My Baby Sister

She felt her nose hurting and blood dripped from it onto Applejack’s cheek. Yet the elder pony didn’t seem to notice, she simply stared into the nothingness above her. Apple Bloom looked into her eyes and she could see the same as during the first days.

The horrible, horrible emptiness, as if all hope had gone away. Above them, the beast knocked against the trap door, maybe to check, maybe it was just a remnant of the pony it had once been. Either way, once it decided to come down here, it was all over.

“Come on,” she whispered into Applejack’s ear.

Moving, however, came harder to her than she first thought it would. The moment she steadied herself on the ground and attempted to get off her sister’s chest, the pain started to surge through her body. It was a sensation most familiar, yet the way it bit into her nerves, the way it made her appendages feel like they broke apart under her own weight, it was also the worst.

Apple Bloom almost fell over, almost cried out. Almost, but she bit on her lip, feeling both its rot and that of her teeth pressing against each other. For a moment her entire world was just pain and still she didn’t cry.

Her eyes were fixed on her sister. I’m all she’s got, the filly told herself.

She needed to be much braver than she was.

Once more she leaned against her sister’s ear and whispered: “C’mon, we need ta hide.”

Her voice was hoarse, her throat burnt, with each second more.

Knock!

Her eyes turned up, she felt her heart pressing against her chest and for a moment she wondered who’d come knocking. Had Scootaloo risen from the well, consumed by the ungodly flames? Was it Big Macintosh or Granny? Would the end come by the hooves of any of them?

Knock!

The pain was becoming unbearable, her tongue felt like it’d been dipped in burning oil, turning the rest of her mouth to ash. Tears were falling down from her face.

Really, dying in a onesie just seemed like the fucking icing on the cake.

Knock!

The knock came and went and Apple Bloom just stared at the trap door above them, waiting for what she thought inevitable. She saw the fire, how it seemed to ignore the wood. Any normal flame would’ve already burnt it away.

Don’t give up, she told herself, despite herself. Her memories went to a filly named Sweetie Belle, to Scoots and their crusading days. She thought of the one-eyed alicorn who had told her that she needed to be strong.

And yet everything hurt and they were going to die.

Apple Bloom scanned the ground and found her pacifier a bit away from her. A few steps only, a distance she could manage, even if her legs would give up beforehand. She looked at Applejack, who still only stared at the door.

She’s gone farther than I thought, Apple Bloom thought and silently muttered a curse as she took the first step towards her pacifier.

Knock!

Yeah, yeah, she thought as she took the second step, her leg slipping.

Once more she fell to the ground. Had she not fallen so many times before and would her entire body not feel like it was being torn apart, she might’ve even made a sound. But the beast knocked in hopes of hearing something in return. Apple Bloom would not give it any noise. It should go away.

She felt something fall on her back, dust, maybe ash. The beast’s blaze finally ate through the wood. Apple Bloom needed to move quick and so she crawled forward.

Around them stood the same barrels that had remained here since their parents demise, Applejack had told her. The smell of cider lingered in the air, Apple Bloom figured it was mixed with the stink of rot and filth, both of which she was probably too accustomed to now.

Before she could get any more selfindugent about that she finally reached for her binky and stuffed into her mouth without even cleaning it beforehand. There were more important things to worry about than hygiene.

Then, for a brief moment, she just suckled away. The taste of strawberry almost washed the pain away, if only the one in her mouth and throat. It was the worst anyway and it was enough for her to regain her focus.

Once more did she look up and once more the noise came.

Knock!

Yet Apple Bloom decided to not give up now, she needed to be brave, she needed to survive. She and her big sister, who laid there on her back, with ashes trickling down on her face.

Apple Bloom tried to get up, tried to move quickly, only to stumble and fall down again.

Dammit! She cursed, but at least the pacifier stayed in this time.

Just as she rose up again, there came another loud bang as suddenly the wood above them shattered into thousand little pieces that fell together with fire and smoke. Apple Bloom immediately put her hooves over head, shielding herself from the worst of the blast. She nevertheless felt the burning heat against her back, and felt the pieces falling down on her.

She didn’t wait, however, and immediately looked up. Around them, dust rose and a green tinge of light clung to the dark. Above them was still a roof, no sign of the sky and the Tear.

Don’t get distracted, Apple Bloom thought, Be strong. For Applejack. All for Applejack.

Her eyes lingered on where her sister lay and in the dust she could make out a silhouette.

“Thith?” She asked, her voice both shaky and obscured by her own suckling.

Then she saw how the silhouette spread its wings and with a beat cleared away the dust. She closed her eyes as the warm gust went over her coat, but opened them immediately after to a sight she didn’t want to admit to be true.

Tall, slender, but lacking the usual grace that came with being one of the best fliers in the whole world. Instead, the cyan figure stared down at the ground like a hungry wolf that caught sight of wounded prey. Where her eyes’d been there now was only fire. Cracks ran over her body, glowing from an inner fire that had consumed her.

“Rainbow Dash?” Apple Bloom heard a voice and looked down.

Applejack still lay there, right beneath Rainbow Dash and both were looking at each other. The pegasus might’ve seen only food, but Applejack’s eyes showed that she only saw a good friend who’d come for a surprise visit.

”Protect Applejack,” Twilight had told her, the bandage over the lost eye soaked with blood, the remaining one still alive and filled with confidence.

What madness befell her, she didn’t know, but suddenly she was launching herself forward. The monster that once was Rainbow Dash didn’t notice her, instead opened its mouth, flames rising from inside it.

Apple Bloom smashed against the horrible thing with all her might. She felt the unnatural heat press against her, heard what she almost mistook for a surprised gasp and worst of all, she almost felt her paci fall out again.

She needed to make sure that bloody thing was better secured.

The monster crashed against one of the barrels, but Apple Bloom felt no need to check how much damage it’d taken. She was a filly who was barely able to stand, there was really no need to see how little effect her tackle had.

Instead she focused on Applejack, who just stared at her blankly. She bit down on the rubber, tried to think of what to tell her, what to say, what to do.

She didn’t get the chance as a hoof pressed against her shoulder and the beast tackled her against the wall. With a cough, she spit air and blackened blood against her attacker, who might’ve stared at her. She didn’t know, for all she saw was two fires where eyes should have been.

Once more she tried to move, to speak, but her pacifier was gone again, the pain came again and with it, a familiarity with the fire.

The beast opened its mouth, as if to talk. As a pony, she knew that all it could do was howl as screech, but as someone who hungered, as something that shouldn’t be, she understood the way its mouth moved.

“T-Take. Us–”

“Hooves off mah sister!” Came as yell from behind the pegasus, followed by a barrel smashing against her head from above.

The beast crumbled and Apple Bloom fell to the ground. For a moment she looked at the attacker and then she turned her gaze upwards to where her sister was.

And for a moment that lasted an eternity, she lost herself in eyes as green as the grass was on the day the sky broke apart.

Then she got her binky shoved back into her mouth and Applejack picked her up and heaved her onto her back, before turning to the broken ladder.

“What’re you doing?” Apple Bloom asked.

Her sister didn’t answer, she only moved as quickly as she got. Apple Bloom could do naught but put her arms around her sister and cling to her as tightly as she could, simply putting in her faith in her.

And her faith was rewarded.

Applejack first jumped onto one of the barrels beneath the hole the beast had created, and then used it to kickstart into a jump upwards. For a moment it felt like they were flying, the wind around them, hot and dry. Applejack stretched out her front hooves and muttered some wordless prayer to a sun god that had disappeared months ago.

Another second, another eternity. Apple Bloom, for that one moment, remembered all the sport competitions, all the times Applejack had proven her strength before all this happened. Sure enough, Applejack’s hoof grabbed the edge of the floor, although she cried out in pain as she managed to.

The walls above them were on fire, she saw and Apple Bloom then made the mistake to look back.

The beast rose up, shaking and unsteady, its head turned down. Apple Bloom could see its skull, cracked and burning from the inside. It’s not Rainbow Dash anymore, she thought.

And the its fiery eyes looked up at them again, slowly, surely. A moment passed with them hanging in the air and the Monster that slept at night seemed finally awake. Awake and enraged.

It spread its wings, boney things clad in ash, their tips rotten and cracked.

“Thith,” she mumbled, hoping to alert her sister to the problem.

“Less talkin’, more sucklin’,” was the angered response she got.

Apple Bloom almost made a retort to that, but at that moment, Applejack finally managed to pull the two of them up to ground level. There, however, she didn’t rest, but instead immediately headed for the broken down door, the hinges burning with the same green fire that had consumed their dear friend.

The younger sibling clung to her sister as they galloped out of the fire and into day’s light. As the sun’s rays touched their rotten skin, Apple Bloom felt their warmth, like a compelling voice, like a mother ruffling her hair and telling her that all was fine. Of course, she knew it was a lie and that she shouldn’t take note of it, shouldn’t look up.

Because above them was the most terrifying sight of all. The sky, the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the universe, along a void and every planet in the universe. Everything was there and nothing was there, scattered across countless shards and cracks in reality. It all existed and the same time didn’t, together with the aeons torn from the times before and the times to come.

Twilight had said that it was the Tear that had brought forth the all-consuming fire and that looking into it caused the symptoms of the transformation into one of those monsters to show.

There was no need to look at. The sky was not meant to be looked at by ponies anymore.

Instead she looked over her shoulder, back at the cider house, her father’s special place, their paradise. It didn’t burn, the fire was contained to the corridor by the entrance. These flames didn’t spread like normal ones, but Apple Bloom couldn’t tell if that was a good thing.

She turned her eyes around, looking forward. Applejack was heading straight for the barn.

“What’re ya doing? We can’t go there!” Apple Bloom screamed.

That’s where Big Macintosh and their grandmother were, where her friend was stuck in a well and all the painful memories of the first day lingered.

Applejack didn’t answer, maybe she hadn’t heard her. Her breaths were heavy and Apple Bloom felt how she stumbled, came close to falling to the ground. From the back, she could take a look at Applejack’s left front leg.

The bandages had come off, replaced by a heavily bleeding gash that ran down from the shoulder. Apple Bloom couldn’t tell how deep it was, but the mare’s leg was draped in red. How Applejack could keep on running with that, Apple Bloom couldn’t understand.

“We need to get to the woods, find a place to rest,” she said, hoping to reach her sister.

“We just go home,” Applejack answered between heavy breaths. “Everything’s going to be fine once we’re home. I need to talk with Dashie, need to tell her that I didn’t mean it, too. Everything’ll be fine.”

“No,” Apple Bloom shouted. “No. You need to lie down, by a tree, where she can’t find us. You’re wounded. You’re in pain!”

Her face was contorted, sure, but her eyes were empty, as if she didn’t realize the situation they were in.

“Don’cha worry,” Applejack breathed. “Yer diapers probably just wet again. I’ll getcha cleaned in no time. I don’t feel any pain. There’s no pain at all.”

And behind them came a loud crash and a screech like a banshee’s. Apple Bloom dared to look behind them once more and found dust rising from a hole in the roof of their cider house. Up in the air, the beast rose, beating its wings against the sky.

And then it stopped mid-air until it located its prey. Not even a second and then it was rushing towards them, the whistle of the wind their doom’s companion.

Legs without strength, backside padded and fluffy, binky in her mouth. Maybe she should’ve just accept it, maybe she should’ve just admitted her powerlessness.

“Fuck this!” She screamed out and rolled herself off Applejack.

The other pony didn’t really notice what was going on, but certainly felt the kick Apple Bloom gave her, a kick right in her wounded leg. It brought her down immediately and a split-second later, the beast dove past them and crashed into the barn’s front door.

Apple Bloom lay coughing on the ground beside her sister, who held her shoulder and screamed in pain. Her little sister tried to catch a look at the barn, looking at the hole in door.

She grinned. This really wasn’t Rainbow Dash, otherwise she would’ve been able to alter her trajectory during the last second. The only thing that apparently was the same was the inability to make a proper landing.

“Take that, universe,” she said, coughing heavily.

Her binky had fallen out again.

Of course it had.

Yet she leaned back, closing her eyes so that she wouldn’t see the sky. She could tell her diaper couldn’t be categorized as “clean” anymore but heavens, that was the least of her concerns now.

We need to get up, she thought and used whats strength remained to roll on her belly and then crawl over to Applejack, picking up the pacifier that lay conveniently close to her.

“Sis?” She asked the elder pony, hoping to get through to her this time.

And her sister finally reacted. Her eyes turned to Apple Bloom and there was something in them, something Apple Bloom had missed for quite a while.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“The kicking? Sorry, there wasn’t any time to-”

“No, the word you screamed. Who even taught you that?”

Apple Bloom stared at her sister for a moment, then shook her head. Her mouth was feeling horrible yet again. “That’s your problem?”

Applejack gave her a smile, blood clinging even to her teeth. “I don’t hold a grudge for you saving our lives, kiddo.”

Apple Bloom halted for a moment and then giggled. “Just don’t make me save you again, you idiot.”

The tears came without warning.

But not just for her, as Applejack patted her on the head. “Yeah,” was all she said on the matter.

With that Applejack made to stand up, much to Apple Bloom’s surprise. Adrenaline had washed away the sleepiness, but now the pain was clear as day on her face. Yet she stood on shaky legs and even helped Apple Bloom up.

Apple Bloom didn’t bother to clean up the binky, opting to put into her mouth directly. The young filly immediately regretted the decision, as dirt and sand mixed in with the familiar taste to create a cacophony of tastes in her mouth.

Yet there were more important things. There were always more important things.

“You can’t go on like that. You’re bleeding,” Apple Bloom said, the paci making her words less distinguishable than she thought.

“I know,” Applejack said, her eyes looking at the barn. “Which is why we need to hurry.”

She steered away from it, closing her eyes, silently muttering something to herself.

Apple Bloom decided to stand by her side, to aid her when she needed someone to lean onto. Yet Applejack stumbled forward bravely, even though she was dragging the leg Apple Bloom had kicked before.

“Sis,” the filly mumbled.

“Apple Bloom,” the elder sister said after a while, her breathing heavy, her shoulders slouching. “Just so you know, I’m not gonna tolerate ya desecrating our parents memory with filthy language.”

“Wha-,” Apple Bloom responded, stumbling over her words. “You can’t be mad about that! Those were extreme circumstances.”

Why did she even need to justify one word. They’d been chased by a pony-eating abomination. Applejack, however, didn’t seem to have her priorities as straight as Apple Bloom and sighed.

“Ya don’t hear me mouthin’ off.”

Okay, this is way too patronizing, Apple Bloom thought. They’d just gone and survived a monster attack thanks to her quick thinking (and swift moves), so this was quite unwarranted. Honestly, considering their situation….

Wait a minute, Apple Bloom thought and then quickly pulled the pacifier out of her mouth, channeling all the years of eavesdropping in on Big Macintosh’s stallion friends.

“Well, shit, I fucking saved on back there, so you could at least show me some fucking gratitude,” she spoke like reciting a poem.

Applejack gave her a quick glance, though she could’ve almost sworn she also looked behind her.

“You know what,” the elder sister said after a few moments of quiet walking.

“What?”

“First we should go to the river west, you know which one.”

She knew of said river, over course, and of the little lake where she and her friends had played quite a few times.

“Yeah?”

“Then, we’ll wash up, I’ll try to see if Pinkie left some actual emergency kits in the area,” Applejack sounded like she believed her friend did that, “and then, after we’re safe again…”

“Yeah?”

“Someone’s gettin’ a spanking.”

A moment of quiet came and went by as the two stumbled off the road and into the unending acres, where the trees now stood rotting away and the grass had retreated to only places with an abundance of water. There, Apple Bloom found herself blinking, thinking, blinking again.

And then, just to make sure, she had to ask. “Come again?” She half-wanted to use another obscenity, but, just in case she hadn’t misheard, also kind-of didn’t want to provoke her sister further.

“Ya heard me.”

The sheer casualness with which Applejack said those lines, the conviction, they convinced Apple Bloom immediately that she meant it.

“No, you can’t do that. I didn’t mean it, I really didn’t.”

“Ya did, I heard ya loud and clear,” her sister answered, took the pacifier from Apple Bloom and before the filly could say anything else, stuffed it in her mouth. “And now ya should stay quiet, lest ya want me to get really mad at ya.”

Apple Bloom stared at her, not understanding why she was so cold. Was it the kick? It had to be the kick. What else could make her sister so unforgiving towards a little display of language.

Behind them, she suddenly heard a neigh-like scream, a deep voice that echoed into the distance. So Apple Bloom decided to really not provoke her sister anymore, for monsters were coming and she could argue punishments when they came out of this alive, if they did.