Prologue
Twilight awoke, her head throbbed with pain as a thick vein pulsed through it and as she lifter her weak, small body from the floor, a trickle of rose red blood split to the floor and created a minuscule puddle rippling on the dark grey of the icy floor.
Twilight instantly scanned the room, looking around, but there was nothing, only emptiness and darkness. From what she could see she was in a confined space, lead on a dark grey floor. A cluster of the floor had been ripped up by an animal of some description, and left a gap into the nothing that was below the room she lead n. The walls were a dirty white, clearly they had been mistreated over years of wear and tear and pant fluttered to the floor like ballerinas before hitting the frozen floor.
She held up her hoof and touched the wound on her head, it stung to her rough touch but didn't seem to severe. she glanced to the spot where her head once lead and noticed a build up of a thick, rusty layer of blood, when she poked it she noticed it was dry, begging the question: How long had she been there?
Her eyes dashed across the room, and upon turning around she saw her friends, all of which were lead, unconscious.
Twilight jumped to her hooves, took a moment to regain her balance and held down her vomit as she yelled "Wake up!"
Dash was the first to jump up, with a start " I've been awake and working hard for HOURS, I swear!" She yelled, fluttering and hovering in the air, wailing her arms around randomly. She opened one ye and saw Twilight standing there, squinting and prodding her head with her delicate hoof " Twilight? You aren't the Wonderbolts?... Where are we?..."
" I don't know... We have to get everypony up, we've clearly been kidnapped!" Twilight yelled out, stumbling to one side and hearing a large screech in her head.
" Are.. You okay?" Dash said, landing next to her and standing hr upright, and allowing her to lean on her so that she wouldn't fall again. " You look a little dazed."
" I woke up with a cut on my head, I guess whoever brought me here didn't exactly want me to be OK?"
Dash looked up and noticed massive hole in the ceiling, all around were Twilight lay was rubble and ds of wood " It... looks like you've fallen through the roof."
Twilight shook her head and smiled sweetly, swearing she was okay and pushing Rainbow Dash away to allow her to stand on her own two hooves. " Don't be ridiculous!"
" But... Where is everypony?" Rainbow asked, turning her head around and looking at the floor behind her.
twilight's eyes shot open, as she looked behind Rainbow and dived forward " What?" She exclaimed, leaning over and hysterically patted at the floor " They were right here, I swear!"
Rainbow raised one eyebrow at Twilight " Twilight, I don't want to make you sound crazy, but there wasn't anypony when I woke up..."
" But... You must have seen them! They just vanished, right in front of our eyes, didn't you see Rainbow?"
" Twilight, you sound like a crazy person and it's creeping me out.." Dash took a hoof-step backwards and leant back a little with caution, seeing her friend so frantic and acting insane like that was enough to make anypony afraid.
Twilight swooned and fell back on her rump, to the floor.
" Twilight!" Dash jumped forward and helped Twilight stay upright, she slapped her face slightly to help her keep concious " Stay with me Twili..." She looked around "we've gotta find you somewhere to sit, it's probably just blood loss or shock or something, you'll be fine just... STAY AWAKE! "
Rainbow flew down the hall, but quickly discovered just how dark it was, something, however, glimmered under the dim light the buckles on a little satchel. Rainbow picked it up, and instantly flew back with it in her mouth.
Upon reaching the place she left Twilight, she discovered her weak and sickly frame had collapsed onto her side, and she lead there drooling through a hole in one of the holes in the floorboards.
Rainbow set the bag down and flicked it open, inside was an old fashioned oil lamp and an extra supply of oil, some water, bandages, a random key, and a soft, brown blanket. . She folded up the blanket, and softly placed it beneath Twilight's soft little head.
Rainbow Dash wasn't the best at wrapping heads up with bandages, but she sat back and admired her handy work at the bandage she had gently placed around her head. GENTLY. Not with her typical hasty attitude to get things done quickly, then and there, 10 seconds flat. Not, she carefully, and tightly wrapped it around her delicately skull, avoiding her mane too, and Rainbow felt proud.
Abruptly, she heard a growling. Not a growing... More of a deep pitched, harsh groan. She shuffled backwards and placed her hoof around Twilight, she lit the lantern by softly turning a level and saw the outline of a mangled, limping pony heading towards her. It got closer, and closer, only an outline, but Rainbow whimpered slightly, like a lost puppy.
" Twilight..." She said, poking Twilight's elbow " Twilight... Wake up!" The zombie-type pony proceeded to advance on Rainbow and Twilight " Twilight wake up and help me please!" she violently struggled to move away and protect Twilight's almost lifeless body at the same time.
But then Rainbow thought... She was Rainbow Dash! The fastest mare in the entire of Equestria, she could fly fast, with agility, accuracy, coordination, perfect balance, strength and power!
She dived to her hooves and flapped her wings with a grin " stay away fro my friend!" She yelled, flying forward and knocking the pony to the floor as it screamed and moaned, she trotted off gracefully and bucked it in the face.
It stopped screaming.
That was when Rainbow Dash got a close look at its face, the colours of it... Yellow fur, a pink mane, turquoise, crystal eyes, a pair of wings... Fluttershy.
Rainbow fell back and bumped into the floor on her spine, a tear escaping from her eye.
Twilight woke up with a start, and immediately noticed Rainbow flailing and cursing, so she trotted over " Rainbow? What happened?"
" I'm a murderer Twilight..." Rainbow said, sitting up and looking at the floor, gently kicking it with her cyan hooves, a tear dropped to the floor and splashed into fragments as though it shattered.
" what do you mean?" Twilight asked; immediately after noticing the body.
" It was coming at me Twilight, groaning, it was all angled, half of its skull was already missing so I bucked it and... It was Fluttershy..."
Twilight looked at the body, the light suddenly hit it and was quickly able to identify as Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head, " look, I understand, this place is just a dream, it's an illusion, you'll find the REAL Fluttershy when you wake up, this is gonna be over soon."
Rainbow wiped a second tear from er eye, still with a pout on her little cyan lips she mumbled " I bet it's that God damn Discord..."
S" So this key was in the bag?" Twilight asked, one hoof under her chin, looking at the key with ponder and allowing it to levitate in front of her.
" yeah..." Rainbow rolled over onto her side and just stared at the cluster of red that stained the bottom of the wallpaper, probably some part of the ' illusion' that Twilight had made an analogy about.
" It's weird... It kinda looks like Applejack's Cutie Mark... The same kind of colours and everything, I..."
Twilight was interrupted by the sudden sound of hooves galloping on the floor, it was faint, but there was no doubt that Twilight could be imagining it this time.
" Can you hear that?" Twilight asked, her hooves perked up and flickered around as she attempted to fid the source f the mysterious sound.
Rainbow was so clearly lost in thought " Huh? " she responded. but not really interested any of Twilight's fair yet boring lectures, because it didn't really matter what Twilight said, she'd still killed Fluttershy.
" There's sompony else here, I'm not mistaken, that is definitely at least 2 ponies running." Twilight stood up and illuminated her horn, pointing it into the distance, yet it was still too dark...
" Uh-huh" Rainbow lead and watched the light dance merrily on the walls, think about how curious it was that light could be at it's best and brightest when it was dark and cold, she lay and pondered the fragility of life.
Suddenly four horse shaped creatures galloped towards them, louder and clear the clacking of hooves got against the darkened corridors.
Now ever Rainbow couldn't ignore it, and she knew full well that Twilight alone could not defend herself from whatever was out there, she sat up slightly and stared at the figures, but they were unlike the ones before.
Orange, white, yellow and pink. It was the remaining of the mane 6.
Twilight called out to them " OVER HERE! HERE!"
Rainbow jumped up, and as soon as she was close enough, she threw her hooves around Fluttershy's neck, causing her to go red, and her eyes to dart across the room in search for answers, but she was met by a similar look from all accept Twilight, who smiled and nodded.
" I'm so glad you're alive!" Shrieked the non-murdered Rainbow Dash, smiling and sniffling back a few tears.
" See I told you... It's just your brain messing with you."
But Twilight was wrong... So very wrong...
"Hey, what's this key doin' here?" Applejack asked as, holding up the key that had slipped out of the satchel. The other ponies were talking to one another, and comforting each other as they investigated what was going on around them.
" Oh, we found that in he satchel." Twilight said, advancing on Applejack, lifting it in mid air " It's weird i..."
" It looks like ma cutie mark!" She exclaimed, poking the smooth metal of the key.
The key was a golden green and glistened as the lamp flickered Three apples clustered at the top of the key, ripe and juicy, almost like a real apple. A soft green vine pulsed from the trunk of the key, and swirled into the mechanism that slipped into the locks of the door that it opened.
" Is it possible it could be coincidence?" Rarity asked, walking over to the key, and leaning in close to it in order to inspect.
"Wait..." Fluttershy whispered, sheepishly stepping towards those inspecting the key " I saw a door whilst we were galloping down here, there was a door with your cutie mark on it..." She took a step back " Uh... Sorry, I just thought it didn't mean anything, sorry i didn't say anything sooner. Sorry."
" So we should go check it out... Right?" Rainbow dash asked the others, flapping her wings into a gentle hover, eager to discover why she was here, and hope it meant some form of a way out.
Pinkie smiled and clapped her hooves, and without saying a word, she jumped up and galloped away. The 5 left behind made a confused set of glances at one another, before diving into a gallop after her. The sound of hooves echoed on the hard, ice of the floor.
The walls and floor began to distort as they made their way down the corridor. Bt of walls fragmented and clumbled to the drooping floor, wet patches of a red fluid creeped through the walls, it was almost unmistakably blood. Even sets of bones and disgarded organs lay on the floor, the ponies avoided them as well as they could, but the more they advance, the more of them there seemed to be.
"Stop!" Pinkie yelled out, suddenly coming to a halt, causing all those behind her to conclude to a sudden halt as well, and a build up of ponies squished into one other, causing Pinkie to giggle and fall forward. When she got back on her hooves she had a patch of blood in her fur, clearly something that Pinkie's mind did not bother about.
Twilight grunted at Pinkie, ad made her way through to the door. But there was no handle; no lock.
" What in tarnation!?" Applejack called out, banging her hoof on the door with confusion and a little of stress and disappointment.
"No lock?" Rainbow yelled, bucking the door and violently kicking her hooves violently on the door, yelling with anger. It was not a secret to anyone, not even Rainbow, that she had a little bit of an anger problem. It wasn't exactly a 'problem' per say, it was just that when she felt an emotion, she knew how to express it.
Twilight inspected the area where the door knob was meant to be, a softly prodded it with her lavender purple hoof, and rubbed it around in a circular motion. " Hmm" Twilight placed her hoof under her chin and raised one eyebrow.
Applejack looked down at the key with ponder, she carefully picked it up in her mouth and offered it near to the door, causing an ominous light to radiate a gentle mystic glow. The glow expanded the closer the key came to the door, and the heart of it was opaque,unable to be seen through at all.
Suddenly, a ripple flowed through, the key pushed into the newly appeared lock mechanism. She twisted the key and a loud click struck like a slap to the face. AJ jumped back as through the lock grew a metal vine, that moved through the door, and attached to the edges of the door. Apples popped from place to place at random, also metal, then the door swung open.
Through the door was ominous portal, black tar ripples through it, and minuscule stars swirled through the portal.
" Do we go through?" Twilight asked, prodding her hoof on the door, causing it to ripple strangely.
"I don't want to!" Fluttershy yelled, slightly louder than her normal voice as she began to cower in the corner, fearful of the perculiar portal that had opened up like a cut to the flesh.
Applejack stuck her hoof in and felt around the other side "It feels... strange..." she said, she tried to jerk her arm back out; it was stuck. "Help! I'm Stuck!" She yelled out.
Twilight grabbed hold of her tail, but the thick liquid was consuming her. All 5 were trying to pull her from the syrup substance that was consuming her arm, her body, her head and finally her tail.
"APPLEJACK!" They all called out in unison, but it was too late.
On the other side, AJ suddenly found herself somewhere she didn't both to look at, she instantly spun around and banged on the bricked up door that had once been a portal to somewhere unknown. "HELP!" She called out, violently ramming her hooves, repeatedly on the hard bricks that had surrounded the wall and forbade her from exiting.
It was no use. She was stuck; whether she liked it or not...
She slowly turned her head a gazed at the colourless room. Everything was in black and white, like the old tapes she had often viewed of Granny Smith in her old days.
There were two sets of rusting, bunk beds that held hastily thrown on dirty white duvets and a single pillow. The walls were a white kind of colour too, with paint peeling off the wall and scattered on the hardened and unclean crust on the floor. There was a torn up pony doll lying on the floor, half it's stuffing ripped from it's furry skin, and blue eyes hastily sawn and resown. There was a door either side of the beds, and one next to the area the portal used to be.
Applejack recognised this place oh so well...
It was the orphanage she lived in for around 8 months before Granny Smith took her in. When her mother and father died, she would have gone to live with close family, but Granny Smith was away at the time, she didn't know that they had died until around 3 months after they had gone to live in the orphanage. It was then that Granny Smith had to go through a series of tests and visits in order for them to know if she was fit enough to look after 3 children.
Applejack hated every second of it.
"What 'am I meant to do now?" she placed one of her deep orange hooves on the floor before her, causing the room to shake violently. Applejack's limp body fell to the ground harshly; the land around her unmoved by the strong vibrations.
When it ended, two ghostly figures stood in the room, one was her as a filly, weeping softly into her tiny, flat hooves. She was being comforted by another little foal, a colt. "Hush Applejack, it will be over soon..." The colt said, his voice was recognised instantly.
Cyan Dust.
A little pegasi who given up as his parents could not properly look after him, as they were incapable. Often he'd impress the other foals with his amazing skills of flying, and was much adored by all the older fillies, about his age.
Applejack pushed him away with her little hoof, and disallowed him to hug her "'am fine, go away..."
"Applejack, you know I won't judge you. I've been here ages, I always comfort foals..." He placed his hoof on her shoulder, but she twitched it in a rotary motion to allow his hoof to slide off.
"Y'all mean all them fillies!" She yelled as she made a massive round motion to express her point about just HOW many fillies ADORED him!
"What's that supposed to mean?" His face suddenly turned angry, but still her look sympathetic towards her.
She turned around and pulled her hooves away from her face, a few tears remained, under her eyes were a little red and bulgy but she acted as though she had not shed a tear at all. "Supposed to mean? Aint no doubt 'bout what I mean! I mean, all those fillies love y'all, nopony doesn't even notice me!"
"I notice you! Am I not enough?" He yelled, grabbing hold of her hooves and shaking them, he was still mad but his eyes were full of sympathy and care.
"Why don't you just go back to 'yer gals? I bet they miss ya!" Applejack pulled away her hooves and scooted her rump back.
"'My gals'?"
"Sugar Ribbons got her eyes on you, ya know? She's sooo pretty, every colt's in love wi her, aren't they? She's a pegusi too, I'm sure 'yal have a blast!" Applejack stood up, and began to walk away.
Cyan was faster than her though, he flew up an landed in front of her "I don't want Sugar Ribbon..." He smiled widely, but Applejack's face indicated she did not know what her was indicating at.
"Whatever, I don't care. I gotta go..." She tried to walk away, but he grabbed hold of her face, and pulled it towards his, placing his lips on hers. Applejack pulled away, her face completely red, she held back a smile and galloped into one of the doors.
Cyan dissipated into dust fragments.
"What in Equestria was that?" Applejack asked herself "I remember that... Cyan... He was my closest ever friend!" She sighed and looked at her hooves "Was that a memory?"
Applejack added it up, and given that the way out was gone, she may as well have taken the leap. How much worse could it get anyway? She opened the door her filly-self had gone through, and dived through another portal.
The room pulled from nothing and formed matter, pulled together like pieces of a jigsaw was the orchard of Apple trees, in the distance was the silhouette of the gorgeous farm. Applebloom was just a toddler, and but she fell asleep in Applejack's arms with Big Macintosh beside her.
Applejack walked up to her filly self holding Applebloom in her arms, as the sun ever so softly dipped behind the hill and revealed a gorgeous collision of sun and night, streams of light like that of Celestia's mane rippled through the evening sky. Big Mac looked down on his little sisters, placing his hoof around Applejack's shoulder and cradling her close to her.
Applejack's eyes began to slowly flicker as she yawned. Flicker. Flicker. Flicker. Then, the drifted shut and she moulded into a comforting shape.
Big Mac retrieved Applebloom from Applejack and carried her and Applejack back to the farm on his hay cart.
"I remember this, the weekend we got alone whist our parents were away at Appleloosa... It was that weekend that they died..."
Suddenly, the ground underneath her morphed into a shape it better desired. She was pulled away on a single piece of ground, and all around her dust expanded to form the place she knew all so well, the inside of her home.
She saw herself, giggling and playing peek-a-boo with Applebloom, on the carpet in front of Granny Smith's rocking chair, and beside the large, fireplace with her parent's images on either side.
There was a knock on the door, and Big Mac went to answer it, to reveal two men dressed in black. Applejack and Applebloom were still sat in the other room, oblivious of the fact that Big Macintosh was discovering vital information that would tear there family apart for the following eight months.
Big Mac held back tears as he gently walked over to Applejack, he only said a little, but Applejack was a smart filly and understood what it meant. Applejack cried immediately. Applebloom, seeing Applejack in distress, began to wail as well, but Big Mac frowned, not shedding even one tear. Then all three left the home, just like that, they stepped outside... And were gone...
Applejack stood looking at the now empty room, and cried a little, but shook it away. She refused to let it keep her down, she knew it was just a memory, and she could not be happier about living with Big Mac and Applebloom and Granny Smith. She was as happy as a fish in water, and she wouldn't let a memory of something that happened years ago, get her down.
Suddenly, the front door of the house opened. She peeked around the corner, and saw the orphanage were she had been stood before with Cyan.
"How the hay did I end up back here?" Applejack asked herself, prodding her chin with her hoof, and looking at the bricked up wall she had previously appeared from.
She carefully strode towards it and knocked on the brick wall "Is anypony there?" she asked the wall; to her disappointment, there was no reply.Suddenly she heard the 'clipety clop' of little foal hooves on a harsh wooden floor. She spun around to see her filly self, walking around the inside of the orphanage calling out for Cyan.
Her calling was interrupted by Sugar Ribbon bursting through the front door. Her egg shell white and baby pink mane tied softly into 5, neat, ruby red ribbons. Her blue coat caught the light and shine vibrated through the coat like a Mexican wave through a crowd.
"Where's Cyan?" She asked, pulling a stick from her wing and spitting it onto the floor in front of Applejack, quickly catching her view the moment it tapped on her hoof.
"Uh... I don't know" Applejack replied.
"Oh." She stood on the floor, slightly rolling her pretty purple eyes, standing on the floor and approaching the orphan filly. "We're going out tonight, since he really does like me, you know? I think we're gonna end up going steady." She smiled at Applejack with one eyebrow raised "so stay away from him."
"Me?" Applejack trotted backwards but her movement was in vain, Ribbon dived forward, mounting her hooves onto AJ's arms; pinning her down.
Adult Applejack jumped at Ribbon crying out "no!" but in a rage of sorrow, she forgot the images where but a misty hologram of her memories, and barely flickered as she passed through, tapping her hooves on the bottom of the wall.
She returned her eyes to the vision, Ribbon still holding down a weak, orange filly, barely with the capacity to gasp for breath. Her heavy hooves pushing into Applejack's veins, causing her to become a purple shade on her wrist, and some blood broke through the delicacy of her fragile tangerine skin.
"'yer crazy!" Applejack yelled, wriggling in a desperate attempt to free herself.
Ribbon didn't reply, she removed herself from a dazed Applejack but before she could escape, Ribbon struck her.
She fell to one side, blood poured from her swelling cheek, and Ribbon left.
The door opened and Ribbon left, causing the wounded Applejack to dissipate.
Without anticipation, adult Applejack galloped through the decaying remains of the door.
She saw it, the scene sent chills down her spine. She remembers running here and hiding when she was a filly. A gentle breeze echoed the past through her neutral pale orange mane as she laid her eyes on the cobbled path.
It felt different, so many times she had been here since, but it felt without loss; as though the ground was yet to weep the mourning. The birds chirped sweetly in the trees and echoed through the loud silence of the au naturale of the forest. The plants swayed with whispers side to side, allowing the breeze to run through freely musically singing a hushed song. Petals and bronzed leaves danced fragrantly from the plants and caressed the lonely ground.
This was the road that had took her parents.
An oncoming cartridge rattled down the road, Applejack was shocked to lay her eyes on the parents, merrily singing Apple Song as they rode across the land.
Her eyes pulsed open wide and pupils enhanced in size "Mama! Papa!" Applejack cried, running forwards, almost against her will, but the carriage did not stop. Instead rode continuously straight and passed through Applejack.
A hologram. A ghostly image of her parents memory.
It happened so fast, the tree fell abruptly and clumsily onto the path, her father tried to halt but his efforts were in vain. He toppled over the log, the carriage fell on top of him, instantly crushing him.
Author's Note
I started writing this and realised how long it is XD I'm gonna have to split it into two parts... Oh well...