn’t know and really wanted to leave it at that. To be so young that she couldn’t see the eyes, to be so young to be ignorant of what was the apparent truth.

The sky was humming a melody, and creatures of ash and hell’s flame came out of their houses, eyes looking at the Tear. Apple Bloom turned to look at them, how they howled and how they wept.

Her head hurt, she thought to remember a voice. “Help,” it said.

“Is it really so painful?” Apple Bloom wondered aloud.

The transformation was hell, she knew that, but how did they feel once it was done. She’d never gotten a good look at them, but now that she saw them, they hardly even looked like ponies, most of them anyways. They blackish-grey husks of ash and bone, kept alive with a fire that gleamed like it kept the deepest parts of Tartarus alit.

“I theorize that between stages four and five of the turning, all the nerves get b–I mean,” Twilight groaned as she thought about how to rephrase that. “Well, at a certain point they’re just happy, little, flamey ponies.”

“Which is why we should totally call them flameos!” Spike yelled from the kitchen.

Twilight groaned, Apple Bloom giggled slightly. That earned her a pair of rolling eyes and then everything went quiet again. Twilight was too busy to banter, as it seemed. This was important, Apple Bloom knew, but she kind of wanted to keep talking. Looking at the circle made her stomach turn.

How could Twilight look so detached when she worked on the very thing that would kill her? Was that what it meant to be the Princess of Friendship?

Apple Bloom could only wonder, because she was sure that asking questions would yield her no answers. Twilight hardly saw her as an equal, only ever talked to Applejack. So all the filly could do was look at them gather around the library.

What? she asked as she looked at how more and more ponies moved towards the library, forming a circle around it. “Twilight, I think we might have a problem.”

No answer came, only more scratching.

“Twilight?” Apple Bloom said again. “Spike? Sis? Anypony?”

Upon hearing her name Applejack immediately stormed to her sister’s side. “What’cha need?” she asked, hugging her sister in utter ignorance of any personal space, as always.

Yet Apple Bloom only stared at the ponies outside, feeling a shiver run down her spine. Their heads made them look like they stared at the library, though the absence of eyes made it hard to tell.

They kept their distance, but the wards flickered and would soon disappear.

“Don’t worry about it,” Twilight said coldly, lifting the knife into the air and staring at the dulled blade with a sigh. “I’m done.”

Apple Bloom and Applejack turned around. “Done with what?” the older one asked.

Spike looked out of the kitchen. “What’re you all on about? I’m making breakfast,” he said with annoyance dominating his tone.

Yet Twilight gave nothing but a shrug. “I said I’m done, so we skip breakfast today.”

“What do you mean, you’re done?” The dragon asked, looking at the ground. “Wait … You’re done? But I thought it’d take more time for the stars to align and–”

“The sky is a broken window, there’s literally no planets left that could align. So yes, I’m done with my part and you did yours over the last few months, too, right?” Twilight asked, annoyed.

She looked at Spike, drumming her hoof on the ground, a sign he noticed, so he gave a meek nod. Then he looked at Apple Bloom and Applejack. The look he gave them told Apple Bloom all she needed to know. Whatever this magic ritual would cost, he knew and thought they didn’t.

“Twilight?” Apple Bloom asked nervously, hoping to talk some sense into the alicorn.

“Applejack, I want to play a game,” the alicorn said, ignoring the filly. “Can you step on the large sun on the left and put Apple Bloom on the moon to the right of me?”

Twilight herself moved towards a star shaped symbol that was placed along the circle. It and the other stellar symbols were all covered with rune circles of their own, which were surrounded by even smaller circles. It looked a complicated affair, but Applejack picked up her sister ignoring that.

At least she did eye the circle suspiciously. “What’re you gonna do?”

Twilight smiled mischievously at her. “Step one is to summon a pegasus to my dear library. It’ll be a magic show that would give Trixie a run for her bits.”

Putting Apple Bloom on one symbol and then sitting down on the other, Applejack wondered what that meant. “So, you’re gonna show us somethin’ amazing then?”

Twilight’s smile lessened. “Yes,” she said, looking up at the ceiling.

Apple Bloom could feel a chill and turned to the window. There always was a faint light coming from the wards placed around the library, yet it was gone and she saw Them approaching. She felt the fire within her, the taste vanish in her mouth. Flame called to her and flesh would become ash soon enough. A voice was calling to her from the distance.

Spike stood at the side, unsure what to do. “Twilight, uhm.”

“I’m sorry, Spike, just get to the cellar, you’re safe there,” Twilight answered.

He nodded and went to the cellar door, opening it. There he hesitated and looked at Twilight again, a tear in his eye, but then he turned to look her straight in the eyes. His were green like smaragds.

“Apple Bloom,” he announced loudly.

“Y-yeah?”

“Don’t take this as an insult: I think you’re cute in that diaper, your mane looks really awesome without a bow and … I loved spending these last days with you.”

She nodded, Applejack looked from the dragon to her sister, unsure what was going on.

Knock

Apple Bloom saw her sister’s eyes widen as she heard the horrible, horrible noise, and she herself cowered as it echoed through the room. Not Twilight, though. As one door shut, she opened another, one in her mind and from within her, a light appeared.

She spread her wings, rotten and broken they were. A feather fell to the ground, but she didn’t care, instead the one-eyed alicorn closed her remaining eye and lifted her arms into the sky. An energy enveloped her, light the shades of blue and violet and golden, like specks of an ever changing sky.

“Apple Bloom, Applejack,” she said to them, opening her eye one last time. It glittered like gold and both earth ponies looked back at her. “I want you to know. All of this will be remembered once the sun rises again.”

And then, for a split-second, the circle went up in the sun’s light.

Apple Bloom closed her eyes immediately, feeling a flame wash over her with a might she had never known before. It was a searing blaze that felt like it turned her coat to char, but still it held a familiar warmth, like she was standing in Celestia’s presence.

And then she heard the explosion, the wild sound of wood being torn apart, the screeching of beasts torn apart, limb by limb. For but the briefest part of a second, Apple Bloom felt like she stood in the epicenter of an expanding sun, with a heat gnawing at her that was worse than any pain she’d felt until now.

She screamed against the blaze, but in all the chaos around her, it was a mere whisper in the wind.

And then Apple Bloom opened her eyes again. She found herself lying on the ground, the circle around her glowing. Magical chains extended from it, covering her body and weighing her down. They felt hot against her coat, which she found to be miraculously okay. So her eyes turned to Applejack, who was chained down in a similar manner, but still held her eyes closed, mumbling words to herself that Apple Bloom couldn’t hear.

So she turned to Twilight, who was floating and looked forward, eyes dead but determined. Apple Bloom wondered what she was looking at and then dared to turn her head again.

Around them, the library was a burning wreckage. No, Ponyville was. Every house was set ablaze and the ashes of the ponies that had come to the library scattered in the wind. Not only that, but the filly spotted lines of pure magic dragging across the ground, six of them total, and rays of light erupting and their ends.

Apple Bloom stared this magnificent sight, her jaw hurting, the pacifier lay on the ground before her.

“What is this?” she asked, blackened blood dripping from her mouth.

But Twilight ignored her, her eyes scanning the sky. Then she said the words, an eerie smile on her face, “there you are.”

Apple Bloom looked to the sky, where a rainbow trail mixed in with smoke and flame. The pegasus’ wings beat against the wind as she hurled herself towards the newfound prey. Twilight moved her hooves and her horn glowed with a strong light as she conjured up magic circles in the air, all around the one they stood by.

“Come on, come on,” Twilight muttered, her eye reddening and blood dripping from her nose.

And then Rainbow Dash was before her, fast as a rocket, jaws stretched out, ready to take a bit, suddenly she wasn’t even a single meter away from Twilight. Yet she wasn’t fast enough, as suddenly, a force grabbed hold onto her and smacked her against the ground in the middle of the main circle.

Twilight immediately clapped her hooves together and the magic lit up again. Apple Bloom could feel it in the air, how the heat gathered. She knew what Twilight wanted to do and all she could was stare at her and ask: “Why?”

The alicorn mumbled a few words and with a flash, a small vial appeared before her, filled with ash.

“It’s complicated,” she said, “but Rainbow Dash was special amongst Them. For the longest of times, she came to my door, begging for help, screaming my name. Nopony else did that. There was always a part remaining in her.”

“Twilight. …” The beast begged, looking up from the ground, its wings shattering under the pressure of the alicorn’s magic.

“Yeah,” Twilight answered bluntly. “Loyalty, I guess, but that’s not Rainbow Dash anymore. A part is, her essence is still there. With the sky in ruins, Princess Celestia gone, though, it can still be of use.”

Now she turned to Apple Bloom. “I don’t expect you to understand,” she open vial and let the ashes spill out. “But this is the essence of a unicorn. When I burned her, I made the decision to save everypony else, no matter the cost. Which I will. In a moment, you, Dashie here, and Applejack will all turn to ashes to and with the power I took from everypony else, I can become more than an alicorn. I can become a god.”

Apple Bloom stared at her, as Twilight just smiled back with an expression of what Apple Bloom presumed to be complete insanity. “This is stupid!” the filly cried, tears in her eyes. “We’re your friends.”

“Yes and this is why you will be remembered. I will make sure a new Equestria rises from the ashes of this one and all that survive will build it on the foundations we laid out.”

Twilight took a breath, spreading her arms again, the sun’s light flowing from her, coating her in a resplendent aura. “This is the end now, Apple Bloom. I will always remember your sacrifice today, know that and. …”

She clapped her hands together.

“Sleep well.”

The flames broke forth, Apple Bloom closed her eyes.