Applejack grunted as the saddlebags were loaded up. As of now, she was carrying all the food the group would need to survive the trip back.

“I’m sorry I can’t go with you, Applejack. I’m needed here, to maintain the barrier… Combined, Luna and I can place you somewhere around the town. Perhaps near the Everfree?” Twilight asked, standing beside Princess Luna.

“Now, why in tarnation would I want to come out there? You know what lives in that forest, right? How about your library? It’s right in the middle ‘a town and was locked up nice and tight.” Applejack shifted around under the saddlebags, letting them settle against her back more comfortably. The four of them - Applejack, Twilight, Luna and Pinkie Pie - stood in the castle antechamber, the long staircase reaching up behind them.

“The only problem with that might be precision. One slip up, and you could be teleported into solid matter. A field would be safer for the teleportation, but it’d leave you in the open.” Thinking on it, she nodded. “We’ll aim for the Library… I’m confident that we can get you there safely.” Twilight looked over to Luna, who met her gaze with a quizzical look.

“Where is Miss Scratch?” Luna looked from Applejack to Pinkie Pie, who Twilight noted to be abnormally silent. The pink pony was just looking down, shifting under her own empty saddlebags. She didn’t look upset, but rather lost in thought, or perhaps lost without a thought. When Twilight had asked her to return to Ponyville and keep everypony’s spirits up, she’d been answered with a laugh and a smile. It had been the only joyful expression Twilight had seen on her since the day after they arrived in Canterlot.

“Right here. Just explorin’ is all.” Vinyl walked from a nearby door, empty saddlebags on her torso. She kept quiet other than that, her glasses hiding her eyes. Twilight felt another pang of guilt, but kept it off her face as the white pony joined the others. When Vinyl met Twilight’s eyes, she frowned slightly, her headphones levitating to her ears, blocking anything the princess had to say out. The music wasn’t so loud Vinyl couldn’t hear, but it got her point across nicely, making Twilight only feel worse.

“You’re objective is simple. Retrieve the sound system from Vinyl’s house. We will have speakers in the Crystal Empire, so don’t worry about those. If you can, gather all the food and water possible. We could use extra stock for the foals.” Twilight added the last bit as a footnote, shifting her attention along the three. “But above all else, I want you three to get back here safely. Please?” Twilight offers a smile, trying to reassure the others.

“Of course we promise, Twilight.” The first words from Pinkie were accompanied by her wide smile, making Twilight feel much better about all of this. “We’ll need to hurry back so we can all get to the Crystal Empire. I want to see Shining Armor and Cadence. And the new baby!”

Twilight couldn’t not smile at that. When she had heard the news that Cadence was pregnant, she had been ecstatic. Twilight went on a trip about half a year ago to see the newborn, named White Knight, but her friends had been unable to come. It had been the highlight of her past two years, finding out she was an aunt. Her parents had been so proud of Shining Armor when the baby was born.

Twilight’s mind roamed to her parents. She hadn’t thought about them a lot recently, but she had made sure they were safe. It turned out, they were in the upper levels of Canterlot when the horde arrived and were among the group protected by Luna’s barrier. Twilight redirected her attention to the task at hoof.

“Thank you, Pinkie.” Twilight said, calmly. “Now, you three should be off. Once you make it back here, send out a signal. Hm… Vinyl, if I remember, you have a spell that you use at shows. It’s one I don’t know, but it could be useful.” Twilight paused, then looked over to the white pony. Vinyl was bobbing her head slightly, ignoring Twilight completely. “Vinyl.” Twilight flicked a small burst of magic at the unicorn, turning off her music.

“What?” Vinyl asked sourly.

“I want to learn that firework spell you use at your concerts. Can you teach me the formula?

Vinyl frown, flicking her headphones back down to her neck. “There isn’t a formula; I just do it. I’m not like you, all books and calculations and…” Vinyl trailed off, sighing. “You don’t know it, ‘cause I made it myself.” Vinyl was quick with her words, making Twilight wince. The princess felt quite meek, under the invisible stare of the DJ. “I know what one you mean and I’ll do it once we’re in sight. You ain’t got no worries, Princess. That good enough for you?”

Twilight had nothing to say back to that, but nodded her consent. In silence she turned to look at Luna, who in turn, looked back. The two turned their heads back to the three ponies before them in unison. “Well, shall we then?” Luna asks, a collective and affirmative nod waving over the group.

Both of the princesses begin casting together, moving closer, sparks jumping between their horns as they amplified one-another’s magical energy. The spell flickered and flashed, the aura around them growing exponentially; there was a burst of light, and in the next second, the three ponies in front of them were gone. The two teetered a moment, a spell of that magnitude being a rather heavy burden. After a moment to pull themselves together, Twilight looked to Luna.

“We should move. I don’t doubt that we’ll be needed shortly, at the barrier.” Luna nodded to Twilight as she spoke and together, the two trotted off to help the ponies of Canterlot.

In a flash of energy, Applejack and the others found themselves in the dark outdoors. At first, Applejack thought Twilight miscalculated and landed them in a field after all, but after their eyes focused, they found themselves on the balcony of Twilight’s library, overlooking a desolate and half-destroyed Ponyville.

It had been over two months since the ponies had laid eyes on their home. Doors were torn down, windows were shattered, and gardens were in disarray, but the structures themselves seemed intact. A small number of buildings seemed completely untouched, one of them thankfully being Vinyl and Octavia’s home. The three soaked in the sight of their damaged town in a shared silence. Pinkie was the first to speak, walking to the edge of the balcony.

“It’s so… quiet.” She had no smile as she scanned over the town. “So empty. It’s so sad, seeing Ponyville like this…” She looked back to the others, trying to smile. It wasn’t her most convincing performance. “But it’s not empty now, is it? We’re here.”

Applejack responded with a soft smile, trying to cheer up her friend. “Yeah. That’s right, sugarcube. We’re back now.” Applejack watched over the town, seeing something move in her field of vision. She snapped her head over to get a better look and, much to her surprise, it wasn’t a Risen, but something far more uplifting. “Was that… Wynonna?”

Pinkie and Vinyl both turn to look with her, but the shadow had already moved out of sight. Applejack kept quiet for a few more moments, before sighing when nothing else happened. “I wanna check this out before we get the things, okay?”

“Yo, don’t worry ‘bout me, okay? I can handle my stuff. Looks like my house is good, from here. Go and check on how your pup is.” Vinyl seemed down still, but she was bobbing her head softly to the music playing from her headphones. As it turned out, she could still hear, apparently, even with the music on. It seemed this was her own odd way of comforting herself. “Just be careful, ‘kay? We don’t know if those things are out and about here, do we?” Vinyl turned to head inside, but stopped, staring in through the glass door which was swaying slightly in the breeze. “Yo, AJ, was this… open before?”

Applejack turns, shaking her head. “I reckon it wasn’t, Scratch. Not when we left, at least. Keep yer heads on.” The orange pony took charge, using her head to open the door slowly and carefully. Walking in, the three scanned the inner rooms of the library with nervous eyes. It was pitch black inside, making Vinyl use her magic for a basic illumination spell. The library appeared to have been ransacked, books torn off the shelves and thrown to the floor.

Pinkie Pie trotted on ahead at the sight, making Applejack almost call for her to stop. Instead, afraid to make any sound, she gritted her teeth and hurried to catch up to the pink pony, who was looking among the books.

“Hey Applejack,” Pinkie looked up, holding a book in her hoof, a bookmark dangling out of it. “Do zombies read?”

“Well that’s a silly question, Pinkie. Don’t go wanderin’ off and scarin’ me like that.” Applejack kept her voice low, but looked around her. “Wait a minute…” She noticed that, among the chaos were spots of organization, small stacks of untouched books, neatly piled up. There were even signs of somepony eating Twilight’s food and sleeping among the books. Somepony had been living in Twilight’s home.

“You noticed it too?” Pinkie picked up another book as she spoke, a bookmark in that one too. “Somepony was reading these. And it wasn’t a zombie.” Pinkie placed down the book calmly, and look around the library. “Let’s get out of here. This is really creepy.” Applejack and Vinyl had no objections to that, both turning with her to leave. Before long, they were on the streets of Ponyville. Applejack looked to Vinyl, who nudged her head towards her house across the street.

“Meet me back here when you two are done nosin’ around, kay? I’ll keep the door locked. Knock four times so I know it’s you.” She broke away from the others and vanishes into the house, leaving Applejack with her long-time friend.

“So, where was the shadow you saw?” Pinkie looked more like herself, now that Ponyville was all around them. Applejack needed to admit, the sight of home, even as damaged as it was, was a welcoming.

“Over there.” Applejack motioned with her hoof down the road, towards Sugarcube Corner. “I think it turned towards Fluttershy’s Cottage.” They start moving at a brisk but cautious trot. “You don’t think it could be Wynonna, do ya?”

“I think that, after all that’s happened, anything is possible, Applejack. Anything.” Pinkie responded, her tone making Applejack shiver. Suddenly, she wished she had never asked.

With further investigating, they find that the trail didn’t lead towards the Cottage, but to the Cottage. The pair of ponies cautiously approach the building, ducking below the window. Applejack, feeling like this was her duty, leaned up slowly to peer inside.

The inside of Fluttershy’s Cottage was messy, but seemed less ransacked and more sloppily lived in. Applejack saw animals here and there, working together to do this or that. It seemed the pets and animals of Ponyville had taken shelter here.

Applejack felt a wave of relief as she spotted all of her friend’s pets, from Gummy to Wynonna, even Angel and Owlowiscious. Leaning back down, Applejack smiled motioning Pinkie Pie up. The two watch in silence for a little while, before turning to go. Applejack was pleased with what she’d found and couldn’t have asked for more. They looked like they’d be okay.

The town was still empty when the two returned, but night was starting to set. Applejack had half expected it to be swarming with monsters by now, knowing her luck. “We should go get Vinyl and get outta this place, pronto.” Applejack said to Pinkie, hurrying her trot to a gallop. She imagined this place was abandoned by the monsters shortly after they got here, since there was no food around. Approaching Vinyl’s house, Applejack slowed, stopping just outside the door.

Applejack lifted her hoof to knock, but when her hoof met the door, it simply opened, unlocked and damaged slightly. Steeling herself, Applejack motioned Pinkie along, opening the door the rest of the way slowly with a hoof. She was tempted to call out for Vinyl, but that would be very unwise. Pinkie backed in behind Applejack, eyes darting around.

She asked in a hushed voice, “Who would break into here?”

“Dunno.” Applejack kept her voice low as well, heading to the stairs. She had noticed the upstairs light on while she was outside. “You sensin’ anything?” She reaches the top of the stairs, peering around the corner to look down the hall.

“Nothing. Not even a twitch.” Pinkie followed right behind, turning to look down the other way. “But I do see a light.” Pinkie pointed with her hoof, drawing Applejack’s attention to the lit doorway. The door was closed, but the pair could see light from under the frame, somepony moving on the other side. The pair moved up to the door, Applejack staying in front. About halfway down the hall, Pinkie paused, her eyes wide. “Uh oh… Pinchy knee… Pinkie Senses...” She looks between the door and Applejack. “M-maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Vinyl is in here somewhere. We gonna just leave her?” She placed a hoof on the door and took a big breath. All at once, she let out the breath and rammed the door inward, stomping into the room, ready to fight.

“Woah woah!” Vinyl jumped, dropping the picture she’d been holding in her hoof. Her saddlebag was sitting on the bed, stuffed with her sound system and wires. “What is wrong with you two, sneakin’ up on me like that?” She set the picture down, stared at it for a second, then picked it up again. Opening the frame, she pulled out the picture, folding it and putting it into her saddlebags.

Applejack only caught a flash of the picture; a very young Octavia and Vinyl playing together in the park. Vinyl had an electric piano, while Octavia had her cello. Applejack had remembered when those two played like that, back before Vinyl had become a DJ. “Your front door was open. We were worried somethin’ might’a happened to you.”

“Hehehe.” Pinkie giggled a bit, her first genuine laugh in a while. “I knew something scary was going to happen, but I guess we were the scary things, huh? Hehe.” She covered her mouth with a hoof, trying to keep her laughing down.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow over her glasses, levitating her saddlebag onto her back. “It’s unlocked? But I’m sure I shut it…” Pinkie’s laugh cut off. When Applejack looked back, Pinkie was trembling head to toe, her eyes fluttering and her hoof tapping. “Yo, Pinkie… y’alright?”

“I don’t know what this means, but we weren’t the scary thing.” Once the pink pony was done sensing whatever she was sensing, she moved away from the door to be with the other two, turning to watch the only entrance.

Applejack moved in front of the other two, drawing her lasso from her saddlebag, getting ready to hogtie whatever came through that door. In the silence, Vinyl’s ear twitched and she steps forward. “I hear hooves. Somepony’s coming.” Applejack was impressed; she hadn’t heard a thing.

The three braced themselves, ready to face monsters of any shape and size. Vinyl leaned over, pulling something from a nearby cabinet. She held the cello like a club, levitating it upside down beside her, ready to swing it.

“H-hello?” A familiar voice stunned two of the three. Pinkie and Applejack took a half a second to recover, before the voice spoke again. “I’m not one of those… things. Please, I’ve been sneaking into houses to get food. I didn’t know anypony else was still here. If you’re a normal pony, please, don’t hurt me. D-did you stay behind from that other group that came through?”

“Trixie?” Applejack dropped the lasso after a short pause, hurrying to the door, just as the magician came up the stairs at the end of the hall.

In the past few years, Trixie had never become less boastful, but she had become less demeaning of her audience. She’d become quite a popular stage magician and grown in power, looking to eventually be a rival to Twilight once again, at least she had been, until Twilight became a Princess. The stage magician was by no means their friend, but she wasn’t their enemy any more either. Despite all her growth, she still wore the same general style as when they first met her, a pointed mage hat, with a long matching cloak.

“A-Applejack? Pinkie Pie?” Trixie looked shocked for a moment, then came close to crying with joy. She nearly fell over herself, rushing down the hallway. “I thought everypony in Ponyville was one of… them. I came here to find Twilight, but I just found an empty library. I’m so glad to see you two! I was starting to run out of food and water and I-“

“Calm down, Trixie. We know where Twi is.” Applejack smiled, patting Trixie lightly. “She’ll be glad ta see ya after so long. I think she’d be glad to see anypony who isn’t… you know... We were just grabbin’ some sound supplies and rations before we headed back to Canterlot. You wanna tag along?”

Trixie puffed herself up to a proper standing position, pausing a moment and looking between them in a silence that was longer than it had any right to be. She looked like she was summing them up, maybe thinking about her next words, before tossing her hooves out. “The Great and Powerful Trixie would enjoy nothing more than to accompany you all to see the Princess. Her exemplary magical talents will surely prove useful in the time to come.” Vinyl rolled her eyes. Now she remembered this show-boater.

“Just pull your own weight, got it?” Vinyl spat out, levitating the cello back towards the cabinet. After a pause, she drifted the instrument back, resting it on her back and clipping it to her saddlebags. Without a word about the cello, Vinyl walked past the other ponies, heading out the door and down the steps. Applejack and Pinkie just watched her, standing beside a very confused and angry Trixie.

“Ugh. The Great and Powerful Trixie always pulls her weight! She is like a feather to cinder blocks like yourself!” Applejack pushed out a laugh.

“Be nice, Trixie. She had to… put down her best friend a few weeks ago. She ain’t been the same ever since.” Trixie opened her mouth to protest, but let it close slowly. She looked over to Applejack, fixing her mane.

“Fine. Trixie will try to keep her greatness contained more in that one’s company. But the Great and Powerful Trixie would also like to know what became of Sparkle. Trixie was not worried, but I would not like her to perish before I can become stronger than her, you know.” Applejack smirked.

“She’s fightin’ off the Risen - that’s what she’s been callin’ those monsters - in Canterlot. Should be waitin’ for us when we get back.” Trixie let out a sigh that she thought was secret and nods. “Now I wanna ask, you mentioned other ponies commin’ through?”

“Yes. A group of southern ponies, dressed up in folksy clothes. Perhaps from Dodge Junction or around there? They came from the Everfree Forest. Trixie just stayed in the Library.” She rushed through that part quickly, laughing a little here and there. “It was about two days ago... Well, we shouldn’t dawdle. The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t believe she should let any of you get too far from her greatness and I will not linger in this place any longer. I ran out of food this morning...” Trixie pat her chest with a hoof and started out. Pinkie, at some point, had moved to Applejack’s other side.

“Hey Trixie.” Pinkie spoke up, tilting her head to one side. “Why were you looking for Twilight anyway?”

Trixie froze up a bit. “That is Trixie’s business. Do not pester her with trivial questions. Please, let us just be on our way. This place worries me.” With that, Trixie hurried out, leaving no room for further discussion, limping slightly on her left, back hoof. Applejack knew that look though; she’d come looking for Twilight’s guidance. It was an expression Trixie always tried her best to hide.

“It's really hard to trust her.” Pinkie muttered, frowning a little as she watched the aqua mare descend the stairs. “But we don’t have a choice. We can’t leave her here, like this.” Pinkie started off, Applejack following beside her.

“And you think I was born on Crazy Creek? I don’t trust her as far as I can throw her... Scratch that, I could throw her pretty far. She never really came off to me as the ‘redemption’ type. Though times like these, they can change you.” Applejack smiled, as they started down the steps, heading to the front door. “Just keep smilin’ and give her a chance, I say. She seems to be in a pretty bad way.”

As the two vanish through the door, a pair of solid, bright blue eyes flicker to life in the shadows of the lower floor. After a brief moment, they close again, remaining silent.

Author's Note

So, I think a little explaining is in order.

At the time of writing this story, I was still in the beginning of Season 3. Cadence and Shining Armor hadn't had a baby yet, Trixie hadn't shown up in No Second Prances yet and I apparently hit a lot of things on the head. I mean, Cadence having a baby was an obvious eventuality. I still think White Knight is a better -and funnier - name, but Cadence giving birth to an Alicorn is much more interesting, I confess...

-Inkheart