Demon Heart - To Save A Dying World

by DarklordAxel20

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Tragedy, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Romance
Length: 6210

An alternate tale in which Axel gets sent to a humanized version of Equestria, things seem normal at first, for what's going on that is, but when he leaves and comes back several years later, he'll learn that things are not how he left them.

While the princesses and the main six are in Tartarus searching for the method Axel used to get to Equestria, Axel himself lays in a coma like state, that is until he is visited by a shining white alicorn, who offers him a deal, go to another world and solve a small problem, and in return she will restore something most precious to him, but when he arrives things are quite different, hes become a human, and, hes eight again?!?, how will things play out for him when he meets an eight year old girl who just happens to be the Applejack of this world. What happens when he decides to leave one day to train himself so that he can be prepared to solve whatever problem he was sent there to solve, And what happens when he returns to the ponyville of that world, only to find it in ruins. Can the son of Tartarus stand up for the challenges ahead of him, and can he keep a promise that he made to a girl he met so many years ago.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-03-05 05:11:01 UTC

An Offer and A New World

It was already late at night when they had departed for the answers they sought inside of the prison world, the princesses didn't expect the mysterious stallion, whose memory they had restored, to wake up any time soon, It was as if her had been sent into a coma. Memories played over and over again in his mind, some good, some bad. He himself knew he would not wake up anytime soon, even in his current state he could tell this.

A bright flash shone inside of the lunar princess's room, the room that Axel had been laid in, in his coma-like state he watched as his memories flashed by, but not so fast that they didn't show him every excruciating detail. The light shone brighter until it lit the entire room up, the sudden disturbance made the sleeping colt toss and turn in his slumber. A silhouette stepped out of the light, it's body was that of an alicorns, the figure stared intently at the sleeping colt, " Awaken, hero from beyond the walls of Tartarus," the figure said in a slightly booming voice.

Axel's body seemed to wake on it, No matter how much he wanted to remain in his slumber, his eyes slowly cracked open, " Whose wise pony waking me up at this time of night," his voice was raspy from just having woken up. He rubbed his eyes to wake up the rest of the ways, before focusing on the glowing alicorn, he seemed to just stare at the figure for the longest time, " Did I do something wrong?," he said in a confused tone, a bewildered look on his face.

The figure shook her head, " It is nothing like that, son of Tartarus, in fact it is quite the opposite reason that I am here," this got his attention, the look on his face went from confusion to a look of great interest, as if saying, I'm listening. She took notice of his expression and slowly nodded, " For the longest time I have been observing you and your race," again he looked confused, what was this strange alicorn talking about. " Yes, you demons truly spark my greatest interest, how some of you only want to destroy, and how some of you only want to live a life like those outside of your world, and then there is you, a demon who only wants the two worlds to unite as one peaceful world,". She stepped closer, though her features were still hidden within the light, Axel could still get a better look at her, she was tall, taller than Celestia, " I am here to make you an offer," her voice boomed, making him turn his attention towards the area that he could only guess was her head, " Since you were renowned hero in your home land. this task should be simple for you, there are other wolds like Equestria, everything has the same name and general appearance, yet they are different,".

This time he decided to speak up, " OK I get it, this involves me going to some weird world, just as long as there's no singing," he had irritation in his voice, likely from being awoken earlier than he wanted.

The alicorn nodded, " I don't think that will be a problem, you see there will be a great danger in this world I am to send you too, the offer stands as this, assist this world in the eliminating the threat, and in return, when I bring you back here, I shall restore one thing of great value to you,". His eyes grew wide, anything hes ever lost could be returned to him if he did this, " I understand if you wish to decline, but you must understand that the world I am to send you too, it needs your help, more than this Equestria ever will, so what do you say, Son of Tartarus,".

She carefully scanned his face, in all honesty Axel didn't know how to answer, on one hoof he could be helping others live in peace, and he could have one thing he held precious to him restored to his life, on the other hoof he'd be leaving the friends he made just recently. He thought deeply about the predicament before speaking up, " I can have, anything returned to me?," the alicorn simply nodded, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and then reopened them, " I'll do it,".

The alicorn nodded, " I expected no less from the stallion who can face entire armies alone," with the flash of her horn a portal opened above him and began to suck him in, " And you make experience some changes upon arrival, but the things that won't change will be, your memory of yourself, and the memory of being of your choice, everything else, will be wiped clean until you return here, or find an artifact," despite the fact he was being pulled into a vortex, Axel still managed to hear everything she said.

" Then I guess this is goodbye, see you later!," he stopped resisting and allowed himself to be pulled through the vortex. He could feel his body being pulled and stretched as he traveled through the inter-dimensional portal, " No wonder mom told me to never go through things like this, this hurts like hell!," he could feel his consciousness slipping from him, everything was going black, at first it hurt , then everything went numb. After what seemed like an eternity of simply flying through the vortex with a great numb feeling, he could feel one thing, vertigo, he was no longer floating, no, now he was free falling towards an opening, his eyes finally shut as he hit the opening, everything was cold, "Maybe, I'll just take a nap for a while, I am pretty tired,".

A little girl was roaming around the woods, just south of her families ranch, her golden hair flowed in the wind behind her as she ran through the forest, a small puppy following her, her freckled cheek glowed brightly with a red blush as she giggled, " Phew, Big Macintosh sure was right, nothin beats a good nap besides a nice run, ain't that right Winona," the puppy yipped in response. The two were enjoying their peaceful play moment, when they heard a crash in the woods, " did ya hear that girl, a tree must've fallen or somethin, cause that was one heck of a noise it made, lets go check it out girl. The little girl and the puppy ran through the woods towards the direction the noise came from. As they drew closer they hear the sound of groans, where ever that noise was, there was somebody who needed help too, " Cmon girl, someone needs help," she took off as fast as her legs could take her, she saw Winona run ahead, " Wait for me girl!," but Winona had already found what they were searching for, she let out a few small barks to get the girls attention. " Winona don't go runnin off like that again, what if somethin had happ-," she was cut off by what her dog had lead her too.

A young boy around her age, lay underneath a broken piece of tree, his hair as black as the night sky, his face, marked with a gruesome scar over his left eye, and on his right hand, a mark that looked to be a star in a circle, " What do ya know Winona, it's a unicorn and he looks hurt," the young girl pushed against the log with as much strength as she could. No matter how hard she pushed, she couldn't get the log off, " Oh this is hopeless, we gotta go get Big Mac," before she could run off she felt the log she was pressed against lift up, the boy who was trapped underneath the log, was lifting it on his back, " Whoa," was all the apple girl could say.

Axel shook his head and rubbed his eyes, " Ow my head, mom always did say trees can hurt you," he was still in a daze from having the tree fall on him after crashing into the ground.  He was about to stand up, when he felt a pair of eyes focused on him, he turned around to see the blonde headed girl, right up in his face, the sudden startle made him fall back and hit his head on a rock," Ow!, that hurt" the girl couldn't help but giggle at the sight.

" Are ya OK, that looked like it hurt a lot," she cleared her voice of the giggles, " My names Applejack, what happened to ya?," she asked him curiously.

He rubbed the sore spot on his head, " I don't actually remember, I guess I was climbing a tree and things went bad, I don't remember, but I do remember everything else, my names Axel,".

She looked at him for a moment, " Axel, that's a funny soundin now, I like it," she slapped him on the back which made him wince, " Oops I'm soory, I forgot that, that there tree hurt yer back,". As she softly rubbed his back, she started to stare at the mark on his hand, " Yer a unicorn right?, I could tell cause granny says, that all unicorns got funny lookin marks on their right hands,".

He slowly looked at the mark on his hand, " I know what this mark is called, but i can't recall the name, wait I'm a unicorn," with a quick memory flashing through his head of him performing magic, he made the revelation that he was indeed a unicorn, " Yeah I am, but I always thought unicorns looked like horses,".

Applejack only shrugged, " From what granny says, we're all named after some kind of horse, anyway what are we gonna do with you, I can't bring a boy home, Big Mac will have a fit," she stood there thinking for a moment, she gasped in realization, " That's it the club house, you and me can talk there for a while, cmon lets go I wanna know all about ya!," she grabbed his hand and took off in the direction of her club house.

The day seemed to go by so fast, it was already sunset, in truth they had done nothing but talked all day, Axel told Applejack about how he was from some far away place, and that he came to Equestria under the request of someone important, and Applejack told him all about her life on Sweet Apple Acres, and all about the town of Ponyville. Applejack looked outside to see the sun setting, " Uh Oh, when I get home Big Mac is gonna chew my hide out for being home late," she looked rather nervous.

Axel turned his head in confusion, " I could always walk you home you know, I mean it's the least I can do for a new friend," he smiled as he spoke.

At first Applejack was about to decline, she was going to say that Big Mac would throw a fit, but it was better than him chewing her out for being late, " Well, alright then, I mean what are friends for," she smiled back at him.

They started to walk out the club house, until Axel stopped, " Just one question, which way is your home," in all honesty, with the rate that the sun was going down, it was hard to tell what direction home was. " Eh, It cant be that far, lets get going," although they had just met earlier that day, Applejack felt that she could trust her new friend, just by looking in his crimson eyes she could tell he was a trustworthy individual, and something else about him, he had a strange scent to him, something that most others would be frightened by, but It only made Applejack more curious about him.

The sun set quicker than the two eight year old children could anticipate, Applejack wasn't afraid of the dark by any means, but she was afraid of what was in the dark, and the howls in the distance only reassured that fear. She stayed as close as possible to Axel for comfort, " Say Axel, can I uh, can i hold yer hand, so we won't get lost that is," he gave her an assuring smile, and a nod, and held his hand out to her, which she firmly grabbed with no intent of letting go of it, " Thank you kindly Axel," he could only smile in response. As they walked Applejack couldn't help but feel that they were being followed, she frantically looked around while being lead by Axel, and for a split moment, she thought she saw  glowing green eyes not to far from them in the bushes, " Um Axel, do ya think we could hurry up, I don't like this look of this here place,".

Axel looked at her, " Yeah, this place is kinda scary, I've never been a big fan of the dark, let's get moving," they picked up the pace, now jogging, yet still Applejack could feel those green eyes on her back.

Soon a light came into view, it was the lantern that Granny Smith puts on the front porch every night, "Axel  I see it lets go!," she was about to start running for the light, when suddenly something jumped out of the bushes at her. Axel reacted quickly and pulled her out of the way, Applejack was utterly shocked, " Now why did ya go and do that!," all he did was point. Her eyes locked with the same glowing green eyes she had seen before, they had come face to face with a timber wolf, she wanted to scream but nothing came out. Axel on the other hand, was bravely holding onto her, albeit he desperately wanted to run away, he couldn't risk her life because of cowardice.

" Applejack, stand back you'll get hurt," he moved her behind him and picks up a stick, he turned to face the wooden beast, their eyes locked. Sweat ran down his forehead as he waited for it to make a move, he went to take a step back, when suddenly the wolf pounced on him, if he hadn't stuck the stick between the wolves mouth it would have surely chomped into him, instead the wolves claws dug into his shoulders. He glanced at Applejack who was frozen in fear, "don't worry Applejack....I'll protect you", the symbol on his hand began to glow, just like his horn did back in his world," he looked the wolf in the eyes, feeling the stick crack between it's jaws, " I'm a unicorn huh, then let's see what kind of magic i can do!". The glow on his hand sparked while attempting to cast a spell, and in the process one of the sparks hit the stick, igniting it. The sudden flames that engulfed the stick in the wolves mouth made it yelp in pain, and let go of the stick, " Whoa, I made fire with magic," Applejack was shocked as well, she had heard that unicorns could do many things with magic, bu never make fire out of thin air.

Only one thing stood between Applejack and the ravenous timber wolf, a single boy who cast aside his fears to protect his new friend, " So you don't like fire huh, then you really should get going cause I'm fired up," he started to wildly wave the burning stick at the wolf, forcing it to back away, but that wasn't what Axel wanted it to do, in order for Applejack to be safe, he needed to run it off. He pushed all his strength that he had to his arms, pulled back his arms, and swung it at the wolf, striking it in the head, and snapping the stick over its head, as well as setting a small part of its face on fire, which in turn made it bark and yelp in pain as it scurried off. Axel began to fall back onto the hard ground before he felt arms grab him.

" Yer heavier than you look ya know that right," Applejack said as she struggled to hold him up, he assisted her by managing to stand on his own two feet. The two of them shared a long stare before one spoke up, " Ya saved me,"*she hugged him and didn't let go for the longest time,she felt like she wanted to cry, she was so happy that she was alive, and that it was her friend who kept her alive.

" I wasn't strong enough," he said.

Applejack looked at him with a confused look, she felt him grab her hand and lead her to the front porch of her home, " What do ya mean, ya scared that critter off,".

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.

The 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.