Ponyvaniaby Mosai57ChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 1The fire could be seen for miles. Applejack stormed through Ponyville to find that it was being overrun with demons and skeletons. Fighting through the hoard she reached the library, but it was in vain as she kicked open the door to find Twilight and Spike lifeless in the blazing background. She took only a second to mourn until she remembered that she still had other friends to check on. Going through the town was as if going through a nightmare with no end. Every street was filled with creatures; every house was engulfed in flames, and not a pony to be found. Every pony she had looked for was, as all the others, drained or ash, all but Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy. They were nowhere to be found. Daylight, the only friend Applejack had started reach across the land. The creatures vanished into the Everfree forest with a smile, joyful over last night’s raid. Applejack, weary from fighting and struggling all night, collapsed in her barn in Sweet Apple Acres. When she awoke she saw a familiar face staring at her. “TWILIGHT!” Screamed Applejack. She jumped at Twilight only to go through her and hit the floor. “Wha- What’s goin on?” “Applejack, stay calm, I’m dead” Explained Twilight “How in Equestria is that possible?” “I was putting a revival spell on Spike when those creatures attacked him. I was in the middle of the spell when a skeleton archer shot me. The spell was still active when I died but only halfway, the spell was put on me instead, but now only my ghost can be used.” Accepting the explanation, one thought went through Applejack’s head, revenge. “Where can we find da source’a these things?” asked Applejack. “I don’t know, going through Ponyville I saw a few of those…’things’ go into the Everfree Forest” Twilight said. “Then that’s where we’ll start, come on!” Applejack was almost to the barn door when Twilight shot out in front of her. “HOLD IT” Twilight exclaimed. “Going out there with no plan and no weapons is just stupid! You’ll end up like all the rest!” Twilight could feel herself getting teary eyed. “Now Twilight don’ be silly, I got my rope don’ I?” Applejack said trying to cheer her up “That won’t do” Twilight said feeling better but more serious. “You need protection” At that moment Twilight jumped at Applejack and burst into small light increments that surround Applejack. Applejack jumped back to see her friend gone “Twilight? “...” “TWILIGHT!” “Yes?” Twilight said casually. “Where are you?!” Applejack said in a worried and confused voice. “In your thought patterns” “But I can’t see ya anywhere” “I combined my being to you to give you a chance at defeating those things, by the way look down” Applejack did as she was told to find that slightly glowing green leather armor with a white trim that complemented the hat she wore had appeared all around her except for her head, hind legs and tail. “I had been working on a way to create armor for months now, and it worked!” Twilight Squeed. Applejack sighed, “If one more thing happens to me I’ll… WHERE’S MY ROPE!” “On your right shoulder” Applejack looked to find not her rope, but a whip rolled up on her shoulder. The whip was placed just right to grab the handle with Applejack’s mouth. When she grabbed the whip she noticed that it felt just like her old rope. She rose up and snapped the whip hard at a stack of hay wrapped up next to her. The attack cut the hay in half. Applejack felt good, not for the way the whip came natural to her, but to the fact that she was about to get revenge. The rope magically rolled up and jumped back on her shoulder when tried to bring it back to her. “What in the hay?” Applejack asked. “It’s another one of my spells on the whip. Makes it easier to be on the go” Twilight explained. Applejack shrugged learning by now to just accept whatever else Twilight had in store for her. She looked around the barn and shed a single tear wondering if she would ever see this old place again. “Alright, let’s get going” Applejack said, raring to go. They approached the Everfree Forest to find that there was no sun what-so-ever over the forest. It was also dead silent and all that was visible was fog, trees and the Everfree path that seemed to stretch for miles. Applejack could tell that Twilight was scared even though she couldn’t see her. “I’m fine, don’t worry” Twilight said “I was just wor-“Applejack began until she realized something, “how did you know what I was thinkin?” “I told you, I’m in your thoughts. I know what you are doing, how you are feeling and what you are thinking” Applejack was a little nervous believing that her privacy was being broken in half. “Uh, well can you stop it?” “Nope” “Great” Applejack thought in a sarcastic tone. Almost unwillingly Applejack started to walk through the forest path knowing that this was not going to be fun. “What was that?” Twilight asked. “ Oh, uh NOTHING, nothing” Applejack said hoping she would buy it. Before Twilight had time to rebuttal an arrow shot 3 feet in front of Applejack. She jumped back to find that a skeleton archer was about 20 yards away. As though through pure instinct, Applejack rushed to the archer. She grabbed the whip, jumped in the air and brought the whip down on the Skeleton causing it to burst into black mist. Applejack tugged on the whip causing it to jump on her shoulder. “I’m a really startin to like this thing” In Applejack’s praise for her new favorite toy, Twilight screamed as she saw another skeleton with a spiked mace came up beside her and bashed its weapon onto Applejack’s back. Applejack looked around her, thinking that a small branch just fell on her when she noticed the mace. She gave a yelp and, in a spinning motion, swung the whip and split the skeleton in half. Wide eyed and breathing hard, she looked around to make sure that nothing else was trying to kill her. “T-Twilight” Applejack stuttered still shaken from the event “…Yes?” Twilight said as calm as she could muster. “Thanks for uh,” She cleared her throat to give her a second to calm down. “Thanks for the armor” “Uh…no problem” Applejack reached behind her and grabbed the mace handle with her mouth, pulled off the mace and threw it aside. A few moments of tense silence later, Applejack believed it was safe to keep going without being hit from behind. After what seemed to be 20 minutes of walking, they came across a small village of goblins with tents in a circle along the main path. A group of goblins were dancing around a bon fire with a pink, puffy haired pony tied to a spinning pole over it. Pinkie pie was doing her normal business of talking up a storm to the goblins; it was almost as if she was oblivious to the fact that she was being cooked alive. “I LOVE DANCING!” Pinkie started” You know one time I was throwing a party and I got the whole place to start dancing, we started to do the conga line and the tango, and even a few free style sessions. Well everyone except Twilight who could use a few lessons from Rainbow Dash. She is a party monster! The only one who could compete with her is Spike, but I don’t think-“ Twilight heard the name and Applejack could hear the crying in her head. They both had enough of seeing this charade go on any longer and Applejack was ready to fight. Applejack ran in and bucked the nearest goblin she saw into the fire. Grabbing the whip she wrapped the end of it around the enemy to her right, tossed it over her and into the one on the left. She started counting the rest when the number 5 came up in her head. “Thanks Twilight” She thought, then began her rampage on the rest of the goblins. After the last Goblin had thrown into a tree and smashed into his own tent, Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Howdy there, Pinkie” She said in a relieved and refreshed voice. “OH MY GOSH, that was amazing!” Pinkie started “there were like a bazillion of those things and-“Before she went on any longer there was a hoof in her mouth. “How about we get you down before you get burned?” Applejack said in a warming tone. After Pinkie was cut down, she explained to them that she was taken prisoner by the goblins because they thought she was made of candy. When they realized she wasn’t the next morning they thought they could use a snack. Then they came to her rescue. “By the way, how is everypony back in town?” Pinkie asked. All Applejack could do is look away. “Oh, well then let’s get the rest of our friends” Applejack stared at her “what do you mean Pinkie?” “Didn’t I tell you in my story? Nice conveyance writer” Pinkie sa- “HEY!” “Oh stop whining” “I’m not whining I’m complaining…oh just finish it” “Okay doki Loki,” “Pinkie who are you talking to?” Applejack asked. “Oh nothing, it’s like Twilight in your head” “Pinkie how did you know I was here?” Twilight asked “Duh, cause I read the last two pages” Applejack gave a very confused look at Pinkie Pie, but then brushed it off thinking I was probably because of her Pinkie sense. “I wasn’t the only one who was captured, I saw Dashie, Fluttershy and Rarity taken to the middle of the forest” Pinkie explained. “I also made a friend with a wolf in the forest while I was being carried by the funny dancers. But he wasn’t very nice because he jumped at me and cut my left hoof with one of his teeth, so I guess I never made a friend with it, I thought I did but I guess I was just in my mind. He must not have been a normal wolf; I mean he WAS really big. The dancers scared him off after he attacked though. Didn’t I tell you that too?” She said staring at m-…off into space. “Wait what kind of a wolf was it?” Twilight asked almost worried. “A big one with red eyes, sharp teeth and-“Before she could finish her somewhat odd tale something appeared on the main path to the middle of the forest, something big. On the path was a Goblin the size of Applejack times 5 and had a club of and least 3 yards long. Eyes glowing red and teeth gleaming in the moonlight, it was indeed a monster hell bent on going after whatever was in its path and Applejack was right in front of him. The monster roared and threw his club down; Applejack dodged left then jumped on the club and raced up its arm. She jumped up, took her whip and cracked it on the monster’s eye and leapt behind him. Crying out in pain, the monster turned around and started swinging his club violently. Applejack avoided the club with a back-step and rushed under his legs and met up with Pinkie. “Pinkie” Applejack said talking to Pinkie, “Ah need you ta distract em” “OKAY” Pinkie happily said. After rubbing his eye the giant goblin turned around again to find the pink pony he found earlier. “HI” Pinkie exclaimed, “I never introduced myself before, I’m Pinkie Pie. Wow you big, almost bigger than the library back at Ponyville” Twilight sighed again. Applejack took advantage of the monster being confused and came up behind him, turned around and bucked as hard as she could, giving him a Charley horse. The Goblin went to his knees barely missing Pinkie who bounced away to a nearby tree. Taking the whip, Applejack jumped on his back and threw the whip around the goblin’s neck. The giant thrashed around, but Applejack had a steady stance around the top of his back, refusing to budge. Eventually the Giant slowed down from lack of oxygen giving Applejack a split second to jump onto his right shoulder turn around and pull hard on the whip and hear a loud snap around the goblin’s neck that could be heard for half a mile. The Huge goblin fell to the ground with a loud thump and threw Applejack a couple meters. Pinkie helped Applejack up off the ground with a grin on her face like nothing happened. Applejack grabbed her whip, walked over to the bon fire and sat down to rest. “THAT WAS AMAZING!” Pinkie shouted. “It truly was Applejack, but how did you know what to do?” Twilight asked. “The writer made her because he thought it was cool!” “Pinkie seriously, who are you talking to?” Chapter 2The forest was nothing but a foggy maze with no end. Pinkie pie was no help to the problem due to her consistent talking. The trees around them seemed to close in tighter and tighter going into a tunnel formation. Applejack could feel herself almost going insane until Twilight pointed out something ahead of them in her head, making Applejack rub her eyes in reassurance that it was real. The opening at the end of the tree tunnel revealed a huge castle on the edge of a cliff over a Blackened lake. Bats filled the air and the only light was that of the full moon. By itself the castle gave off a tone of death: anyone could feel it, alive or dead. The castle felt familiar to all ponies, but Twilight was the only one who realized why. “This must be the old castle of the pony sisters” Twilight thought to herself. “But how’s that possible?” Applejack asked, “Dat castle was old and broken down, this one looks as if it was just built, not to mention there was no lake or cliff” She was right, THIS castle looked fairly new, but the landscape around it felt strange and cold. Unlike the forest that was foggy and cramped, the scenery seemed to completely change. There was no fog anywhere except the lake; the ground was also light gray instead of the brown they were walking in before and the whole area was wide open like the inside of a bubble stuck in time. “Well I’m not entirely sur-“Twilight paused for a sec. “You heard my thoughts?” “You were thinking?” Applejack asked. “Apparently I didn’t think this whole combine myself with you thing” Applejack grinned a bit at the fact that she could use Twilight’s own trick against her, but got back on track. “Anyway, the only thing that could change a large enough area like this would take an advanced level of magic, dark magic.” Twilight explained. “Well, COME ON GUYS” Pinkie yelled bouncing towards the castle Applejack chased after Pinkie and stopped her warning her that anything could be in there, not seeing that they were close to the castle by the time they caught her. A rectangular stone bridge covered a small gap between the area of land they were standing on and the entrance to the castle. On each of the corners of the bridge sat a stone gargoyle. All the gargoyles had sharp claws that hung over the pillars each of them were sitting on and eyes that stared off in the distance. Applejack and Pinkie started to walk (and bounce) across the bridge when the statues came to life attacking immediately with no warning. Applejack avoided the barrage of attacks from the three beasts that were after her with ease, Pinkie had no such luck. One of the Gargoyles cornered Pinkie against the right pillar closest to the forest. With one swift swing of its claws, the gargoyle slashed pinkie on her right side causing a gash that was half a foot long. Pinkie screamed in pain as her blood started dripping down. Applejack heard her and panicked knowing that Pinkie was in trouble, but couldn’t get away from the beasts that were already after her. She turnaround and swung her whip around the gargoyle to her left and pulled to the right causing the one to crash into another and make both disappear in a pool of black smoke. Twilight noticed the monster behind them and ordered Applejack to buck NOW. Trusting in her friend she immediately lifted her back legs and destroyed the beast behind her with a blind kick. Pinkie had tears going down her eyes from the pain she felt, and then she looked at her wound and saw the blood slowly going down her back and on her mane. She turned to the monster in front of her then at the moonlight above her…and changed. The sweet and innocent pony became a 7 foot monster that had sharped teeth, straight, darkened hair and muscles, BIG muscles. She turned back to the creature and glared at it with memory of the slash it had given her. The gargoyle knew its chances were slim and tried to fly away. Pinkie launched after her prey with her powerful legs and caught it almost immediately after liftoff; the gargoyle struggled trying to get away until Pinkie crushed its head midair making the body disappear in the usually black smoke. After Applejack saw that the third gargoyle was gone for good she looked over and saw another…thing with dark pink hair and a sense of killing around it. Her first reaction was to attack, but a voice in her head told her to stop. “Applejack stop, I think that’s Pinkie pie!” Twilight yelled after noticing the mane. “Twilight there is no way that’s pinkie, she’s hurt over th-“Applejack started, but when she looked over there was nothing over there. “But, it can’t be” “THE WOLF!” Twilight yelled suddenly “The wolf that pinkie found in the forest! It must have been a werewolf!” All Applejack could think about was the giant beast in front of her until she saw Pinkie’s mane. It had been dark and straight before…just without the teeth eyes. Applejack stood in her place and looked back at Pinkie, who was breathing hard at the ground, and examined her for a while. She started walking towards Pinkie (against her better judgment) wondering if she could do anything to help. Pinkie turned to Applejack and snarled, making Applejack jump a bit. “Uh, Pinkie? Are you okay?” Applejack asked. Pinkie growled at Applejack and got into a pouncing position. The next thought of Applejack was run, but Twilight wouldn’t have it. “Let me try to reason with her” Twilight said. “And how do you suppose you’re going to that?” Applejack asked. “I would need you to jump on her back so we can calm her down by magic. Because I’m with you my magic isn’t as effective unless its close range.” “You can still you use your magic?” “Almost, I can’t really do much for the moment” “Which is why you couldn’t block anything with that shield you can usually make?” “Precisely, now hurry!” Without another thought Applejack rushed Pinkie, but Pinkie used her giant arms to smash Applejack back where she was before only on the ground. She got up and tried to get behind her time and time again in vain. “She’s too strong!” Twilight yelled “Oh gee you think” Applejack muttered sarcastically. Pinkie looked ready to attack again when something burst out of one of the castle windows from the right side. Rainbow Dash had been taken into the castle and thrown into a metal jail, alone. Nothing was getting her out of that jail, not yelling or bucking or flying. Life almost seemed gone, until one of the guards jumped back after being bucked at and dropped the keys to the cell. She noticed the keys after 30 seconds of silence. Luckily the keys were almost right next to the cell she was in. After sliding the keys into the cage, grabbing them with her mouth and unlocking she started flying through the large corridors of the castle trying to find her way out. After 1 hour of flying around she started become tired and stopped for a second on the ground. She looked around her and noticed that there was another corridor to her left with a window up high. FREEDOM, it was so close, she flew as fast as she could towards it and was almost there, but she didn’t notice the rock the size of her head coming towards her…fast. The rock had come from one the rock golems of the castle, masters of the earth with precise aim. Rainbow Dash was struck by the rock on her left side slightly grazing her wing causing her to lose balance and speed. She rammed in the wall, something she was used to, slid down the wall to the bottom, turned around and faced her enemy. Rock Golems are giant earth beings that can crush most anything with a swing of their arm, and Rainbow had one right in front of her. Rainbow gave an angry stare at the huge pile of human shaped rubble, half of the stare was given to cover up the fear she was feeling. She was so close to being out of this place and something much bigger was keeping her from doing so. Thoughts ran through her head about what to do, run? Fly? Fight? It didn’t seem worth it, how do you beat moving rock? It did seem pointless until she noticed glowing spots around the shoulders and knees of the monster, weak Spots. Rainbow rushed the golem at a blinding speed and ran into the monster’s left shoulder, the glowing spot burst and the left arm came off. Rainbow, thinking the monster had had enough, rushed the window again. The golem wasn’t letting Rainbow go without a token of remembrance from him. It aimed its arm to where Rainbow was going and shot another one of its rocks. Rainbow was hit again with a rock in the stomach; she crashed through the window with the rock and started to lose altitude while out of breath Applejack got up from being hit and saw the familiar rainbow mane falling from one of the high windows in the castle. She quickly forgot about Pinkie and went after Rainbow Dash running fast in order to save her dropping friend. Pinkie lost interest and let the small thing run along till she saw the brightly colored chew toy coming down. Applejack saw Pinkie rushing towards her, eyes fixed on Rainbow; she couldn’t let Rainbow get eaten by her own friend. She turned around to face her but was tossed aside by the rampaging beast. Pinkie was right under where Rainbow was falling and was about to get her toy when she looked into the eyes of Rainbow Dash at the last couple seconds. Images of her friends rushed through Pinkie’s head. The times when she was happy with them and sad, but they were always with her. She knew that worried look on everypony’s face when they were scared and she tried to cheer them. She then remembered her name what she was doing…AND RAINBOW DASH WAS FALLING TOWARDS HER. Pinkie Pie let out a roar and shrunk back to the size she was before with a worried look on her face. She adjusted herself perfectly under Rainbow and caught her on her back. Pinkie’s tail twitched and she jumped out of the way before the rock slammed into the ground. Meanwhile Rainbow finally caught her breath and exhaled with relief. Applejack trotted over to find both her friends okay. “RAINBOW!” Both Applejack and Twilight yelled as Applejack jumped on the Rainbow manned daredevil. “OUCH. Still hurting here” Rainbow mustered with a laugh after being jumped on. “What in Equestria happened?” Twilight said out loud. “Well,” Rainbow started to explain “It was an epic battle of-“She stopped suddenly. “Twilight?” she asked,” Where are you?” Applejack had almost forgotten that Twilight was dead. But before she started to explain what happened, Twilight jumped in and started to explain herself. When she was done, Rainbow’s mouth was open and she was staring at Applejack, when she noticed what she was doing she quickly got rid of her look. “We still haven’t heard your story Rainbow” Applejack remembered Rainbow Dash’s face lit up as it was her turn to talk. She explained the jail and golem (with a few details added in about throwing a rock back at the golem and making him run into the wall) and crashing out the window because of a “cheap shot”. “Well we could use your help on getting Rarity and Fluttershy back if you’re still okay to keep going” Twilight told Rainbow. “Count me in, I can never leave a friend behind” Rainbow said in a brave voice. “But there is something I don’t understand” “What?” “How can we all hear you if you’re a ghost Twilight” “Just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I can’t use magic to send my voice to your head. It’s just that sometimes if I get startled or excited, I send my voice to everypony around me” Rainbow just accepted it; she did anytime magic was involved because she never understood magic in general anyway. The Ponies, after getting caught up with everything took a second to rest and talk for a while. Eventually they were relaxed and ready to continue. The group walked over to the bridge ready for anything else that might jump out. An abnormally large metal gate blocked the entrance to the exceedingly menacing dark castle. An engraving covered most of the gate, almost like a seal. “How do we get past that huge big door?” Pinkie asked, “Its looks like it’s locked up good.” “I’ll just fly through another window and unlock the door from the other side” Rainbow said. At that moment, as though the castle heard her, Metal bars appeared on all the entrances. “Oh that’s just not fair” Rainbow pouted. “This door doesn’t look like it’s barred at all actually” Twilight said, “Applejack, could you move closer to it?” “Sure I guess” Applejack said with a shrug. Taking a closer look at the seal Twilight came to the conclusion that it needed to be removed in order to get the door open. “Applejack, hit the seal a few times with your whip” Twilight said Rainbow Dash was interested to see her friend in action. Applejack took her whip and cracked it against the seal. For a second the huge door shook and almost seemed to explode on the inside causing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to back a bit before the next attack. Once again, Applejack leapt up and struck the door and the shaking seemed to be worst this time. Trying with all her might this time, she cracked the whip on the door causing the door to burst open with a violent force revealing a lobby that appeared much bigger than what the castle could seem to hold. Chapter 3The Ponies looked around the lobby to find that it was completely unlike the outside of the castle. The interior revealed a white, shining floor with marble pillars on the sides leading to a red carpeted staircase that split left and right at the top. The walls were filled with tapestries and windows; the ceiling above them seemed to stretch on forever. “Are we in the same place?” asked Rainbow Dash. “You mean it doesn’t look like this in the rest of the castle?” Twilight asked to Rainbow. “Not really, when I was flying through everywhere was dark and eerie” “Well that is definitely strange” “Oh I wouldn’t say it’s that bad” Said a smooth voice coming from the stairs All attention was now towards the stairs as they saw a light gray pony casually walking down the top of the stairs from the left. “I find it rather enjoyable myself” Another voice said in a much darker tone. Another pony with bright white fur started walking from the top of the stairs from the right. Both Ponies stopped at the intersection of the stairs. “Everypony listen” Twilight whispered “Those aren’t ponies, they are monsters incapable of feeling mercy or love anymore…Vampires” “Vinyl!” Rainbow yelled happily to the bright white pony not listening to Twilight at all “And Octavia!” Rainbow flew over to the ponies at the top of the Stairs. “You guys really had me worried; I thought the fire back in town-“Rainbow began. But she couldn’t say another word because Vinyl floated up and seized Rainbow Dash by the neck from behind her with her front leg. “I don’t know who you are my frisky flyer” Vinyl said, “But you do look…delicious” Rainbow Dash looked in all different directions wondering what she could do, and then she saw the teeth of her holder on her right. She could feel the intensity of the situation she was in and the breath of her captor that was behind her. Vinyl started to lean closer to bite down, but let a scream of pain instead, releasing Rainbow in the process. She turned around to see Applejack with her whip out and glaring at her. “You’ll pay for that you little-“Vinyl began but was cut off by Octavia. “Don’t be too hasty my friend” Octavia warned to Vinyl. “We have better things to do than start a fight here; we might get the floor dirty” Vinyl considered attacking anyway, but decided against it and went back to Octavia. Rainbow flew back to her friends while Vinyl joined her partner. “Besides, let’s let them meet the good doctor’s friends first” Octavia said with a grin. Before any of the four ponies had time to wonder what she was talking about the two vampires put out a hoof and created a black, misty force field at the top of the stairs. “Why those no good, dirty varmints” Applejack said. “NOW how are we supposed to get to them?” “Hey AJ, just hit the thing with your whip” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Well, worth a shot” Applejack walked halfway up the stairs, took her whip, jumped and stuck the shield with a crack. When she did an electrical current went through the whip and zapped her. She fell down the stairs onto the white floor. Rainbow Dash flew over and helped Applejack up. “Do you have any more bright ideas?” Applejack asked sarcastically to Rainbow Dash. “Well, you didn’t have to do it” Rainbow retorted. “I was just trusting in your judgment” “Guys stop fighting!” Twilight yelled intervening. “It’s getting us nowhere and we have bigger things to worry about.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in that guilty face you get when you’re lectured. “OOO, I know that face! Twilight makes a lot of ponies get it” Pinkie shouted…Pinkie get your own story! The three ponies all look at Pinkie in confused look (Twilight even more confused and curious on what face she was talking about) but went back to the problem at hand. The previously arguing ponies looked back at each other for a second before talking “I’m sorry” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said to each other. Both surprised each other and jumped a bit, then laughed it off. “Maybe Twilight could use here magic?” Pinkie asked. “Well there is a ‘dispel magic’ spell, but I still can’t use my magic too well” Twilight explained to Pinkie…again “Wait, Pinkie, didn’t you say a while back that you saw Rarity being taken through the forest with the others?” Twilight asked hopefully. “Hmm, I can’t remember, hold on a sec” Pinkie pulled a stack of papers out of nothing it seemed and began reading the story again…Hey, that’s cheating! After reading through the papers she tossed the papers to her left making them disappear. “I DID, I DID SAY THAT!” Pinkie shouted All Ponies stared at Pinkie Pie hoping that she hadn’t gone insane. “Twilight, You were sayin?” Applejack Asked to Twilight trying to drive attention from what they all just saw. “OH, right” Twilight said “Rarity is a unicorn so she can learn the dispel magic spell” “How are we going to find Rarity in this huge place?” Rainbow asked. Everypony pondered for a second until Pinkie hopped over to the left of the staircase. “I think she’s over here; my pinkie sense is telling me that I’m going to meet old friends through this door” Pinkie stated On the wall to the left of the staircase was a small, old, wooden door with a sign to the right labeled “Laboratory”. It seemed to not go with the rest of the lobby they were in due to the look and size. After a few moments of silence the other ponies shrugged and chose to go with Pinkie’s judgment: Due to their past experiences with Pinkie’s sense they knew to not go against it. Rainbow Dash flew over and opened the door revealing a dark narrow staircase lightly light by small, dim candles leading down. Applejack walked over and saw the path leading down, then went past the other two ponies and started walking down. She paused for a sec noticing that neither of the two ponies at the top was following her. “Come on guys” Applejack said to them. “We can’t pull a Fluttershy right now we have to-“ She stopped realizing that she just said the name they were all trying to avoid hearing. Fluttershy was the nicest pony in the world that you could come across ever. She would always try to help whenever she could…as long as it didn’t involve dragons. The three ponies were quiet for a second, but suddenly gained new found confidence in the mention of their friend they needed to rescue. “Then let’s get going!” Rainbow Dash shouted out. “Okie doki loki” Pinkie said agreeing. The Ponies were almost racing down the stairs “I’m going to save all of my friends” Applejack thought intensely. “And we’re going to help you” Twilight thought in reply. The Ponies found another door at the end of the staircase, similar to the one they found at the top. Applejack reached for the door, but Pinkie stopped her saying that she got a combo of ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch. Applejack stepped back and the door in front of them burst open creating a dust plume. When the dust clear away a huge, human shaped monster stood in front of them. “RUN!” Twilight yelled. They obeyed and jolted up the stairs not even bothering to look behind them. Applejack was the first to reach the top and the first to find that is was locked. The others caught up; hearing the news of the door their faces winced in fear. Footsteps could be heard, but not seen. Each step could be heard a little bit more. After 20 or so steps they saw the face of their attacker, a jumbled mess of stitches filled the face along the cheeks and eyes. After another step its neck was visible and revealed a metal bolt on both sides of its neck that gave off little sparks of electricity. Twilight noticed the stitches on the eyes and formulated a plan in her head. “Applejack, take your whip and wrap it around its legs” Twilight said as calm as she could. “Rainbow dash, I need you to rush him as fast as you can and knock him down the stairs” The plan couldn’t have gone more perfect. Applejack threw her whip around both of the legs causing the monsters to stop in place. Rainbow shot off leaving behind a small rainbow and smashed into the monster. After being hit square in the chest the human shaped creature groaned lowly and fell down the darkened stairs. The ponies were breathing heavily as the sounds of the monster’s crashes grew more and more silent until they could no long hear them anymore. A minute later, Applejack started down the stairs with a bit of curiosity; the others followed. They reached the bottom of the stairs. When they got there, they were relieved to see a dead and bleeding monster just outside the door frame. All the ponies walked over it with caution, just in case it decided to get up again for no reason. Through the door was an array of cords and wired that seemed to connect to everywhere. The room was rather larger than what they expected, but unlike the rest of the castle any of them had seem so far, it was dark, but you could see bit and pieces of the whole thing from the flashes of light and sparks flying from unknown technology. Along the sides of the walls were tubes filled with green liquid; a few of the tubes had blobs of what looked like blue goo floating in them. In the distance all the ponies could hear faint noises, like orders being given. At the other end of the room from where they were coming from they saw a door similar to the ones they passed down there. Sounds of frantic footsteps came and went from behind the door. Unable to take the suspense, Rainbow Dash flew to the door and pulled it open. Rarity had been captured before, but in different settings. She found herself trapped in a steel box resembling a jail cell with a single lock on one of the sides. Blinding lights were shining on her making the rest of the room pitch black in all directions that she looked. After a minute of looking around and thinking about what was going on she heard a series of tiny clanking noises. She tried to see through the darkness around her to see what was making the mysterious metal sound; a door opened, and she got her answer. T.A.M. was engraved on the robot’s front metal plate; the name was the first thing that Rarity noticed after looking to where the sound of the door had come from. Above the plate was a head made of one big red, robot eye. It had no arms, but two rope-like tentacles coming from its back. It looked like an upside-down cone with an eye at the top and wheels on the bottom. The Robot rolled around the room checking on weird devices and equipment. “Hello?” Rarity asked it. The Robot didn’t seem to hear anything and just continued its work. “Could you do me a favor and release me?” Rarity asked in a formal voice. T.A.M. ignored her again. It seemed to be working on something. Rarity left the robot alone for a while, talking was not working and the robot wasn’t really doing anything besides waving its tentacles around like a mad man. After a minute of rolling around the room the robot turned to Rarity and stared at her with its one red eye. The robot grabbed a scalpel with one of its tentacles and moved towards Rarity. Technical Autopsy Machine was the words Rarity read under the engraving on its plate. “Stop right there!” Rarity said loudly but firmly. The robot paused. Everything that it had cut had never talked to it before. “What in EQUESTRIA do you think you are doing?!” Rarity asked T.A.M stared at Rarity in confusion and fear. The Robot backed off a bit. “I demand that you release me immediately!” Rarity…demanded. Without another pause or clank the robot quickly removed all of the straps. Rarity walked out of the box and straightened her hair that had gone frizzy from laying on the bottom of the box too long. She took another look around the room and saw an assortment of a typical autopsy room; needles, sharp objects, medicine, lasers, entrails in tubes of pinkish red liquid, the normal things. T.A.M. was still wondering what was standing in front of it. “Sorry to judge, but this place is just a bit too scary for me” Rarity said turning back to the robot. “I suppose I’ll have to spruce it up a bit” T.A.M. was still staring at Rarity with its huge, red eye in confusion. “I will require some helpers if you wouldn’t mind” Rarity told the robot. T.A.M. almost jumped up off the floor after being spoken to again. The robot regained it thought pattern and sent a signal, almost like a whistle. After 5 seconds 10 miniature robot dogs at around 1 ft. tall ran into the room in a straight line. “Aww, they are so cute” Rarity cooed to the dogs. The dogs almost seemed bashful at the comment. “Right then, I need you all to start taking of these…devices out of here and into the garbage.” Rarity ordered. Immediately, as if a button was pressed, the dogs started going around the room and taking all sorts of objects out of the room. “You too, come on” Rarity said to T.A.M. T.A.M looked at Rarity and became angry thinking that the orders were now ridiculous. The robot took Rarity by her legs and held her upside-down. Rarity screamed and the dogs came in growling and barking. T.A.M. swatted at the dogs with its free tentacles. One of the dogs caught the flailing tentacle and the rest went after the body. The robot dropped Rarity and she was caught by three dogs under her. She was brought the one side of the room away from the chaos that had started. T.A.M. was flailing about with ten dogs all over it. In 5 minutes, T.A.M. was dismembered, never to work again. “Well” Rarity said. “I guess some people don’t know good taste: Come on everyone, we still have much to do” The ponies gathered around the door to see a well-lit purple room through it. Walking in the room they saw a familiar face lying down on a pillow in behind a round table. 10 tail-wagging, sitting robot dogs were around Rarity bouncing around and having fun. “Rarity?!” The group of ponies called out. “Oh, hello girls” Rarity said casually “How are you?” Confused, they walked over to Rarity with caution making sure that it wasn’t a trap. “Pardon me, I’ll get more pillows.” Rarity said. “Percy” she said in a singing voice. A blue robot dog came out the pile of dogs and onto Rarity’s back. “Be a dear and get three more pillows won’t you?” She asked in a loving voice. The dog barked happily and rushed out a dog door. Almost as soon as it left it came back with three pillows on its back. Each of confused ponies took a pillow, put it on the floor next to the round table. “Rarity, we need to get out of here and rescue Fluttershy” Twilight said out flatly. “Fluttershy? She’s in this weird place as well?” Rarity asked shocked. “Then let’s get goi-“ Rarity paused. “Twilight? Where are you?” Rarity asked looking around the room. The three ponies on the other side of the table were silent and looking down, two were more upset than the other because this was the second time that they forgot Twilight was dead. Twilight explained all the events that had happened so far (Rainbow told her story in the middle) and was met with the same look she always got from everypony; an open mouthed shocked expression “There is one other thing we need to continue” Twilight said after a moment or so of silence. Rarity cleared her throat, closed her mouth and shook her head. “Y-yes?” She asked “How fast can you learn a spell?” Chapter 4All four ponies stood in the main lobby looking at the force field. Rarity was getting nervous, learning new spells wasn’t her specialty. “Alright Rarity” Twilight said “Remember, focus on a clear mind and the spell. When all is calm in your head, release the spell.” Rarity nodded still looking at the black, misty wall in front of her. She bent her head slightly and took a deep breath. Her horn started to glow faintly, then burst with lights and sparks going everywhere. The other ponies began to back off, afraid that they might get hit. A few moments later a beam of white light shot from Rarity’s horn to the field. The beam seemed to have no effect on it for a while, but then multiple bright, white cracks appeared on the wall for 5 seconds then disappeared into it. After a while the wall burst open and then left a giant cloud of black smoke that disappeared shortly after it was made. “That was SO AWESOME” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Yes well” Rarity said almost breathless “I do believe that I need to sit for a second” “Not yet” Twilight warned “we still need to get Fluttershy” All ponies jumped at the name. “Then what are we sittin’ around for?” Applejack asked “let’s get to it!” With the thought of Fluttershy in their heads, the ponies started up the stairs. At the midway point of the stairs, the directions going up shot off into two half circles, coming together to reveal another hallway going across. In the middle of the hallway in front of the stairs was a ginormous, white door with what looked like blue and gray mist coming out the sides. A small, gold plated sign said “ballroom” in silver letters next to it. “Want to go another way?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What do you mean?” Applejack replied. “Well, I mean there is obviously something behind that huge thing, but why not go around or something?” “What’s the matter scared?” “NO! I’m just…cautious that all” “Doesn’t matter” Pinkie interrupted. All eyes were on pinkie. My eyes as well. “There are more fields on both sides of the hallway, we have to go in the door. These ones you can’t break through.” Pinkie Explained. Oh great, now she can read my thoughts. Applejack walked over to the door in front of them, then started walking right. After 5 steps she slammed her face into an invisible wall. “What the hay is going on here?” Applejack asked confused. “You can’t skip a boss battle silly” Pinkie Pie explained. Everypony had been with Pinkie long enough over the years to just go along with whatever she had going on in her head, even though most of the time it never made sense to them. She really hadn’t been wrong before and questioning her methods just made you wonder about your own sanity. “Then let’s keep going!” Rainbow Dash said trying to break the silence that swept around them. “Hold up sugar cube” Applejack Warned while grabbing Rainbow’s tail and holding her back. “We should probably think of a plan first” “For what? It’s not like we can’t handle anything” Before any pony could say anything against or for the matter Rainbow flew up to the door in front of them all and slowly opened the door. When she could go through the door a cool breeze came from it that sent a chill up everypony’s spine. It was almost as if a dark shadow was looming over them, messing with each of the minds of each pony. “Do we really have to go in there?” Rarity asked already knowing the answer. “Come on Rarity! It could be fun!” Pinkie said jumping towards to door. Pinkie was the first to enter the door, Applejack chased after her followed by the other two. The inside was completely dark and quiet. The only light that was there was the light coming from the door they just came from. Rarity suggested that they head back and find a torch or something that gave out light. Twilight was about to tell her to use an illumination spell, but the door closed behind her and the room around them lit up dimly. The ballroom was like walking into a darkened version of the Canterlot one. There were giant windows that took up most of the walls around them, yet all that could be seen was darkness. If there was a ceiling, no pony would have ever found it; there was only black and mist above them. On the other side from where the group of ponies stood was an organ playing lightly. The organ was massive, almost covering the whole opposite wall, almost seemed like half of it was just for show. In the center of the ballroom was a darkened white, flat floor. Two ponies were dancing in the middle of the floor, it almost seemed like they were ignoring the group of friends that just walked in. “Glad you could join us” Octavia said causing all the ponies to jump a little. “We were wondering where you ran off to. Oooh and it looks like you brought a friend with you” “What have you done with Fluttershy?!” Applejack shouted out. “Who?” Vinyl asked with a grin. “ OH, you mean that shaking worthless thing we found trying to protect her precious bunny? She’s in the castle with a friend of Lord Dracula’s.” “Lord who?” Rainbow asked. “Simpletons, they don’t even know who’s causing all the chaos” Octavia said with a smile. “And they won’t be able to when we’re through with them” The dancing ponies floated in the air and towards the organ. The organ stopped playing and all eyes were now on Octavia and Vinyl. A cello appeared by Octavia and a turntable burst from the ground in front of Vinyl. “They look like they could use a rest” Octavia said after grabbing the cello. “Let’s give them a lullaby.” The Group of ponies had a puzzling look on their faces, they all looked at each other, nodded, and all rushed the musical duo. They got halfway to their enemies when they all heard a calming tune that made them stop and stare at the air around them. The tune was calm and hypnotizing; a light bass line continued in the background as the cello played, a perfect combo. Almost like a switch had been flipped, the ponies dropped on the floor. Applejack got up from her bed panting and sweating. She was in her old room, free from any burns or destruction. She got up and trotted over to a window, Sweet apple acres was there, apples just waiting to be bucked and eaten. “Applejack!” yelled a familiar voice. “Granny Smith?” Applejack pondered. She walked down the stairs…stairs? That couldn’t be right, she lived downst-. Maybe she moved upstairs she decided. “Come on lazy, sit your butt down and eat already” Granny Smith said in a very demanding voice. “Uhh, hi Granny Smith. How are you doin tod-“Applejack started but was cut off right after.” “Eat your food so you can go help Mac with the work load.” Applejack saw the “meal” that was in front of her, it looked like Sweetie bell made it. She decided to skip breakfast today and just walked out to her orchard. When she walked to outside, she noticed that the sky had been unusually cloudy and dark, the pegasi must be having a storm coming…a really big one. Before she could think any more about the matter she saw Big Mac next to a couple apple trees. “Howdy Big Mac, how are you-“Applejack started. “Oh I’m just fine thanks, just enjoying the sunny weather and enjoying the wonderful day of working. I do believe, oh look at me I sound just like a English guy, this is so much fun!” Big Mac rambled. Applejack had enough of this, something was definitely off. Before she had to hear what else Big Mac had to say she rushed off into the center of Ponyville. The area was dead silent and there was no sign of life anywhere. Not to mention everything seemed grayer. She started walking through the town glancing at everything. All the doors were locked and windows shut, it was a ghost town devoid of everything but the buildings. “Applejack?!” A voice called out in the distance. She turned around to find Twilight in the distance. The two ponies dashed to each other and hugged. “I thought I was the only one here” Applejack said “Well Spike’s here, but something is different about him, he hides in the corners with an evil stare and won’t listen to me.” Twilight said. “My family back at the farm is messed up as well” “Something is definitely wrong around here” “Well I’m not sure what to do, I can’t find anypony else besides you and your magic’s gone so-” “Wait, what did you say?” “I can’t find anypony else and your magic’s gone so-“ “My magic’s not gone, why would you say-“ Both ponies opened their eyes widely and both felt a sharp pain from the back each other’s head, remembering what happened before they came here. “This is a dream” Twilight explained. “But how come you’re in my dream?” Applejack asked. “Because I’m in your head, remember?” “Oh, right. But how do we get out of here?” “We have to do something that would wake us up” “Like what?” Asking that question was a really bad idea in Applejack’s mind as she found herself on top on her barn with Twilight standing next to her. “Remind me why I’m going to die again?” Applejack asked “You’re not going to die, this is a dream. The shock will just wake you up that’s all” “And if this doesn’t work?” “Then you’re going to feel a bit of pressure everywhere” Twilight reminded Applejack of her doctor when he told her of the pressure she would be feeling from the needles. “Well, maybe we could try something else, you know in case we-“ Before she could say anything else she felt a sharp pain on her rump as Twilight kicked it and jumped off after her yelling in the process of falling. Applejack found herself on a cold, hard floor staring a set of white teeth. Almost subconsciously she grabbed her whip and in a spinning motion swung it, hitting a light gray mare knocking her back into a wall. Octavia fell to the floor her body lifeless, when she hit it, she burst in a cloud of black and red smoke that didn’t go away. Looking to the left of her, Applejack saw Vinyl with her mouth open and staring at her. Vinyl and Octavia were PFF’s, inseparable, willing to whatever for each other, and now Vinyl was alone. The anger of the white mare was unknown Applejack when Vinyl rushed her, but it did not matter. A well timed swing shot Vinyl into a wall; she landed next to the cloud of Octavia’s and burst into a cloud of black and blue. The clouds connected and combined into a white and purple cloud that floated up towards the ceiling. The Cloud hit the ceiling of the ballroom and burst in a white light, destroying the darkness around Applejack. She had to close her eyes from the light; when it faded away she saw a beautiful white ballroom with columns around the area and windows showing the still dark sky outside. “Nice job, Applejack” Twilight said. “Twilight! It’s good to hear your voice again.” Applejack realized that her other friends were still on the floor behind her. She walked over to Pinkie and nudged her a bit, but she didn’t wake up. Thinking for a bit she came with an idea that Twilight didn’t really like. Applejack turned around and kicked Pinkie in the stomach. “I ONLY HAD 6 CUPCAKES!” Pinkie shouted waking up. “Oh, hey guys. What ha- oww my tummy hurts.” Applejack walked over to Rainbow Dash and did the same thing. “BUT I’VE BEEN TRAINING FOR YEARS YOU CAN’T TURN ME AWAY!” Rainbow Dash Yelled panting. “Uh. Oh um hey what…ow, I’m in pain” Applejack continued on to Rarity, but instead of kicking she flipped Rarity over. “BUT THEY ARE ON SALE!!!!!” Rarity seemed to scream out more than Rainbow and Pinkie Combined. She turned to her friends and blushed a bit. “Well they were” When all the ponies were told what happened they were a bit shocked, when the saw the amazing new ballroom they were in they couldn’t help but feel sad for Octavia and Vinyl, two souls that weren’t meant to live their lives in darkness. At the same time they were happy because now they would be together forever. For a moment, all was quiet, and then the organ began to shake. The shaking was slow, but after a couple seconds it was rambling around making loud sounds. It did this for a minute then stopped; the middle of the organ split in two, revealing a secret tunnel going up into another part of the castle. “Well, are you all just going to stand there, or are we going after Fluttershy?” Rarity Asked. All of the ponies reacted in the same way, a smile and walking step forward. “HOLD IT” A demanding voice said behind them. “None can escape the great and powerful Trixie!” Applejack could feel Twilight facehoof. Dealing with Trixie wasn’t ideal on Twilight’s list. They had seen Trixie before, gloating and trying to make fun of everypony. Trixie had obviously been turned into a vampire due to her sharp teeth and black hat/cape combo, but she still had that way to gloat about everything she did. “Applejack, can you please get rid of her?” Twilight asked almost groaning. In almost one motion Applejack jumped in front of her friends, took her whip, wrapped it around Trixie, and threw her out one of the windows. Rainbow Dash saw that the window was open and flew straight for it, ignoring her friend’s warnings. The window seemed to stop for a second and all the glass pieces gathered back to where they originally were. The Pegasus crashed straight into the glass but instead of going through it, she stopped like she hit a wall. “Apparently only things connected to the castle can leave it.” Twilight said scanning over the window. “Yeah…I noticed” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. After getting Rainbow Dash the ponies headed for the tunnel. They heard machinery in the distance. Chapter 5I’m telling you NO! “Oh come on, it would be fun!” Pinkie said hopping up and down. Giant robots and explosions do not make a good ending, besides how can there be those things when you ponies don’t have technology even close to that stuff? “Then how about a love scene?” THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE! “Neither does Twilight turning into a ghost” Oh come on that was perfect, at least I can explain it...wait a minute. This is- PINKIE, please get out of my thoughts. “Fine Grumpy McGrumperton” “Pinkie you have been hopping with your eyes closed for a while now, what can you possibly be thinking about?” Twilight asked the bouncing pony. “Nothing…still doesn’t make sense” Pinkie mumbled. And yes it does! The ponies were walking in the tunnel that had appeared in the ballroom and had been trotting for 10 minutes. The tunnel looked like it was carved out and smoothed, reflecting a dim, black and blue light from an unknown source. All that could be seen in front and behind them was the ground, the curved walls and endless path. “We’ve been walking this for 10 minutes, this castle is big, but it shouldn’t be this big. What the hay is going on?!” Rainbow shouted out. “She’s right” Rarity added. “We would’ve come across something if we were walking in a straight line” “Hmm, I have an idea” Twilight said “Rainbow, can you fly ahead?” “Of course!” Rainbow said, ready to stretch her wings. Rainbow trotted in front of the ponies, leapt forward and started flapping her wings fast and sped off. Right after Rainbow flew off at her usual dashing speed Twilight saw a small blip above her, at first she thought it was just the tunnel’s reflective light, but the blip stayed there for a while longer than any normal reflection.After 10 seconds of flying she came across three figures in the distance. She picked up her speed to catch the objects only to find a bright pink hopping towards her before she could slow down. “HI DASHIE!!” Pinkie yelled slamming into Rainbow Dash. The two crashed into the ground near the rest of the ponies. Applejack trotted over to the two moaning ponies with rarity to help them up. “I feared this would happen” Twilight sighed. “Girls we have dark magic at hand and we aren’t getting out easily.” “Well now what?” Applejack asked groaning with a scowl. “Easy there AJ, no need to get upset.” Rainbow said comforting her friend. “We’ll get out of here in a dash” Pinkie pie looked above her. “Really?” Well I thought it was funny Applejack still had a scowl on her face. “Twilight, how do we get out of here, I think this tunnel is getting to all of us.” Rarity asked. Applejack hung her head down. “Yeah, I reckon I’m not helpin’ much neither” Applejack admitted, but then brought her head up in a jolt with new found confidence. Twilight, ignoring her friends for a while, began thinking of every different possible way to escape the endless vortex. Then she remembered the blip in the tunnel just after Rainbow Dash took off. It couldn’t be a…could it? “Alright, so how ARE we getting out of here, Twil-“Applejack began to say, before she was cut off be a rather loud and excited voice. “I GOT IT!!!” Twilight shouted with glee. “Rainbow, come over here quick!” Everypony jumped a bit at the sudden outburst. Rainbow did as instructed. “Twilight, are you sure this is going to work?” Rainbow asked. “In truth, I really don’t, but would you rather just stay here?” Twilight countered “Oh all right” Everypony besides Rainbow stood by the walls around them leaving a bit of wide area in the middle of the tunnel. Rainbow took a deep breath then looked straight in front of her, eyeing the bluish darkness intensely. Her mind focused on the tunnel and she took off flying straight in the middle of it. After a few seconds she saw her friends reappear and disappear. She started gaining speed and seeing her friends come and go faster and faster. She could feel the strain on her body and the stale air resistance growing larger. 20 seconds ( or what felt like 20 minutes) later she saw three things happen very fast, the cone, the boom, and a small portal that broke open. She aimed for the portal on her next go around and shot through it landing body first into a bloody stone wall. The cyan Pegasus was out at soon as she hit it. The small portal that Rainbow made started to expand over the tunnel slowly getting rid of the darkness around Applejack, rarity and Pinkie pie. Within a minute the darkness was gone and the tunnel revealed two exits; one going back to ballroom and the other to a cold area that reeked of blood and death. Three ponies exited the tunnel to find a knocked out Rainbow on the ground and a single hallway going left. The hallway (much like the tunnel) was darkened and seemed to go on forever only with a multitude of bones scattered around the floor and in the walls. “How in Tartarus did you know that was going to work?” Applejack asked Twilight “It was easy once I saw it was a alter-portal, see when a set of alter-portals attract too much energy from something too fast it can cause a minor crack in its structure. Once that crack is made, one can use the amount of energy accumulated, in this case Rainbow’s sonic rainboom, to go through it and destroy the portal system completely “Twilight noticed the confused faces and complete silence. “What?” “Twilight dear, that’s very interesting, but how did you know what to do?” Rarity asked. Twilight mentally facehoofed and gave a groaning “never mind”. “Well if you’re all done there we have a problem on our hooves” Applejack said walking over to Rainbow. “Oh, right” Rarity said giving an embarrassed smile. “How do you suppose we carry her? “Ah’ll take care of that” Applejack said almost proudly. “Rarity, umm, a little help?” “OH OH, I WANT TO HELP TOO” Pinkie shouted out. She hopped over to rainbow, got under her and threw her on Applejack’s back perfectly. “Alright, let’s get to it!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing down the hallway leaving two dumbfounded ponies and one knock out one. Applejack and rarity followed Pinkie down the bone-filled walkway noticing that the skeletons were beginning to grow in numbers…and move. “Pinkie, would you mind slowing down a bit? My hooves are getting achy” Rarity complained.” Before Pinkie could reply a hoard of Skeletons came to life around them. Applejack set Rainbow down telling Rarity to protect her then took her whip and immediately began her onslaught. Applejack wasn’t too used to smaller areas yet and almost hit rarity once or twice. Pinkie Pie also helped by shooting everything near her with her signature party cannon…where in Equestria does she keep that thing? “I told you I never leave home without it” Pinkie said plainly…Yes I know that but…you know what forget it, and no more forth wall breaks, the readers are already getting sick of them. Pinkie began to cry for no reason after blasting a pack of three skeletons into a wall. Rarity noticed and galloped over to her “Pinkie Pie! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rarity asked concerned. “The author is mean!” Pinkie said through sobs. “I’m sorry who?” “He won’t let me have any fun” “Darling really, those voices aren’t anything” “And I didn’t even want to be a werepie!” …sigh…sorry pinkie it just fit the mood “Nah I’m just kidding, I just wanted to talk to you again”…Daww thanks…break ALL the fourth walls! Pinkie immediately jumped and yelled out in excitement and continued destroying skeletons. Rarity still had no idea what was going on. The battle ended with the final skeleton having its spine snapped with Applejack’s whip. Seeing that there were no more enemies, Applejack put Rainbow on her back and continued walking down the hallway along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “I don’t feel too well” Twilight thought. “What’s wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked in her thoughts walking slightly ahead of the others for privacy. “Something about this place is…weird.” “What do ya mean?” “Well, I felt the dread and pain of others as soon as we starting walking down here. But it’s not just that. There is magic everywhere here.” “But your full of magic and the magic over at the tunnel didn’t make you sick.” “This magic is different, it fills the air with a sense of hopelessness. I’ve never read anything about this in any of my books.” “That probably just means that we have to get going faster” Applejack thought with a grin. “Besides whatever’s out there doesn’t stand a chance against…Did it just get cold?” Applejack said that out loud turning to her friends. “Not really darling” Rarity said with a confused look on her face. “Although I must admit that I’d prefer…oh” She walked closer to Applejack and felt the cold sweep over her. She shivered a bit, both at the cold and the shock of the sudden change. “I want to try!” Pinkie said bouncing over to them. The cold seemed to barely bother her. “Oooo it’s like an alternate universe!” Pinkie bounced behind. “This is hot and this is cold. Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold” Pinkie said bouncing from one side to the other. She gasped. “What if I stand in the middle?” She did so. Her front portion was cold, the back was hot. “I feel like a hay pocket” Pinkie giggled. “Pinkie enough with your shenanigans we got work to do” Applejack said firmly and almost annoyed. “Oh don’t be too strick darling. I mean at least she isn’t singing another one of her-“ Rarity said began only to be cut off by Pinkie. “Hey girls, you know what this reminds me of? A son-“ Pinkie started only to have an orange hoof in her mouth. “Not now Pinkie” Applejack said in a calm and serious voice. “Ookie doki loki!” Pinkie replied happily. The hallway led into a dungeon that had a rather large open floor with only four cells (two on the left and two on the right). On the wall in front of them was a giant picture of a graveyard. Applejack could almost feel Twilight cringe under the amount of dark magic in the room. Applejack felt something move on her back. “Well, look who decided to join the party” Applejack said with a smirk. “PARTY?! Where, where???” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly while hopping around. “Where am I” Rainbow groaned taking a look around the room. “I feel like I just went to one of Pinkie’s after parties.” “Well you flew out of the portal area and set us free dearie” Rarity said intervening. “You must have flown straight into a stone wall.” “Oh, is that all?” Rainbow asked sarcastically. She lifted herself off of Applejack’s back and slumped to the floor which brought her face to face with a skeleton head. Rainbow left out a yelp that filled the room. “Hello? Is anyone there?” A small and feeble voice asked from a cell on the right. Everypony knew that calm and squeaking sound. They rushed towards the cell and saw a yellow Pegasus with pink hair lying on the ground with tears in her eyes. Fluttershy woke to find herself in a tight, enclosed and dark area. The only light that could be seen was that from dim torches scattered around the outside of her cell. Fear was all she could feel as she looked around her imprisonment. The cell itself had nothing but stone walls and a small patch of hay. For Fluttershy, it was rather small, but big enough to stand up in and turn around. In front of Fluttershy were steels bars going vertically…no lock. Fluttershy turned around to see another cold, soulless wall staring at her, mocking her. Escape was impossible, thinking there was just gave her false hope. A moth flew by her muzzle. Looking closer around her, she noticed that there were a small amount of bugs looking at her. Fluttershy was happy to see other living creatures; knowing she was not alone gave her a small amount of courage. Fluttershy spent her time seeing an arrangement of ants, moths, flies, spiders, and one rat. Being a pony whose special talent that had to do with animals included insects as well. None of the insects or rat attacked her, if fact they seemed to be trying to calm down her fears. The yellow Pegasus was happy for a split second forgetting she was in a cell at all. Then a cool breeze sent shivers up Fluttershy’s spine, all the insects disappeared right after, she was alone again only cold and crying with nothing to do but lay on the floor. Then she heard voices in the distance. “Fluttershy!” Everypony shouted out. They saw Fluttershy look up. “Girls?” Fluttershy meekly asked. Her eyes widened in realization that most of her friends were there. “Girls!” She shouted (in a soft voice) and stood straight up. All the ponies were talking at once happy to finally have everypony back. Fluttershy stood next to the bars with hooves hugging her, their warm enbrace calmed her crying. She closed her eyes hearing all of the voices of her friends: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes and saw all of them: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash…That didn’t add up. “Umm, sorry for interrupting everypony, but…” Fluttershy started. All eyes were on her. “Where’s Twilight” Once again the happy faces turned to frowns and were facing the floor. There was a long silence, before anypony even stirred. Rainbow started to open her mouth, but a chill met her spine, and by the look on everypony else’s face the chill found them as well. “I’m glad you got here so fast” A voice in the shadows said “Although I must admit I was expecting someone…taller” All the ponies turned to face the cold voice, but saw nothing. “Where the hay did tha-“ Applejack started but was cut off by the voice. “Oh I’m sorry, I haven’t fully introduced myself yet. You may call me Death.” The large painting started shifting left and right rapidly. In the middle of it grew a swirling, purple and black vortex that covered most of the picture. A figure in a black cloak slowly emerged from it holding a giant silver scythe. Death had a skeletal face with deep red in his eye sockets. “You free Fluttershy right NOW!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Temper, temper, you need to have more patient blue one” Death said calm, but mockingly. Applejack stood by Rainbow with a scowl on her face. She didn’t have use words. “Oh, and what are you going t-…that whip you have, where did you get it?” Death asked almost fearful. “From a friend, who wants to know? ACK!” Applejack was grabbed by a skeleton hand and forced up into the air by her neck. “Funny, this whip is different. There is no sign of any Belmont at all.” Death said almost with a relived sigh. With nothing to fear he threw the orange pony across the room into the others. Rainbow stared at her friends then back at death that had turned around to go back to the vortex. By instinct, Rainbow charged, only to be hit and fly straight into the cage Fluttershy was in, destroying the bars in the process. Fluttershy shrieked as she saw her friends on the ground in front of her. Rainbow lied in next to her right forearm, bloody and unconscious, but alive. Her other friends were on the unforgiving floor unable to get up. Emotions ran through her as her eyes scanned the scene; fear, worry, pain…hate. “You…MONSTER!” Fluttershy screamed Death reared his ugly head to find a yellow Pegasus stared at him with eyes that could pierce your very soul. All he could do was float in the air and see those eyes flying towards him. “You think that you can just push ponies around like they’re tools to be played with? You have no right to be a bully and no one, and I mean NO one pushes my friends around!” Death could only stare and mutter “But…but I” “Don’t you ‘but I’ ME mister.” The red in Death’s eyes were getting smaller and smaller with each word. “But that rainbow one was just asking for it” “I know, and no one blames you, but you could’ve hit someone else in the process” Fluttershy pointed out “You just need to be with friends who can be with you” “What?” “Would you like to join our little herd here and come back to Ponyville with us?” “WHAT!” Applejack yelled. “Fluttershy are you NUTS?! Y’all can’t just bring a floating demon with us that not only threw me around, but threw Rainbow Dash at you?” “He probably had no choice” Fluttershy said calmly “He is a monster” “Is he ready for a PARTY???!!!!” Pinkie said jumping (literally) into the conversation. “Pinkie dear, don’t you think that your interrupting a very important argument?” Rarity butted in. “Oh Rarity, I’m just trying to not be forgotten about by the possible audience that we still have.” Death’s mind raced. This was all so sudden. His sense said no…but the eyes said yes. NO, what was he thinking? He couldn’t just leave…could he? He thought for a while, about the things keeping him from leaving. There was only one thing. In the confusion and silence that took place shortly after Pinkie’s comment, Death finally spoke again. “I will go with you…if you slay my master.” Death said in a very serious matter. “What the hay do you mean” Rainbow asked roughly. “What possible good could come from you helping us?” “And here I thought you wanted to help your magical, purple friend.” Death slyly said. “How do you know about me?” Twilight said. “Oh please, I could feel your energy the moment I grabbed the orange one.” “The name is Applejack ghost.” Applejack cut in. “My name is Death, haven’t you been reading the chapter?” Pinkie gasped. “You can do that too??? YAAAAY” Pinkie yelled. What have I done? Applejack and Rainbow weren’t going to let Pinkie take control just yet. “Now wait a minute, how do you plan on helping Twilight?” Applejack said with almost a feeling of hope in her voice. “I am Death, I choose who lives and dies, but my lord uses me as a guard to deal with unnecessary scum.” “You never answered my question.” Applejack sneered. Death rushed over to Applejack and grabbed her by the neck (again) with his bony hand and levitating up 5 feet in the air. With his other hand, Death pressed his finger onto the forehead of the struggling pony. A mist of white and black light came from the connection point causing Applejack to hang loosely in Death’s grip. The mist started turning pure white and increasing in growth. After the mist covered most of the floor, it began to fade and out of Applejack’s forehead flew a purple light, lightly shining. When it emerged, the armor Applejack had been wearing vanished in an instance. Death touched the light and it began to expand into veins and a bone structure that resembled a pony. The muscles began growing around the bones along with the pink skin that stretched over the body. Finally the hair grew from the skin revealing a sleek, new Twilight Sparkle. She opened her eyes, looking around she saw her friends staring at her with mouths wide open. Pinkie bounced towards her and gave her a huge hug. “I KNEW the author wouldn’t kill off a member of the mane 6 permanently!” Pinkie shouted. Everyone was too busy gaping at Twilight to notice Pinkie being Pinkie. The rest of the group ran up to Twilight to join in the hug. Applejack squeezed harder than even Pinkie. Eventually they broke the hug and Twilight looked at Applejack, noticing that her armor was gone. She addressed the issue, but the work pony shrugged it off saying that it was better to have the old group back again than to have some magical armor. In truth she felt a bit naked without it and a bit more vulnerable, but she told herself to get over it, and she did. Rarity complained a little saying that leather definitely suited Applejack and demanded that she would go to carousel boutique to get fitted for a new set. The orange pony groaned a bit, but agreed because she liked the idea of being protected again. After Filling in Fluttershy about the recent events, the mane 6 was ready to leave, that is until a looming figure stopped them. “Don’t forget our bargain little yellow one.” Death warned. “The stairs are over there in the center of the portrait.” “We haven’t” Twilight said with a confident smile. “Oh and, thank you for the new body”
Chapter 1The fire could be seen for miles. Applejack stormed through Ponyville to find that it was being overrun with demons and skeletons. Fighting through the hoard she reached the library, but it was in vain as she kicked open the door to find Twilight and Spike lifeless in the blazing background. She took only a second to mourn until she remembered that she still had other friends to check on. Going through the town was as if going through a nightmare with no end. Every street was filled with creatures; every house was engulfed in flames, and not a pony to be found. Every pony she had looked for was, as all the others, drained or ash, all but Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy. They were nowhere to be found. Daylight, the only friend Applejack had started reach across the land. The creatures vanished into the Everfree forest with a smile, joyful over last night’s raid. Applejack, weary from fighting and struggling all night, collapsed in her barn in Sweet Apple Acres. When she awoke she saw a familiar face staring at her. “TWILIGHT!” Screamed Applejack. She jumped at Twilight only to go through her and hit the floor. “Wha- What’s goin on?” “Applejack, stay calm, I’m dead” Explained Twilight “How in Equestria is that possible?” “I was putting a revival spell on Spike when those creatures attacked him. I was in the middle of the spell when a skeleton archer shot me. The spell was still active when I died but only halfway, the spell was put on me instead, but now only my ghost can be used.” Accepting the explanation, one thought went through Applejack’s head, revenge. “Where can we find da source’a these things?” asked Applejack. “I don’t know, going through Ponyville I saw a few of those…’things’ go into the Everfree Forest” Twilight said. “Then that’s where we’ll start, come on!” Applejack was almost to the barn door when Twilight shot out in front of her. “HOLD IT” Twilight exclaimed. “Going out there with no plan and no weapons is just stupid! You’ll end up like all the rest!” Twilight could feel herself getting teary eyed. “Now Twilight don’ be silly, I got my rope don’ I?” Applejack said trying to cheer her up “That won’t do” Twilight said feeling better but more serious. “You need protection” At that moment Twilight jumped at Applejack and burst into small light increments that surround Applejack. Applejack jumped back to see her friend gone “Twilight? “...” “TWILIGHT!” “Yes?” Twilight said casually. “Where are you?!” Applejack said in a worried and confused voice. “In your thought patterns” “But I can’t see ya anywhere” “I combined my being to you to give you a chance at defeating those things, by the way look down” Applejack did as she was told to find that slightly glowing green leather armor with a white trim that complemented the hat she wore had appeared all around her except for her head, hind legs and tail. “I had been working on a way to create armor for months now, and it worked!” Twilight Squeed. Applejack sighed, “If one more thing happens to me I’ll… WHERE’S MY ROPE!” “On your right shoulder” Applejack looked to find not her rope, but a whip rolled up on her shoulder. The whip was placed just right to grab the handle with Applejack’s mouth. When she grabbed the whip she noticed that it felt just like her old rope. She rose up and snapped the whip hard at a stack of hay wrapped up next to her. The attack cut the hay in half. Applejack felt good, not for the way the whip came natural to her, but to the fact that she was about to get revenge. The rope magically rolled up and jumped back on her shoulder when tried to bring it back to her. “What in the hay?” Applejack asked. “It’s another one of my spells on the whip. Makes it easier to be on the go” Twilight explained. Applejack shrugged learning by now to just accept whatever else Twilight had in store for her. She looked around the barn and shed a single tear wondering if she would ever see this old place again. “Alright, let’s get going” Applejack said, raring to go. They approached the Everfree Forest to find that there was no sun what-so-ever over the forest. It was also dead silent and all that was visible was fog, trees and the Everfree path that seemed to stretch for miles. Applejack could tell that Twilight was scared even though she couldn’t see her. “I’m fine, don’t worry” Twilight said “I was just wor-“Applejack began until she realized something, “how did you know what I was thinkin?” “I told you, I’m in your thoughts. I know what you are doing, how you are feeling and what you are thinking” Applejack was a little nervous believing that her privacy was being broken in half. “Uh, well can you stop it?” “Nope” “Great” Applejack thought in a sarcastic tone. Almost unwillingly Applejack started to walk through the forest path knowing that this was not going to be fun. “What was that?” Twilight asked. “ Oh, uh NOTHING, nothing” Applejack said hoping she would buy it. Before Twilight had time to rebuttal an arrow shot 3 feet in front of Applejack. She jumped back to find that a skeleton archer was about 20 yards away. As though through pure instinct, Applejack rushed to the archer. She grabbed the whip, jumped in the air and brought the whip down on the Skeleton causing it to burst into black mist. Applejack tugged on the whip causing it to jump on her shoulder. “I’m a really startin to like this thing” In Applejack’s praise for her new favorite toy, Twilight screamed as she saw another skeleton with a spiked mace came up beside her and bashed its weapon onto Applejack’s back. Applejack looked around her, thinking that a small branch just fell on her when she noticed the mace. She gave a yelp and, in a spinning motion, swung the whip and split the skeleton in half. Wide eyed and breathing hard, she looked around to make sure that nothing else was trying to kill her. “T-Twilight” Applejack stuttered still shaken from the event “…Yes?” Twilight said as calm as she could muster. “Thanks for uh,” She cleared her throat to give her a second to calm down. “Thanks for the armor” “Uh…no problem” Applejack reached behind her and grabbed the mace handle with her mouth, pulled off the mace and threw it aside. A few moments of tense silence later, Applejack believed it was safe to keep going without being hit from behind. After what seemed to be 20 minutes of walking, they came across a small village of goblins with tents in a circle along the main path. A group of goblins were dancing around a bon fire with a pink, puffy haired pony tied to a spinning pole over it. Pinkie pie was doing her normal business of talking up a storm to the goblins; it was almost as if she was oblivious to the fact that she was being cooked alive. “I LOVE DANCING!” Pinkie started” You know one time I was throwing a party and I got the whole place to start dancing, we started to do the conga line and the tango, and even a few free style sessions. Well everyone except Twilight who could use a few lessons from Rainbow Dash. She is a party monster! The only one who could compete with her is Spike, but I don’t think-“ Twilight heard the name and Applejack could hear the crying in her head. They both had enough of seeing this charade go on any longer and Applejack was ready to fight. Applejack ran in and bucked the nearest goblin she saw into the fire. Grabbing the whip she wrapped the end of it around the enemy to her right, tossed it over her and into the one on the left. She started counting the rest when the number 5 came up in her head. “Thanks Twilight” She thought, then began her rampage on the rest of the goblins. After the last Goblin had thrown into a tree and smashed into his own tent, Applejack turned to Pinkie. “Howdy there, Pinkie” She said in a relieved and refreshed voice. “OH MY GOSH, that was amazing!” Pinkie started “there were like a bazillion of those things and-“Before she went on any longer there was a hoof in her mouth. “How about we get you down before you get burned?” Applejack said in a warming tone. After Pinkie was cut down, she explained to them that she was taken prisoner by the goblins because they thought she was made of candy. When they realized she wasn’t the next morning they thought they could use a snack. Then they came to her rescue. “By the way, how is everypony back in town?” Pinkie asked. All Applejack could do is look away. “Oh, well then let’s get the rest of our friends” Applejack stared at her “what do you mean Pinkie?” “Didn’t I tell you in my story? Nice conveyance writer” Pinkie sa- “HEY!” “Oh stop whining” “I’m not whining I’m complaining…oh just finish it” “Okay doki Loki,” “Pinkie who are you talking to?” Applejack asked. “Oh nothing, it’s like Twilight in your head” “Pinkie how did you know I was here?” Twilight asked “Duh, cause I read the last two pages” Applejack gave a very confused look at Pinkie Pie, but then brushed it off thinking I was probably because of her Pinkie sense. “I wasn’t the only one who was captured, I saw Dashie, Fluttershy and Rarity taken to the middle of the forest” Pinkie explained. “I also made a friend with a wolf in the forest while I was being carried by the funny dancers. But he wasn’t very nice because he jumped at me and cut my left hoof with one of his teeth, so I guess I never made a friend with it, I thought I did but I guess I was just in my mind. He must not have been a normal wolf; I mean he WAS really big. The dancers scared him off after he attacked though. Didn’t I tell you that too?” She said staring at m-…off into space. “Wait what kind of a wolf was it?” Twilight asked almost worried. “A big one with red eyes, sharp teeth and-“Before she could finish her somewhat odd tale something appeared on the main path to the middle of the forest, something big. On the path was a Goblin the size of Applejack times 5 and had a club of and least 3 yards long. Eyes glowing red and teeth gleaming in the moonlight, it was indeed a monster hell bent on going after whatever was in its path and Applejack was right in front of him. The monster roared and threw his club down; Applejack dodged left then jumped on the club and raced up its arm. She jumped up, took her whip and cracked it on the monster’s eye and leapt behind him. Crying out in pain, the monster turned around and started swinging his club violently. Applejack avoided the club with a back-step and rushed under his legs and met up with Pinkie. “Pinkie” Applejack said talking to Pinkie, “Ah need you ta distract em” “OKAY” Pinkie happily said. After rubbing his eye the giant goblin turned around again to find the pink pony he found earlier. “HI” Pinkie exclaimed, “I never introduced myself before, I’m Pinkie Pie. Wow you big, almost bigger than the library back at Ponyville” Twilight sighed again. Applejack took advantage of the monster being confused and came up behind him, turned around and bucked as hard as she could, giving him a Charley horse. The Goblin went to his knees barely missing Pinkie who bounced away to a nearby tree. Taking the whip, Applejack jumped on his back and threw the whip around the goblin’s neck. The giant thrashed around, but Applejack had a steady stance around the top of his back, refusing to budge. Eventually the Giant slowed down from lack of oxygen giving Applejack a split second to jump onto his right shoulder turn around and pull hard on the whip and hear a loud snap around the goblin’s neck that could be heard for half a mile. The Huge goblin fell to the ground with a loud thump and threw Applejack a couple meters. Pinkie helped Applejack up off the ground with a grin on her face like nothing happened. Applejack grabbed her whip, walked over to the bon fire and sat down to rest. “THAT WAS AMAZING!” Pinkie shouted. “It truly was Applejack, but how did you know what to do?” Twilight asked. “The writer made her because he thought it was cool!” “Pinkie seriously, who are you talking to?”
Chapter 2The forest was nothing but a foggy maze with no end. Pinkie pie was no help to the problem due to her consistent talking. The trees around them seemed to close in tighter and tighter going into a tunnel formation. Applejack could feel herself almost going insane until Twilight pointed out something ahead of them in her head, making Applejack rub her eyes in reassurance that it was real. The opening at the end of the tree tunnel revealed a huge castle on the edge of a cliff over a Blackened lake. Bats filled the air and the only light was that of the full moon. By itself the castle gave off a tone of death: anyone could feel it, alive or dead. The castle felt familiar to all ponies, but Twilight was the only one who realized why. “This must be the old castle of the pony sisters” Twilight thought to herself. “But how’s that possible?” Applejack asked, “Dat castle was old and broken down, this one looks as if it was just built, not to mention there was no lake or cliff” She was right, THIS castle looked fairly new, but the landscape around it felt strange and cold. Unlike the forest that was foggy and cramped, the scenery seemed to completely change. There was no fog anywhere except the lake; the ground was also light gray instead of the brown they were walking in before and the whole area was wide open like the inside of a bubble stuck in time. “Well I’m not entirely sur-“Twilight paused for a sec. “You heard my thoughts?” “You were thinking?” Applejack asked. “Apparently I didn’t think this whole combine myself with you thing” Applejack grinned a bit at the fact that she could use Twilight’s own trick against her, but got back on track. “Anyway, the only thing that could change a large enough area like this would take an advanced level of magic, dark magic.” Twilight explained. “Well, COME ON GUYS” Pinkie yelled bouncing towards the castle Applejack chased after Pinkie and stopped her warning her that anything could be in there, not seeing that they were close to the castle by the time they caught her. A rectangular stone bridge covered a small gap between the area of land they were standing on and the entrance to the castle. On each of the corners of the bridge sat a stone gargoyle. All the gargoyles had sharp claws that hung over the pillars each of them were sitting on and eyes that stared off in the distance. Applejack and Pinkie started to walk (and bounce) across the bridge when the statues came to life attacking immediately with no warning. Applejack avoided the barrage of attacks from the three beasts that were after her with ease, Pinkie had no such luck. One of the Gargoyles cornered Pinkie against the right pillar closest to the forest. With one swift swing of its claws, the gargoyle slashed pinkie on her right side causing a gash that was half a foot long. Pinkie screamed in pain as her blood started dripping down. Applejack heard her and panicked knowing that Pinkie was in trouble, but couldn’t get away from the beasts that were already after her. She turnaround and swung her whip around the gargoyle to her left and pulled to the right causing the one to crash into another and make both disappear in a pool of black smoke. Twilight noticed the monster behind them and ordered Applejack to buck NOW. Trusting in her friend she immediately lifted her back legs and destroyed the beast behind her with a blind kick. Pinkie had tears going down her eyes from the pain she felt, and then she looked at her wound and saw the blood slowly going down her back and on her mane. She turned to the monster in front of her then at the moonlight above her…and changed. The sweet and innocent pony became a 7 foot monster that had sharped teeth, straight, darkened hair and muscles, BIG muscles. She turned back to the creature and glared at it with memory of the slash it had given her. The gargoyle knew its chances were slim and tried to fly away. Pinkie launched after her prey with her powerful legs and caught it almost immediately after liftoff; the gargoyle struggled trying to get away until Pinkie crushed its head midair making the body disappear in the usually black smoke. After Applejack saw that the third gargoyle was gone for good she looked over and saw another…thing with dark pink hair and a sense of killing around it. Her first reaction was to attack, but a voice in her head told her to stop. “Applejack stop, I think that’s Pinkie pie!” Twilight yelled after noticing the mane. “Twilight there is no way that’s pinkie, she’s hurt over th-“Applejack started, but when she looked over there was nothing over there. “But, it can’t be” “THE WOLF!” Twilight yelled suddenly “The wolf that pinkie found in the forest! It must have been a werewolf!” All Applejack could think about was the giant beast in front of her until she saw Pinkie’s mane. It had been dark and straight before…just without the teeth eyes. Applejack stood in her place and looked back at Pinkie, who was breathing hard at the ground, and examined her for a while. She started walking towards Pinkie (against her better judgment) wondering if she could do anything to help. Pinkie turned to Applejack and snarled, making Applejack jump a bit. “Uh, Pinkie? Are you okay?” Applejack asked. Pinkie growled at Applejack and got into a pouncing position. The next thought of Applejack was run, but Twilight wouldn’t have it. “Let me try to reason with her” Twilight said. “And how do you suppose you’re going to that?” Applejack asked. “I would need you to jump on her back so we can calm her down by magic. Because I’m with you my magic isn’t as effective unless its close range.” “You can still you use your magic?” “Almost, I can’t really do much for the moment” “Which is why you couldn’t block anything with that shield you can usually make?” “Precisely, now hurry!” Without another thought Applejack rushed Pinkie, but Pinkie used her giant arms to smash Applejack back where she was before only on the ground. She got up and tried to get behind her time and time again in vain. “She’s too strong!” Twilight yelled “Oh gee you think” Applejack muttered sarcastically. Pinkie looked ready to attack again when something burst out of one of the castle windows from the right side. Rainbow Dash had been taken into the castle and thrown into a metal jail, alone. Nothing was getting her out of that jail, not yelling or bucking or flying. Life almost seemed gone, until one of the guards jumped back after being bucked at and dropped the keys to the cell. She noticed the keys after 30 seconds of silence. Luckily the keys were almost right next to the cell she was in. After sliding the keys into the cage, grabbing them with her mouth and unlocking she started flying through the large corridors of the castle trying to find her way out. After 1 hour of flying around she started become tired and stopped for a second on the ground. She looked around her and noticed that there was another corridor to her left with a window up high. FREEDOM, it was so close, she flew as fast as she could towards it and was almost there, but she didn’t notice the rock the size of her head coming towards her…fast. The rock had come from one the rock golems of the castle, masters of the earth with precise aim. Rainbow Dash was struck by the rock on her left side slightly grazing her wing causing her to lose balance and speed. She rammed in the wall, something she was used to, slid down the wall to the bottom, turned around and faced her enemy. Rock Golems are giant earth beings that can crush most anything with a swing of their arm, and Rainbow had one right in front of her. Rainbow gave an angry stare at the huge pile of human shaped rubble, half of the stare was given to cover up the fear she was feeling. She was so close to being out of this place and something much bigger was keeping her from doing so. Thoughts ran through her head about what to do, run? Fly? Fight? It didn’t seem worth it, how do you beat moving rock? It did seem pointless until she noticed glowing spots around the shoulders and knees of the monster, weak Spots. Rainbow rushed the golem at a blinding speed and ran into the monster’s left shoulder, the glowing spot burst and the left arm came off. Rainbow, thinking the monster had had enough, rushed the window again. The golem wasn’t letting Rainbow go without a token of remembrance from him. It aimed its arm to where Rainbow was going and shot another one of its rocks. Rainbow was hit again with a rock in the stomach; she crashed through the window with the rock and started to lose altitude while out of breath Applejack got up from being hit and saw the familiar rainbow mane falling from one of the high windows in the castle. She quickly forgot about Pinkie and went after Rainbow Dash running fast in order to save her dropping friend. Pinkie lost interest and let the small thing run along till she saw the brightly colored chew toy coming down. Applejack saw Pinkie rushing towards her, eyes fixed on Rainbow; she couldn’t let Rainbow get eaten by her own friend. She turned around to face her but was tossed aside by the rampaging beast. Pinkie was right under where Rainbow was falling and was about to get her toy when she looked into the eyes of Rainbow Dash at the last couple seconds. Images of her friends rushed through Pinkie’s head. The times when she was happy with them and sad, but they were always with her. She knew that worried look on everypony’s face when they were scared and she tried to cheer them. She then remembered her name what she was doing…AND RAINBOW DASH WAS FALLING TOWARDS HER. Pinkie Pie let out a roar and shrunk back to the size she was before with a worried look on her face. She adjusted herself perfectly under Rainbow and caught her on her back. Pinkie’s tail twitched and she jumped out of the way before the rock slammed into the ground. Meanwhile Rainbow finally caught her breath and exhaled with relief. Applejack trotted over to find both her friends okay. “RAINBOW!” Both Applejack and Twilight yelled as Applejack jumped on the Rainbow manned daredevil. “OUCH. Still hurting here” Rainbow mustered with a laugh after being jumped on. “What in Equestria happened?” Twilight said out loud. “Well,” Rainbow started to explain “It was an epic battle of-“She stopped suddenly. “Twilight?” she asked,” Where are you?” Applejack had almost forgotten that Twilight was dead. But before she started to explain what happened, Twilight jumped in and started to explain herself. When she was done, Rainbow’s mouth was open and she was staring at Applejack, when she noticed what she was doing she quickly got rid of her look. “We still haven’t heard your story Rainbow” Applejack remembered Rainbow Dash’s face lit up as it was her turn to talk. She explained the jail and golem (with a few details added in about throwing a rock back at the golem and making him run into the wall) and crashing out the window because of a “cheap shot”. “Well we could use your help on getting Rarity and Fluttershy back if you’re still okay to keep going” Twilight told Rainbow. “Count me in, I can never leave a friend behind” Rainbow said in a brave voice. “But there is something I don’t understand” “What?” “How can we all hear you if you’re a ghost Twilight” “Just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I can’t use magic to send my voice to your head. It’s just that sometimes if I get startled or excited, I send my voice to everypony around me” Rainbow just accepted it; she did anytime magic was involved because she never understood magic in general anyway. The Ponies, after getting caught up with everything took a second to rest and talk for a while. Eventually they were relaxed and ready to continue. The group walked over to the bridge ready for anything else that might jump out. An abnormally large metal gate blocked the entrance to the exceedingly menacing dark castle. An engraving covered most of the gate, almost like a seal. “How do we get past that huge big door?” Pinkie asked, “Its looks like it’s locked up good.” “I’ll just fly through another window and unlock the door from the other side” Rainbow said. At that moment, as though the castle heard her, Metal bars appeared on all the entrances. “Oh that’s just not fair” Rainbow pouted. “This door doesn’t look like it’s barred at all actually” Twilight said, “Applejack, could you move closer to it?” “Sure I guess” Applejack said with a shrug. Taking a closer look at the seal Twilight came to the conclusion that it needed to be removed in order to get the door open. “Applejack, hit the seal a few times with your whip” Twilight said Rainbow Dash was interested to see her friend in action. Applejack took her whip and cracked it against the seal. For a second the huge door shook and almost seemed to explode on the inside causing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash to back a bit before the next attack. Once again, Applejack leapt up and struck the door and the shaking seemed to be worst this time. Trying with all her might this time, she cracked the whip on the door causing the door to burst open with a violent force revealing a lobby that appeared much bigger than what the castle could seem to hold.
Chapter 3The Ponies looked around the lobby to find that it was completely unlike the outside of the castle. The interior revealed a white, shining floor with marble pillars on the sides leading to a red carpeted staircase that split left and right at the top. The walls were filled with tapestries and windows; the ceiling above them seemed to stretch on forever. “Are we in the same place?” asked Rainbow Dash. “You mean it doesn’t look like this in the rest of the castle?” Twilight asked to Rainbow. “Not really, when I was flying through everywhere was dark and eerie” “Well that is definitely strange” “Oh I wouldn’t say it’s that bad” Said a smooth voice coming from the stairs All attention was now towards the stairs as they saw a light gray pony casually walking down the top of the stairs from the left. “I find it rather enjoyable myself” Another voice said in a much darker tone. Another pony with bright white fur started walking from the top of the stairs from the right. Both Ponies stopped at the intersection of the stairs. “Everypony listen” Twilight whispered “Those aren’t ponies, they are monsters incapable of feeling mercy or love anymore…Vampires” “Vinyl!” Rainbow yelled happily to the bright white pony not listening to Twilight at all “And Octavia!” Rainbow flew over to the ponies at the top of the Stairs. “You guys really had me worried; I thought the fire back in town-“Rainbow began. But she couldn’t say another word because Vinyl floated up and seized Rainbow Dash by the neck from behind her with her front leg. “I don’t know who you are my frisky flyer” Vinyl said, “But you do look…delicious” Rainbow Dash looked in all different directions wondering what she could do, and then she saw the teeth of her holder on her right. She could feel the intensity of the situation she was in and the breath of her captor that was behind her. Vinyl started to lean closer to bite down, but let a scream of pain instead, releasing Rainbow in the process. She turned around to see Applejack with her whip out and glaring at her. “You’ll pay for that you little-“Vinyl began but was cut off by Octavia. “Don’t be too hasty my friend” Octavia warned to Vinyl. “We have better things to do than start a fight here; we might get the floor dirty” Vinyl considered attacking anyway, but decided against it and went back to Octavia. Rainbow flew back to her friends while Vinyl joined her partner. “Besides, let’s let them meet the good doctor’s friends first” Octavia said with a grin. Before any of the four ponies had time to wonder what she was talking about the two vampires put out a hoof and created a black, misty force field at the top of the stairs. “Why those no good, dirty varmints” Applejack said. “NOW how are we supposed to get to them?” “Hey AJ, just hit the thing with your whip” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Well, worth a shot” Applejack walked halfway up the stairs, took her whip, jumped and stuck the shield with a crack. When she did an electrical current went through the whip and zapped her. She fell down the stairs onto the white floor. Rainbow Dash flew over and helped Applejack up. “Do you have any more bright ideas?” Applejack asked sarcastically to Rainbow Dash. “Well, you didn’t have to do it” Rainbow retorted. “I was just trusting in your judgment” “Guys stop fighting!” Twilight yelled intervening. “It’s getting us nowhere and we have bigger things to worry about.” Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in that guilty face you get when you’re lectured. “OOO, I know that face! Twilight makes a lot of ponies get it” Pinkie shouted…Pinkie get your own story! The three ponies all look at Pinkie in confused look (Twilight even more confused and curious on what face she was talking about) but went back to the problem at hand. The previously arguing ponies looked back at each other for a second before talking “I’m sorry” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said to each other. Both surprised each other and jumped a bit, then laughed it off. “Maybe Twilight could use here magic?” Pinkie asked. “Well there is a ‘dispel magic’ spell, but I still can’t use my magic too well” Twilight explained to Pinkie…again “Wait, Pinkie, didn’t you say a while back that you saw Rarity being taken through the forest with the others?” Twilight asked hopefully. “Hmm, I can’t remember, hold on a sec” Pinkie pulled a stack of papers out of nothing it seemed and began reading the story again…Hey, that’s cheating! After reading through the papers she tossed the papers to her left making them disappear. “I DID, I DID SAY THAT!” Pinkie shouted All Ponies stared at Pinkie Pie hoping that she hadn’t gone insane. “Twilight, You were sayin?” Applejack Asked to Twilight trying to drive attention from what they all just saw. “OH, right” Twilight said “Rarity is a unicorn so she can learn the dispel magic spell” “How are we going to find Rarity in this huge place?” Rainbow asked. Everypony pondered for a second until Pinkie hopped over to the left of the staircase. “I think she’s over here; my pinkie sense is telling me that I’m going to meet old friends through this door” Pinkie stated On the wall to the left of the staircase was a small, old, wooden door with a sign to the right labeled “Laboratory”. It seemed to not go with the rest of the lobby they were in due to the look and size. After a few moments of silence the other ponies shrugged and chose to go with Pinkie’s judgment: Due to their past experiences with Pinkie’s sense they knew to not go against it. Rainbow Dash flew over and opened the door revealing a dark narrow staircase lightly light by small, dim candles leading down. Applejack walked over and saw the path leading down, then went past the other two ponies and started walking down. She paused for a sec noticing that neither of the two ponies at the top was following her. “Come on guys” Applejack said to them. “We can’t pull a Fluttershy right now we have to-“ She stopped realizing that she just said the name they were all trying to avoid hearing. Fluttershy was the nicest pony in the world that you could come across ever. She would always try to help whenever she could…as long as it didn’t involve dragons. The three ponies were quiet for a second, but suddenly gained new found confidence in the mention of their friend they needed to rescue. “Then let’s get going!” Rainbow Dash shouted out. “Okie doki loki” Pinkie said agreeing. The Ponies were almost racing down the stairs “I’m going to save all of my friends” Applejack thought intensely. “And we’re going to help you” Twilight thought in reply. The Ponies found another door at the end of the staircase, similar to the one they found at the top. Applejack reached for the door, but Pinkie stopped her saying that she got a combo of ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch. Applejack stepped back and the door in front of them burst open creating a dust plume. When the dust clear away a huge, human shaped monster stood in front of them. “RUN!” Twilight yelled. They obeyed and jolted up the stairs not even bothering to look behind them. Applejack was the first to reach the top and the first to find that is was locked. The others caught up; hearing the news of the door their faces winced in fear. Footsteps could be heard, but not seen. Each step could be heard a little bit more. After 20 or so steps they saw the face of their attacker, a jumbled mess of stitches filled the face along the cheeks and eyes. After another step its neck was visible and revealed a metal bolt on both sides of its neck that gave off little sparks of electricity. Twilight noticed the stitches on the eyes and formulated a plan in her head. “Applejack, take your whip and wrap it around its legs” Twilight said as calm as she could. “Rainbow dash, I need you to rush him as fast as you can and knock him down the stairs” The plan couldn’t have gone more perfect. Applejack threw her whip around both of the legs causing the monsters to stop in place. Rainbow shot off leaving behind a small rainbow and smashed into the monster. After being hit square in the chest the human shaped creature groaned lowly and fell down the darkened stairs. The ponies were breathing heavily as the sounds of the monster’s crashes grew more and more silent until they could no long hear them anymore. A minute later, Applejack started down the stairs with a bit of curiosity; the others followed. They reached the bottom of the stairs. When they got there, they were relieved to see a dead and bleeding monster just outside the door frame. All the ponies walked over it with caution, just in case it decided to get up again for no reason. Through the door was an array of cords and wired that seemed to connect to everywhere. The room was rather larger than what they expected, but unlike the rest of the castle any of them had seem so far, it was dark, but you could see bit and pieces of the whole thing from the flashes of light and sparks flying from unknown technology. Along the sides of the walls were tubes filled with green liquid; a few of the tubes had blobs of what looked like blue goo floating in them. In the distance all the ponies could hear faint noises, like orders being given. At the other end of the room from where they were coming from they saw a door similar to the ones they passed down there. Sounds of frantic footsteps came and went from behind the door. Unable to take the suspense, Rainbow Dash flew to the door and pulled it open. Rarity had been captured before, but in different settings. She found herself trapped in a steel box resembling a jail cell with a single lock on one of the sides. Blinding lights were shining on her making the rest of the room pitch black in all directions that she looked. After a minute of looking around and thinking about what was going on she heard a series of tiny clanking noises. She tried to see through the darkness around her to see what was making the mysterious metal sound; a door opened, and she got her answer. T.A.M. was engraved on the robot’s front metal plate; the name was the first thing that Rarity noticed after looking to where the sound of the door had come from. Above the plate was a head made of one big red, robot eye. It had no arms, but two rope-like tentacles coming from its back. It looked like an upside-down cone with an eye at the top and wheels on the bottom. The Robot rolled around the room checking on weird devices and equipment. “Hello?” Rarity asked it. The Robot didn’t seem to hear anything and just continued its work. “Could you do me a favor and release me?” Rarity asked in a formal voice. T.A.M. ignored her again. It seemed to be working on something. Rarity left the robot alone for a while, talking was not working and the robot wasn’t really doing anything besides waving its tentacles around like a mad man. After a minute of rolling around the room the robot turned to Rarity and stared at her with its one red eye. The robot grabbed a scalpel with one of its tentacles and moved towards Rarity. Technical Autopsy Machine was the words Rarity read under the engraving on its plate. “Stop right there!” Rarity said loudly but firmly. The robot paused. Everything that it had cut had never talked to it before. “What in EQUESTRIA do you think you are doing?!” Rarity asked T.A.M stared at Rarity in confusion and fear. The Robot backed off a bit. “I demand that you release me immediately!” Rarity…demanded. Without another pause or clank the robot quickly removed all of the straps. Rarity walked out of the box and straightened her hair that had gone frizzy from laying on the bottom of the box too long. She took another look around the room and saw an assortment of a typical autopsy room; needles, sharp objects, medicine, lasers, entrails in tubes of pinkish red liquid, the normal things. T.A.M. was still wondering what was standing in front of it. “Sorry to judge, but this place is just a bit too scary for me” Rarity said turning back to the robot. “I suppose I’ll have to spruce it up a bit” T.A.M. was still staring at Rarity with its huge, red eye in confusion. “I will require some helpers if you wouldn’t mind” Rarity told the robot. T.A.M. almost jumped up off the floor after being spoken to again. The robot regained it thought pattern and sent a signal, almost like a whistle. After 5 seconds 10 miniature robot dogs at around 1 ft. tall ran into the room in a straight line. “Aww, they are so cute” Rarity cooed to the dogs. The dogs almost seemed bashful at the comment. “Right then, I need you all to start taking of these…devices out of here and into the garbage.” Rarity ordered. Immediately, as if a button was pressed, the dogs started going around the room and taking all sorts of objects out of the room. “You too, come on” Rarity said to T.A.M. T.A.M looked at Rarity and became angry thinking that the orders were now ridiculous. The robot took Rarity by her legs and held her upside-down. Rarity screamed and the dogs came in growling and barking. T.A.M. swatted at the dogs with its free tentacles. One of the dogs caught the flailing tentacle and the rest went after the body. The robot dropped Rarity and she was caught by three dogs under her. She was brought the one side of the room away from the chaos that had started. T.A.M. was flailing about with ten dogs all over it. In 5 minutes, T.A.M. was dismembered, never to work again. “Well” Rarity said. “I guess some people don’t know good taste: Come on everyone, we still have much to do” The ponies gathered around the door to see a well-lit purple room through it. Walking in the room they saw a familiar face lying down on a pillow in behind a round table. 10 tail-wagging, sitting robot dogs were around Rarity bouncing around and having fun. “Rarity?!” The group of ponies called out. “Oh, hello girls” Rarity said casually “How are you?” Confused, they walked over to Rarity with caution making sure that it wasn’t a trap. “Pardon me, I’ll get more pillows.” Rarity said. “Percy” she said in a singing voice. A blue robot dog came out the pile of dogs and onto Rarity’s back. “Be a dear and get three more pillows won’t you?” She asked in a loving voice. The dog barked happily and rushed out a dog door. Almost as soon as it left it came back with three pillows on its back. Each of confused ponies took a pillow, put it on the floor next to the round table. “Rarity, we need to get out of here and rescue Fluttershy” Twilight said out flatly. “Fluttershy? She’s in this weird place as well?” Rarity asked shocked. “Then let’s get goi-“ Rarity paused. “Twilight? Where are you?” Rarity asked looking around the room. The three ponies on the other side of the table were silent and looking down, two were more upset than the other because this was the second time that they forgot Twilight was dead. Twilight explained all the events that had happened so far (Rainbow told her story in the middle) and was met with the same look she always got from everypony; an open mouthed shocked expression “There is one other thing we need to continue” Twilight said after a moment or so of silence. Rarity cleared her throat, closed her mouth and shook her head. “Y-yes?” She asked “How fast can you learn a spell?”
Chapter 4All four ponies stood in the main lobby looking at the force field. Rarity was getting nervous, learning new spells wasn’t her specialty. “Alright Rarity” Twilight said “Remember, focus on a clear mind and the spell. When all is calm in your head, release the spell.” Rarity nodded still looking at the black, misty wall in front of her. She bent her head slightly and took a deep breath. Her horn started to glow faintly, then burst with lights and sparks going everywhere. The other ponies began to back off, afraid that they might get hit. A few moments later a beam of white light shot from Rarity’s horn to the field. The beam seemed to have no effect on it for a while, but then multiple bright, white cracks appeared on the wall for 5 seconds then disappeared into it. After a while the wall burst open and then left a giant cloud of black smoke that disappeared shortly after it was made. “That was SO AWESOME” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Yes well” Rarity said almost breathless “I do believe that I need to sit for a second” “Not yet” Twilight warned “we still need to get Fluttershy” All ponies jumped at the name. “Then what are we sittin’ around for?” Applejack asked “let’s get to it!” With the thought of Fluttershy in their heads, the ponies started up the stairs. At the midway point of the stairs, the directions going up shot off into two half circles, coming together to reveal another hallway going across. In the middle of the hallway in front of the stairs was a ginormous, white door with what looked like blue and gray mist coming out the sides. A small, gold plated sign said “ballroom” in silver letters next to it. “Want to go another way?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What do you mean?” Applejack replied. “Well, I mean there is obviously something behind that huge thing, but why not go around or something?” “What’s the matter scared?” “NO! I’m just…cautious that all” “Doesn’t matter” Pinkie interrupted. All eyes were on pinkie. My eyes as well. “There are more fields on both sides of the hallway, we have to go in the door. These ones you can’t break through.” Pinkie Explained. Oh great, now she can read my thoughts. Applejack walked over to the door in front of them, then started walking right. After 5 steps she slammed her face into an invisible wall. “What the hay is going on here?” Applejack asked confused. “You can’t skip a boss battle silly” Pinkie Pie explained. Everypony had been with Pinkie long enough over the years to just go along with whatever she had going on in her head, even though most of the time it never made sense to them. She really hadn’t been wrong before and questioning her methods just made you wonder about your own sanity. “Then let’s keep going!” Rainbow Dash said trying to break the silence that swept around them. “Hold up sugar cube” Applejack Warned while grabbing Rainbow’s tail and holding her back. “We should probably think of a plan first” “For what? It’s not like we can’t handle anything” Before any pony could say anything against or for the matter Rainbow flew up to the door in front of them all and slowly opened the door. When she could go through the door a cool breeze came from it that sent a chill up everypony’s spine. It was almost as if a dark shadow was looming over them, messing with each of the minds of each pony. “Do we really have to go in there?” Rarity asked already knowing the answer. “Come on Rarity! It could be fun!” Pinkie said jumping towards to door. Pinkie was the first to enter the door, Applejack chased after her followed by the other two. The inside was completely dark and quiet. The only light that was there was the light coming from the door they just came from. Rarity suggested that they head back and find a torch or something that gave out light. Twilight was about to tell her to use an illumination spell, but the door closed behind her and the room around them lit up dimly. The ballroom was like walking into a darkened version of the Canterlot one. There were giant windows that took up most of the walls around them, yet all that could be seen was darkness. If there was a ceiling, no pony would have ever found it; there was only black and mist above them. On the other side from where the group of ponies stood was an organ playing lightly. The organ was massive, almost covering the whole opposite wall, almost seemed like half of it was just for show. In the center of the ballroom was a darkened white, flat floor. Two ponies were dancing in the middle of the floor, it almost seemed like they were ignoring the group of friends that just walked in. “Glad you could join us” Octavia said causing all the ponies to jump a little. “We were wondering where you ran off to. Oooh and it looks like you brought a friend with you” “What have you done with Fluttershy?!” Applejack shouted out. “Who?” Vinyl asked with a grin. “ OH, you mean that shaking worthless thing we found trying to protect her precious bunny? She’s in the castle with a friend of Lord Dracula’s.” “Lord who?” Rainbow asked. “Simpletons, they don’t even know who’s causing all the chaos” Octavia said with a smile. “And they won’t be able to when we’re through with them” The dancing ponies floated in the air and towards the organ. The organ stopped playing and all eyes were now on Octavia and Vinyl. A cello appeared by Octavia and a turntable burst from the ground in front of Vinyl. “They look like they could use a rest” Octavia said after grabbing the cello. “Let’s give them a lullaby.” The Group of ponies had a puzzling look on their faces, they all looked at each other, nodded, and all rushed the musical duo. They got halfway to their enemies when they all heard a calming tune that made them stop and stare at the air around them. The tune was calm and hypnotizing; a light bass line continued in the background as the cello played, a perfect combo. Almost like a switch had been flipped, the ponies dropped on the floor. Applejack got up from her bed panting and sweating. She was in her old room, free from any burns or destruction. She got up and trotted over to a window, Sweet apple acres was there, apples just waiting to be bucked and eaten. “Applejack!” yelled a familiar voice. “Granny Smith?” Applejack pondered. She walked down the stairs…stairs? That couldn’t be right, she lived downst-. Maybe she moved upstairs she decided. “Come on lazy, sit your butt down and eat already” Granny Smith said in a very demanding voice. “Uhh, hi Granny Smith. How are you doin tod-“Applejack started but was cut off right after.” “Eat your food so you can go help Mac with the work load.” Applejack saw the “meal” that was in front of her, it looked like Sweetie bell made it. She decided to skip breakfast today and just walked out to her orchard. When she walked to outside, she noticed that the sky had been unusually cloudy and dark, the pegasi must be having a storm coming…a really big one. Before she could think any more about the matter she saw Big Mac next to a couple apple trees. “Howdy Big Mac, how are you-“Applejack started. “Oh I’m just fine thanks, just enjoying the sunny weather and enjoying the wonderful day of working. I do believe, oh look at me I sound just like a English guy, this is so much fun!” Big Mac rambled. Applejack had enough of this, something was definitely off. Before she had to hear what else Big Mac had to say she rushed off into the center of Ponyville. The area was dead silent and there was no sign of life anywhere. Not to mention everything seemed grayer. She started walking through the town glancing at everything. All the doors were locked and windows shut, it was a ghost town devoid of everything but the buildings. “Applejack?!” A voice called out in the distance. She turned around to find Twilight in the distance. The two ponies dashed to each other and hugged. “I thought I was the only one here” Applejack said “Well Spike’s here, but something is different about him, he hides in the corners with an evil stare and won’t listen to me.” Twilight said. “My family back at the farm is messed up as well” “Something is definitely wrong around here” “Well I’m not sure what to do, I can’t find anypony else besides you and your magic’s gone so-” “Wait, what did you say?” “I can’t find anypony else and your magic’s gone so-“ “My magic’s not gone, why would you say-“ Both ponies opened their eyes widely and both felt a sharp pain from the back each other’s head, remembering what happened before they came here. “This is a dream” Twilight explained. “But how come you’re in my dream?” Applejack asked. “Because I’m in your head, remember?” “Oh, right. But how do we get out of here?” “We have to do something that would wake us up” “Like what?” Asking that question was a really bad idea in Applejack’s mind as she found herself on top on her barn with Twilight standing next to her. “Remind me why I’m going to die again?” Applejack asked “You’re not going to die, this is a dream. The shock will just wake you up that’s all” “And if this doesn’t work?” “Then you’re going to feel a bit of pressure everywhere” Twilight reminded Applejack of her doctor when he told her of the pressure she would be feeling from the needles. “Well, maybe we could try something else, you know in case we-“ Before she could say anything else she felt a sharp pain on her rump as Twilight kicked it and jumped off after her yelling in the process of falling. Applejack found herself on a cold, hard floor staring a set of white teeth. Almost subconsciously she grabbed her whip and in a spinning motion swung it, hitting a light gray mare knocking her back into a wall. Octavia fell to the floor her body lifeless, when she hit it, she burst in a cloud of black and red smoke that didn’t go away. Looking to the left of her, Applejack saw Vinyl with her mouth open and staring at her. Vinyl and Octavia were PFF’s, inseparable, willing to whatever for each other, and now Vinyl was alone. The anger of the white mare was unknown Applejack when Vinyl rushed her, but it did not matter. A well timed swing shot Vinyl into a wall; she landed next to the cloud of Octavia’s and burst into a cloud of black and blue. The clouds connected and combined into a white and purple cloud that floated up towards the ceiling. The Cloud hit the ceiling of the ballroom and burst in a white light, destroying the darkness around Applejack. She had to close her eyes from the light; when it faded away she saw a beautiful white ballroom with columns around the area and windows showing the still dark sky outside. “Nice job, Applejack” Twilight said. “Twilight! It’s good to hear your voice again.” Applejack realized that her other friends were still on the floor behind her. She walked over to Pinkie and nudged her a bit, but she didn’t wake up. Thinking for a bit she came with an idea that Twilight didn’t really like. Applejack turned around and kicked Pinkie in the stomach. “I ONLY HAD 6 CUPCAKES!” Pinkie shouted waking up. “Oh, hey guys. What ha- oww my tummy hurts.” Applejack walked over to Rainbow Dash and did the same thing. “BUT I’VE BEEN TRAINING FOR YEARS YOU CAN’T TURN ME AWAY!” Rainbow Dash Yelled panting. “Uh. Oh um hey what…ow, I’m in pain” Applejack continued on to Rarity, but instead of kicking she flipped Rarity over. “BUT THEY ARE ON SALE!!!!!” Rarity seemed to scream out more than Rainbow and Pinkie Combined. She turned to her friends and blushed a bit. “Well they were” When all the ponies were told what happened they were a bit shocked, when the saw the amazing new ballroom they were in they couldn’t help but feel sad for Octavia and Vinyl, two souls that weren’t meant to live their lives in darkness. At the same time they were happy because now they would be together forever. For a moment, all was quiet, and then the organ began to shake. The shaking was slow, but after a couple seconds it was rambling around making loud sounds. It did this for a minute then stopped; the middle of the organ split in two, revealing a secret tunnel going up into another part of the castle. “Well, are you all just going to stand there, or are we going after Fluttershy?” Rarity Asked. All of the ponies reacted in the same way, a smile and walking step forward. “HOLD IT” A demanding voice said behind them. “None can escape the great and powerful Trixie!” Applejack could feel Twilight facehoof. Dealing with Trixie wasn’t ideal on Twilight’s list. They had seen Trixie before, gloating and trying to make fun of everypony. Trixie had obviously been turned into a vampire due to her sharp teeth and black hat/cape combo, but she still had that way to gloat about everything she did. “Applejack, can you please get rid of her?” Twilight asked almost groaning. In almost one motion Applejack jumped in front of her friends, took her whip, wrapped it around Trixie, and threw her out one of the windows. Rainbow Dash saw that the window was open and flew straight for it, ignoring her friend’s warnings. The window seemed to stop for a second and all the glass pieces gathered back to where they originally were. The Pegasus crashed straight into the glass but instead of going through it, she stopped like she hit a wall. “Apparently only things connected to the castle can leave it.” Twilight said scanning over the window. “Yeah…I noticed” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. After getting Rainbow Dash the ponies headed for the tunnel. They heard machinery in the distance.
Chapter 5I’m telling you NO! “Oh come on, it would be fun!” Pinkie said hopping up and down. Giant robots and explosions do not make a good ending, besides how can there be those things when you ponies don’t have technology even close to that stuff? “Then how about a love scene?” THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE! “Neither does Twilight turning into a ghost” Oh come on that was perfect, at least I can explain it...wait a minute. This is- PINKIE, please get out of my thoughts. “Fine Grumpy McGrumperton” “Pinkie you have been hopping with your eyes closed for a while now, what can you possibly be thinking about?” Twilight asked the bouncing pony. “Nothing…still doesn’t make sense” Pinkie mumbled. And yes it does! The ponies were walking in the tunnel that had appeared in the ballroom and had been trotting for 10 minutes. The tunnel looked like it was carved out and smoothed, reflecting a dim, black and blue light from an unknown source. All that could be seen in front and behind them was the ground, the curved walls and endless path. “We’ve been walking this for 10 minutes, this castle is big, but it shouldn’t be this big. What the hay is going on?!” Rainbow shouted out. “She’s right” Rarity added. “We would’ve come across something if we were walking in a straight line” “Hmm, I have an idea” Twilight said “Rainbow, can you fly ahead?” “Of course!” Rainbow said, ready to stretch her wings. Rainbow trotted in front of the ponies, leapt forward and started flapping her wings fast and sped off. Right after Rainbow flew off at her usual dashing speed Twilight saw a small blip above her, at first she thought it was just the tunnel’s reflective light, but the blip stayed there for a while longer than any normal reflection.After 10 seconds of flying she came across three figures in the distance. She picked up her speed to catch the objects only to find a bright pink hopping towards her before she could slow down. “HI DASHIE!!” Pinkie yelled slamming into Rainbow Dash. The two crashed into the ground near the rest of the ponies. Applejack trotted over to the two moaning ponies with rarity to help them up. “I feared this would happen” Twilight sighed. “Girls we have dark magic at hand and we aren’t getting out easily.” “Well now what?” Applejack asked groaning with a scowl. “Easy there AJ, no need to get upset.” Rainbow said comforting her friend. “We’ll get out of here in a dash” Pinkie pie looked above her. “Really?” Well I thought it was funny Applejack still had a scowl on her face. “Twilight, how do we get out of here, I think this tunnel is getting to all of us.” Rarity asked. Applejack hung her head down. “Yeah, I reckon I’m not helpin’ much neither” Applejack admitted, but then brought her head up in a jolt with new found confidence. Twilight, ignoring her friends for a while, began thinking of every different possible way to escape the endless vortex. Then she remembered the blip in the tunnel just after Rainbow Dash took off. It couldn’t be a…could it? “Alright, so how ARE we getting out of here, Twil-“Applejack began to say, before she was cut off be a rather loud and excited voice. “I GOT IT!!!” Twilight shouted with glee. “Rainbow, come over here quick!” Everypony jumped a bit at the sudden outburst. Rainbow did as instructed. “Twilight, are you sure this is going to work?” Rainbow asked. “In truth, I really don’t, but would you rather just stay here?” Twilight countered “Oh all right” Everypony besides Rainbow stood by the walls around them leaving a bit of wide area in the middle of the tunnel. Rainbow took a deep breath then looked straight in front of her, eyeing the bluish darkness intensely. Her mind focused on the tunnel and she took off flying straight in the middle of it. After a few seconds she saw her friends reappear and disappear. She started gaining speed and seeing her friends come and go faster and faster. She could feel the strain on her body and the stale air resistance growing larger. 20 seconds ( or what felt like 20 minutes) later she saw three things happen very fast, the cone, the boom, and a small portal that broke open. She aimed for the portal on her next go around and shot through it landing body first into a bloody stone wall. The cyan Pegasus was out at soon as she hit it. The small portal that Rainbow made started to expand over the tunnel slowly getting rid of the darkness around Applejack, rarity and Pinkie pie. Within a minute the darkness was gone and the tunnel revealed two exits; one going back to ballroom and the other to a cold area that reeked of blood and death. Three ponies exited the tunnel to find a knocked out Rainbow on the ground and a single hallway going left. The hallway (much like the tunnel) was darkened and seemed to go on forever only with a multitude of bones scattered around the floor and in the walls. “How in Tartarus did you know that was going to work?” Applejack asked Twilight “It was easy once I saw it was a alter-portal, see when a set of alter-portals attract too much energy from something too fast it can cause a minor crack in its structure. Once that crack is made, one can use the amount of energy accumulated, in this case Rainbow’s sonic rainboom, to go through it and destroy the portal system completely “Twilight noticed the confused faces and complete silence. “What?” “Twilight dear, that’s very interesting, but how did you know what to do?” Rarity asked. Twilight mentally facehoofed and gave a groaning “never mind”. “Well if you’re all done there we have a problem on our hooves” Applejack said walking over to Rainbow. “Oh, right” Rarity said giving an embarrassed smile. “How do you suppose we carry her? “Ah’ll take care of that” Applejack said almost proudly. “Rarity, umm, a little help?” “OH OH, I WANT TO HELP TOO” Pinkie shouted out. She hopped over to rainbow, got under her and threw her on Applejack’s back perfectly. “Alright, let’s get to it!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing down the hallway leaving two dumbfounded ponies and one knock out one. Applejack and rarity followed Pinkie down the bone-filled walkway noticing that the skeletons were beginning to grow in numbers…and move. “Pinkie, would you mind slowing down a bit? My hooves are getting achy” Rarity complained.” Before Pinkie could reply a hoard of Skeletons came to life around them. Applejack set Rainbow down telling Rarity to protect her then took her whip and immediately began her onslaught. Applejack wasn’t too used to smaller areas yet and almost hit rarity once or twice. Pinkie Pie also helped by shooting everything near her with her signature party cannon…where in Equestria does she keep that thing? “I told you I never leave home without it” Pinkie said plainly…Yes I know that but…you know what forget it, and no more forth wall breaks, the readers are already getting sick of them. Pinkie began to cry for no reason after blasting a pack of three skeletons into a wall. Rarity noticed and galloped over to her “Pinkie Pie! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rarity asked concerned. “The author is mean!” Pinkie said through sobs. “I’m sorry who?” “He won’t let me have any fun” “Darling really, those voices aren’t anything” “And I didn’t even want to be a werepie!” …sigh…sorry pinkie it just fit the mood “Nah I’m just kidding, I just wanted to talk to you again”…Daww thanks…break ALL the fourth walls! Pinkie immediately jumped and yelled out in excitement and continued destroying skeletons. Rarity still had no idea what was going on. The battle ended with the final skeleton having its spine snapped with Applejack’s whip. Seeing that there were no more enemies, Applejack put Rainbow on her back and continued walking down the hallway along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “I don’t feel too well” Twilight thought. “What’s wrong sugarcube?” Applejack asked in her thoughts walking slightly ahead of the others for privacy. “Something about this place is…weird.” “What do ya mean?” “Well, I felt the dread and pain of others as soon as we starting walking down here. But it’s not just that. There is magic everywhere here.” “But your full of magic and the magic over at the tunnel didn’t make you sick.” “This magic is different, it fills the air with a sense of hopelessness. I’ve never read anything about this in any of my books.” “That probably just means that we have to get going faster” Applejack thought with a grin. “Besides whatever’s out there doesn’t stand a chance against…Did it just get cold?” Applejack said that out loud turning to her friends. “Not really darling” Rarity said with a confused look on her face. “Although I must admit that I’d prefer…oh” She walked closer to Applejack and felt the cold sweep over her. She shivered a bit, both at the cold and the shock of the sudden change. “I want to try!” Pinkie said bouncing over to them. The cold seemed to barely bother her. “Oooo it’s like an alternate universe!” Pinkie bounced behind. “This is hot and this is cold. Hot, cold, hot, cold, hot, cold” Pinkie said bouncing from one side to the other. She gasped. “What if I stand in the middle?” She did so. Her front portion was cold, the back was hot. “I feel like a hay pocket” Pinkie giggled. “Pinkie enough with your shenanigans we got work to do” Applejack said firmly and almost annoyed. “Oh don’t be too strick darling. I mean at least she isn’t singing another one of her-“ Rarity said began only to be cut off by Pinkie. “Hey girls, you know what this reminds me of? A son-“ Pinkie started only to have an orange hoof in her mouth. “Not now Pinkie” Applejack said in a calm and serious voice. “Ookie doki loki!” Pinkie replied happily. The hallway led into a dungeon that had a rather large open floor with only four cells (two on the left and two on the right). On the wall in front of them was a giant picture of a graveyard. Applejack could almost feel Twilight cringe under the amount of dark magic in the room. Applejack felt something move on her back. “Well, look who decided to join the party” Applejack said with a smirk. “PARTY?! Where, where???” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly while hopping around. “Where am I” Rainbow groaned taking a look around the room. “I feel like I just went to one of Pinkie’s after parties.” “Well you flew out of the portal area and set us free dearie” Rarity said intervening. “You must have flown straight into a stone wall.” “Oh, is that all?” Rainbow asked sarcastically. She lifted herself off of Applejack’s back and slumped to the floor which brought her face to face with a skeleton head. Rainbow left out a yelp that filled the room. “Hello? Is anyone there?” A small and feeble voice asked from a cell on the right. Everypony knew that calm and squeaking sound. They rushed towards the cell and saw a yellow Pegasus with pink hair lying on the ground with tears in her eyes. Fluttershy woke to find herself in a tight, enclosed and dark area. The only light that could be seen was that from dim torches scattered around the outside of her cell. Fear was all she could feel as she looked around her imprisonment. The cell itself had nothing but stone walls and a small patch of hay. For Fluttershy, it was rather small, but big enough to stand up in and turn around. In front of Fluttershy were steels bars going vertically…no lock. Fluttershy turned around to see another cold, soulless wall staring at her, mocking her. Escape was impossible, thinking there was just gave her false hope. A moth flew by her muzzle. Looking closer around her, she noticed that there were a small amount of bugs looking at her. Fluttershy was happy to see other living creatures; knowing she was not alone gave her a small amount of courage. Fluttershy spent her time seeing an arrangement of ants, moths, flies, spiders, and one rat. Being a pony whose special talent that had to do with animals included insects as well. None of the insects or rat attacked her, if fact they seemed to be trying to calm down her fears. The yellow Pegasus was happy for a split second forgetting she was in a cell at all. Then a cool breeze sent shivers up Fluttershy’s spine, all the insects disappeared right after, she was alone again only cold and crying with nothing to do but lay on the floor. Then she heard voices in the distance. “Fluttershy!” Everypony shouted out. They saw Fluttershy look up. “Girls?” Fluttershy meekly asked. Her eyes widened in realization that most of her friends were there. “Girls!” She shouted (in a soft voice) and stood straight up. All the ponies were talking at once happy to finally have everypony back. Fluttershy stood next to the bars with hooves hugging her, their warm enbrace calmed her crying. She closed her eyes hearing all of the voices of her friends: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes and saw all of them: Applejack, rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash…That didn’t add up. “Umm, sorry for interrupting everypony, but…” Fluttershy started. All eyes were on her. “Where’s Twilight” Once again the happy faces turned to frowns and were facing the floor. There was a long silence, before anypony even stirred. Rainbow started to open her mouth, but a chill met her spine, and by the look on everypony else’s face the chill found them as well. “I’m glad you got here so fast” A voice in the shadows said “Although I must admit I was expecting someone…taller” All the ponies turned to face the cold voice, but saw nothing. “Where the hay did tha-“ Applejack started but was cut off by the voice. “Oh I’m sorry, I haven’t fully introduced myself yet. You may call me Death.” The large painting started shifting left and right rapidly. In the middle of it grew a swirling, purple and black vortex that covered most of the picture. A figure in a black cloak slowly emerged from it holding a giant silver scythe. Death had a skeletal face with deep red in his eye sockets. “You free Fluttershy right NOW!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Temper, temper, you need to have more patient blue one” Death said calm, but mockingly. Applejack stood by Rainbow with a scowl on her face. She didn’t have use words. “Oh, and what are you going t-…that whip you have, where did you get it?” Death asked almost fearful. “From a friend, who wants to know? ACK!” Applejack was grabbed by a skeleton hand and forced up into the air by her neck. “Funny, this whip is different. There is no sign of any Belmont at all.” Death said almost with a relived sigh. With nothing to fear he threw the orange pony across the room into the others. Rainbow stared at her friends then back at death that had turned around to go back to the vortex. By instinct, Rainbow charged, only to be hit and fly straight into the cage Fluttershy was in, destroying the bars in the process. Fluttershy shrieked as she saw her friends on the ground in front of her. Rainbow lied in next to her right forearm, bloody and unconscious, but alive. Her other friends were on the unforgiving floor unable to get up. Emotions ran through her as her eyes scanned the scene; fear, worry, pain…hate. “You…MONSTER!” Fluttershy screamed Death reared his ugly head to find a yellow Pegasus stared at him with eyes that could pierce your very soul. All he could do was float in the air and see those eyes flying towards him. “You think that you can just push ponies around like they’re tools to be played with? You have no right to be a bully and no one, and I mean NO one pushes my friends around!” Death could only stare and mutter “But…but I” “Don’t you ‘but I’ ME mister.” The red in Death’s eyes were getting smaller and smaller with each word. “But that rainbow one was just asking for it” “I know, and no one blames you, but you could’ve hit someone else in the process” Fluttershy pointed out “You just need to be with friends who can be with you” “What?” “Would you like to join our little herd here and come back to Ponyville with us?” “WHAT!” Applejack yelled. “Fluttershy are you NUTS?! Y’all can’t just bring a floating demon with us that not only threw me around, but threw Rainbow Dash at you?” “He probably had no choice” Fluttershy said calmly “He is a monster” “Is he ready for a PARTY???!!!!” Pinkie said jumping (literally) into the conversation. “Pinkie dear, don’t you think that your interrupting a very important argument?” Rarity butted in. “Oh Rarity, I’m just trying to not be forgotten about by the possible audience that we still have.” Death’s mind raced. This was all so sudden. His sense said no…but the eyes said yes. NO, what was he thinking? He couldn’t just leave…could he? He thought for a while, about the things keeping him from leaving. There was only one thing. In the confusion and silence that took place shortly after Pinkie’s comment, Death finally spoke again. “I will go with you…if you slay my master.” Death said in a very serious matter. “What the hay do you mean” Rainbow asked roughly. “What possible good could come from you helping us?” “And here I thought you wanted to help your magical, purple friend.” Death slyly said. “How do you know about me?” Twilight said. “Oh please, I could feel your energy the moment I grabbed the orange one.” “The name is Applejack ghost.” Applejack cut in. “My name is Death, haven’t you been reading the chapter?” Pinkie gasped. “You can do that too??? YAAAAY” Pinkie yelled. What have I done? Applejack and Rainbow weren’t going to let Pinkie take control just yet. “Now wait a minute, how do you plan on helping Twilight?” Applejack said with almost a feeling of hope in her voice. “I am Death, I choose who lives and dies, but my lord uses me as a guard to deal with unnecessary scum.” “You never answered my question.” Applejack sneered. Death rushed over to Applejack and grabbed her by the neck (again) with his bony hand and levitating up 5 feet in the air. With his other hand, Death pressed his finger onto the forehead of the struggling pony. A mist of white and black light came from the connection point causing Applejack to hang loosely in Death’s grip. The mist started turning pure white and increasing in growth. After the mist covered most of the floor, it began to fade and out of Applejack’s forehead flew a purple light, lightly shining. When it emerged, the armor Applejack had been wearing vanished in an instance. Death touched the light and it began to expand into veins and a bone structure that resembled a pony. The muscles began growing around the bones along with the pink skin that stretched over the body. Finally the hair grew from the skin revealing a sleek, new Twilight Sparkle. She opened her eyes, looking around she saw her friends staring at her with mouths wide open. Pinkie bounced towards her and gave her a huge hug. “I KNEW the author wouldn’t kill off a member of the mane 6 permanently!” Pinkie shouted. Everyone was too busy gaping at Twilight to notice Pinkie being Pinkie. The rest of the group ran up to Twilight to join in the hug. Applejack squeezed harder than even Pinkie. Eventually they broke the hug and Twilight looked at Applejack, noticing that her armor was gone. She addressed the issue, but the work pony shrugged it off saying that it was better to have the old group back again than to have some magical armor. In truth she felt a bit naked without it and a bit more vulnerable, but she told herself to get over it, and she did. Rarity complained a little saying that leather definitely suited Applejack and demanded that she would go to carousel boutique to get fitted for a new set. The orange pony groaned a bit, but agreed because she liked the idea of being protected again. After Filling in Fluttershy about the recent events, the mane 6 was ready to leave, that is until a looming figure stopped them. “Don’t forget our bargain little yellow one.” Death warned. “The stairs are over there in the center of the portrait.” “We haven’t” Twilight said with a confident smile. “Oh and, thank you for the new body”
