Prologue- The Results of Pony Tales
Prologue- The Results of Pony Tales
She was cold. She was always bucking cold. She pulled her ripped-up coat tighter to her.
The forced cheeriness of the Queen's day didn't help. No matter how warm the sun was, it couldn't reach her. Not when she was this high up a mountain.
Compounding Applejack's problems was the low, regular pulsing light of her Element spilling from the saddlebag she had stashed it in, and the argument it was currently causing.
"I'm telling you guys, it's her!"
Applejack facehoofed. "Rainbow, just because the Elements are acting up, that don't mean it's Twilight trying to send us a message. Hay, it could just mean they're running low on power. We just don't know."
"Why else would she send them to us, unless she wanted a way to get in touch?" Dash buzzed excitedly above Applejack's head.
"Oh, I don't know... maybe to keep them out of the Queen's hooves?" AJ suggested hotly. That was the only reasonable idea. The only possible one.
It'd been a year since the Elements had popped into her living room, along with a note from Twi begging her and the rest of the group to keep them safe. It also described what had happened in Canterlot. It was more crazy talk, about an invasion and monsters out of pony tales. She hadn't believed a word of it.
Then the soldiers came.
They'd all taken to wrapping their Elements up and storing them in their saddlebags, except for Rainbow Dash. She still wore hers around her neck. Which is how they'd first noticed the pulsing. Back when there were still five of them.
The memory of Pinkie and Fluttershy being dragged away as she and the other two were forced to flee still rankled Applejack. Those first few weeks had been chaos, and some of that hurt seeped into her voice. "Twilight's dead, RD. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's the truth. There's no way she could survive a year in that hive. Even if she's the Element of Magic. What we need to do now is keep laying low and keep preparing for our counter-attack The rebellion should start any time now."
"If you were honest, Applejack, you'd admit we haven't accomplished squat." Dash got nose to nose with her. "You've just given up! Like you gave up on her!"
AJ couldn't let that one go. "You left her, too! I won't let you lead us on a suicide mission so you can settle your guilt!"
In the silence following Applejack's roar, Rarity could be heard quite easily as she cleared her throat. The noise came as a surprise to the other two. She'd been quiet thus far.
"I... I agree with Rainbow Dash."
"What?!" Applejack was she'd misheard that.
"Just hear me out, Applejack." Rarity raised a hoof to calm her friend. "It's true that Twilight may very well be dead. But if she isn't, and if we found out later that we could have helped her? It'd destroy us, Applejack."
"But what about the Elements?" AJ demanded.
Rarity levitated the two she held, Generosity and Kindness, so that they were level with her eyes and she could study them. "I don't know much about these things. I always left that to Twilight, so I could focus on my art. But I do know one thing. Even if those monsters were to get all six, they wouldn't be able to use them. I know that for certain."
"But..." Applejack had to get them to see reason.
"Our friends have suffered enough, Applejack." Rarity's voice hardened as she said it. "It's time we saved them. It's time we saved our families."
That was it, there was no other choice but to do it now. Applejack straightened her hat. "Let's go."
"I'm glad you came around AJ, but it looks like we don't have a choice after all. Look." Dash pointed, and as Applejack did she saw that the pegasus was right. They were surrounded.
The monsters had found them.