Demon Heart - To Save A Dying World

Recap,

He looked at her with a somber look, " Yes but I was so scared, I need to be stronger, so I'm leaving, I'll be back i promise, but only when I'm ready to protect you for real," Applejack felt like she was going to cry again, but this time the tears were of sadness, but before she could shed a tear, he spoke, " I promise I'll be back, I don't ever want to lose my friends, and your my friend, just wait for me, uh here," he took his black shirt and ripped a piece of cloth off it and tied it around her arm, " This way you can remember me until i get back,".

Applejack wiped the tears from her eyes, " Do ya swear you'll be back, " she looked into his eyes and only found sincerity as he nodded, " Then I'll wait, no matter how long it takes for ya to get back,". He pulled her into a hug and kissed her head before turning the walk off.

" Remember one last thing, I will always be there to save you, no matter how far I am or how long it takes, I will always be there for you, cause your my new best friend," a large smile grew on Applejack's face as she turned away and started to walk up onto the porch. As Axel walked off into the forest, he spoke to himself, " I'll be back for you Applejack, I promise.

Ten years have passed since that day, Axel's training had finally come to an end, in his eyes he was ready to take on the world if needed. As he stands upon a hilltop, he watches the sun rise and thinks to himself, " Don't worry Applejack, I'm coming back to you, I only hope that you still remember me," for the past ten years he had watched the sun rise and set, he had taken notice of how dim the sun had grown lately, as if it had started to die, " I need to hurry,". He took off on a mad dash towards the location that he had found to be called Ponyville. The closer he got the more he noticed how untamed the flora and fauna or the area was, " You'd  think A populated area would have kept this stuff in check," he passed an abandoned cottage that had animals all over, this didn't surprise him considering the condition the cottage was in, what surprised his was that most of the animals seemed domesticated. He decided to shrug it off and continue his trek towards what he thought was the town, but the closer he got, the worse things looked, he came across more houses, most of them looked as if they hadn't been lived in, in years, " Sheesh, doesn't anyone know how to keep a house clean," he just shook his head and continued walking.

He soon came to find out that all the buildings were abandoned and decrepit, he came across countless abandoned buildings, some kind of clothing store, a boutique if you will, he came across a building that looked as if it were made of sweets, " Bet thr only customers that place gets now is bats, rats, and vines," and the strangest building to him so far was the library he came across, or what was left of it, it was built into a tree that looked like it had been set ablaze and left to burn. He places his hand against the charred trunk of the tree, he decided to get a good feel of the soot in order to determine how long the tree and possibly the whole town, had been in this decrepit state, " It's old, but not that old, probably three years, two at the least, just what happened he-," he cut himself off in mid sentence when a thought hit him like a brick hitting a window, " Oh no!, Sweet Apple Acres isn't far from here, Applejack!!," he took off on a mad dash towards the apple orchard he had been to as a child.

He was like a bull in a wild charge, if there were anything that would stop him, he would likely barrel through it, he could only hope that his friend was OK, " Please be OK, please be OK!!," he couldn't risk anything, so he ran as fast as his legs could take him. He was half way up the road from Sweet Apple Acres when he heard the sound of voices, gruff, dark voices, so he took cover in order to get a better look.

" That was two easy, bagging two rebels at once, the elements of harmony at no less," the first voice said.

" Yeah with the one being blind and the other not having any magic left in her, it was easy picking," the second voice said.

Once the two came into Axel's view he got a good look at who they were, they were what appeared to be soldiers, they wore armor that covered their entire bodies, the armor itself was like that of the nights sky, and behind them in shackles, were tow people, one of which made Axel's blood boil. They had two females in binds and blindfolded as they led them towards a carriage with a cage attached to the back. The first one had purple hair with pink highlights, she also had a mark on her right hand, a unicorn no less, and the one following her, even with a blindfold over her eyes Axel still knew who it was, it was Applejack. " What do you think Nightmare Moon will do to them," the first soldier said.

" Beats me, maybe she'll do the same thing she did to the unicorns brother to her," the second said.

Before they could reach the carriage, Axel stepped out onto the path, his fist clenched, " Sorry boys but the road is closed," he said in a stern voice, it was easy to hear the anger in it as well.

" What the, another rebel, I guess we just keep getting lucky, I'll hold onto the prisoners, you deal with this bug," the second soldier said to the first.

" Fine, why do i always get garbage cleaning duty," he said as he hit his fist into his palm, " Kid when I'm done with you, you'll wish  you had surrendered,".

Axel put a cocky grin on his face, " Why?, cause you'll make me die laughing from how stupid you are,".

" Why you!," The soldier threw what looked like a heavy punch straight for Axel's face, yet it never made contact.

The truth was, Axel caught the punch in his hand, " I guess i should start laughing, or you should start crying," using his other arm, he rammed his elbow into the underside of the soldiers arm, snapping it upwards, making the soldier scream in great pain, only to be silenced with an elbow to the gut, " Ah shut it,". Once he had knocked the soldier out cold, he threw him into the cage that the carriage was attached to.

After witnessing his ally get finished, the second guard grew incredibly angry, " You little punk, I'm gonna make you pay!," he drew the sword he held at his side and charged forward.

Axel stood calmly as the soldier was merely a few feet away, his eyes never straying from the soldier. The soldier was right upon him, ready to strike, only to be stopped with to the stomach, " Cmon, you'd think with all that armor on my hand-to-hand attacks wouldn't work, whats this stuff made of, cardboard?," he then delivered a swift kick to the soldiers jaw, knocking him to the ground. He stepped closer to the downed soldier, who watched helplessly as his attacker got closer, fear welled in his eyes, " I want you and your buddy out of here, and I want you to never come back, also I don't ever want to find out you tried kidnapping anyone ever again or else," he crushed a rock under his foot to emphasize the " or else" part.

The soldier shakily nodded and pulled himself to the carriage, and fleeing with his friend. " Glad that's over," Axel said as he started walking towards the bound girls.

Applejack couldn't help but over hear the commotion, she also couldn't help but smell a very familiar smell, " What in tarnation is goin on, I'd at least be able to partly tell if it weren't for this dang blindfold, and, that smell, I know it from somewhere," she thought to herself, but right as that thought had passed, she could feel someone removing her blindfold. Either her good eye was finally going bad, or her greatest wish had come true, her childhood friend, who so long ago made her the promise that he would always be there for her, was standing before her now, " Is....is it really you, I can't tell," she could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

He smiled at her as he untied the other girls blindfold, " Who else would it be," he had just gotten the other girls blindfold off when he felt himself get tackled to the ground. Applejack had never been so happy in her life, he had returned for her, " I'm sorry I've been gone so long, but hey I kept my promise," he gave her a cheerful smile, he returned the hug and looked at her, " I'm not going anywhere else i promise,".

It was then the other girl decided to speak, " Applejack I'm glad that your having a touching reunion but," she couldn't complete her sentence once she saw how Applejack was reacting to the the arrival of this, stranger. " Um, Applejack, just who is this that your hugging?," she said curiously.

Applejack turned her head towards her friend, " Hes the one i told ya'll about, the one ya never believed me about whenever I talked about him, Axel, the one I told ya'll about that would come and save our hides, and just like I said, he did save our hides," Applejack said before resuming the hug.

The other girl looked slightly ashamed, " I'm sorry Applejack, it's just we never thought that someone would actually come to save us," she looked at Axel, the crimson in hes eyes made contact with her purple eyes, almost instantly she became nervous, " Um, uh forgive me, my name is Twilight Sparkle, I'm one of Applejack's friends, It's an honor to get to meet you, and thank you for saving us,".

After finally being allowed to stand back up, Axel turned to look at the girl who was thanking him, " It was no problem, now I have some questions of my own," as he was talking he was cut off by a low growl, at first he took a fighting stance and looked around, that was until he noticed that the growl was in fact coming from his very stomach, " Do you mind if i ask those questions over lunch," sweat ran down his head as a sheepish look formed on his face.

Applejack couldn't help but smile, " How about I explain everything on the way to the farm," her smile diminished as she started to walk, her hands in both Axel's and Twilight's. " Where to begin," her face became more somber as she thought of it, " It was a few years back, gosh I can't tell if its been two or three, but either way, two or three years back, Twilight here came to live in Ponyville in order to learn about friendship, well it just so happens that we were holding a festival at the same time, well the princess was supposed to give some speech," she stopped for a moment, " I think it's best if Twilight here told you the rest, I...I just can't bring myself to relive that day,".

Twilight nodded in understanding and continued where Applejack had left off, " The princess was supposed to give her annual pre-festival speech, as tradition would go, but, instead of the princess being there, another person was there, Nightmare moon, she wanted to plunge all of Equestria into eternal darkness, in order to stop her Applejack, myself, and four others, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, were tasked to go into Everfree forest, and gather the Elements of Harmony in order to stop her, things were going well, we had collected the elements and were about to put an end to Nightmare Moon, when suddenly, she struck us with a bolt of black magic, making us lose focus and somehow in the process, fusing the elements with our very being and draining them of their magic," she too had a somber look on her face as she spoke. " The bolt striking us gave Nightmare Moon enough time to escape, we were unable to stop her, and because she had drained the elements of their magic, she had become all powerful, and with this power, she brought forth an army of pure darkness, and she selected three generals to serve by her, one of each specializing in a different magic, pure dark magic, deceitful love and life draining magic, and pure chaotic magic, with these three generals and her army, she mowed over Equestria, and with Princess Celestia being encased in stone, there was little resistance, all we could do was await the inevitable,".

He looked at the two of them as they kept walking, " So that explains a whole lot, but there's still some details your leaving out,".

Nodding once more, Twilight continued what she was saying, " Yes that's the part I'm getting to, the liberation of Ponyville, and the hunt for the Elements of Harmony, we were enjoying what we called the last day of harmony when it happened, we had heard news that Nightmare soldiers were marching towards Ponyville, and that some of the men and boys had created a militia in order to attempt to protect the town, Applejack's older brother had joined as well...," Axel turned his attention to Applejack, who had tears forming in her eyes, " We had arrived to see the men of the town lined up and ready, their makeshift weapons and armor adorned, we waited and waited, there were only five of us since Fluttershy wasn't feeling well that day, so the five of us waited, yet they never showed, so after an hour of waiting, we decided to leave, perhaps it was a false report we thought, but as we were leaving, an explosive went off, a bright light enveloped us and blew us back, i managed to shield us, but just barely, and by then it was too late, the explosion had negative effects on some of my friends Applejack included, our friend Rarity's right arm was crushed by debris, paralyzing it permanently, the shockwave of the blast was enough to somehow rupture our friend Pinkie Pie's voice box, instead of her happy squeals she can only speak in hushed horse whispers, and Applejack, the flash the explosion gave off blinded her in her left eye and injured her right eye, making her partially blind for the most of it," at this point tears were streaming down Applejack's face.

Axel slowly pulled her into a hug and patted her back, " It's gonna be OK,".

Twilight was yet to be finished though, " The explosion was a diversion, the soldiers came in through Everfree forest, where our friend Fluttershy lived, it was there that they kidnapped her with ease, and extracted the element of kindness from her body, weakening her further, and making it the first element to be captured, our friend Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could once she heard the screams of young fillies, one of them was Applejack's younger sister, Apple Bloom, the other was our friend Rarity's younger sister, Sweetie Belle, and the third was Rainbow dash's number one fan and surrogate sister, Scootaloo, she had made it in time and scooped them up right as they were about to be stricken down by a soldier, but in the process she had been shot down by an arrow to her left wing, making her vulnerable, she flew with all her might to get them to safety, and right as she was about to get them out of trouble, one of Nightmare Moon's generals showed up, General Sombra, he had Fluttershy tied up on the back of his steed, he hurled his sword at Rainbow dash," she seemed to cringe as she tried to utter the next part, " The sword make a successful hit, a clean cut through the right wing, taking it off," she had pure disgust in her voice, " Yes she managed to get them to safety, but she also lost her wing, and she couldn't move as the general closed in on her and extracted the element of loyalty, I tried to stop him, but he had a new device with him, it drains unicorns of their magic, and that's what he did to me,". She lowered her head in shame, " yes he left after taking the two elements, but we also had received great casualties, lost one of our best friends, and left all of us scarred in a way,".

Applejack clung to Axel for comfort, " They took him...., they took my brother from her Axel," there were sobs in her voice, but he could make out what she was saying, " They took my eyesight and my brother,". Her crying came to an end when she felt herself being lifted into the air, Axel was carrying her in his arms, bridal style.

" Don't cry Applejack, I'm gonna make this right, no matter what I have to do to fix things," although she still doubted him, Axel's words still brought a sense of hope to Twilight.

They soon reached the end of the path that leads to Sweet Apple Acres, it looked untouched, as if the nightmares had never touched it, Twilight looked at the two of them, a somber but soft smile on her face, "well, we're home, this is salvation for whats left of us,". If a farm was where the last of the peaceful people were living, then Axel could truly tell that this was a dying world.