Chapters Applejack knocked on the door of the building. There was no answer at first, so she pounded on it again. “Delivery for one—” she looked down at the paper in her hoof. “—Mina? You ordered the fully-catered apple dessert tray? Hoof-delivered, rush-job. ‘Gotta have it right away!’ in your own words?”
When no answer came, Applejack knocked again. Still there was no response, and she leaned to the side to look inside one of the windows. The building was old, on the worse side of Manehatten, in a district that was known for violence. The lower windows had all been broken, and many of them were boarded up. The brick was old and crumbling, and she figured the only reason the front doors hadn’t fallen in yet was because they were made of metal. She was surprised it hadn’t been condemned.
When she saw nothing inside, she turned back to the door, and jumped back in shock! A piece of paper had been taped to the door, with bright, colorful writing on it!
Applejack glanced around, looking for somepony who might have snuck up to stick it there while she wasn’t looking, but there wasn’t anypony around she could see. How it had gotten on there, she didn’t know, but it said, “Please come inside! Party down below!” Applejack looked at the door it was stuck to, and it was, indeed, ajar now.
“Hello?” Applejack called. There was no answer, so she gave the door a little push. It swung open a bit, and she could stick her head inside. “Hello?”
When there was still no answer, Applejack pulled open the doors, stepped back outside to grab her cart, and pulled the whole thing up the stairs and into the building.
“Y’all better be able to pay cash for this. I ain’t takin’ credit for the mess you’re makin’ me go through.”
Inside the building, Applejack was left in a derelict atrium, with stairs and doors on either side. At the far end, straight through the building, there was a set of stairs going down. Stuck to the side of the doorway was another piece of the same colored paper with a cheerful script saying, “This way!”
Something felt wrong about all this, not to mention inconvenient. They hadn’t mentioned anything in the order about having to carry her cart up and down stairs. She left it where it was and went down the steps alone, intent on finding somepony to accept the food and pay her before she put in any more work.
The steps descended into the darkness below, lit only by a few candles here and there, inset into the walls. The further she got, the warmer it felt, until she was nearly sweating from the heat.
“Land sakes, what is going on with this house? Hello? Anypony there?” There was still no response, but now Applejack thought she could hear music?
The stairs proceeded downward in a circle, eventually reaching a flat area with a table set up at one end, surrounded by candles and hooded figures.
“Uh… hello? Y’all ordered the dessert service? One Mina made the order? Is she here?”
Applejack noticed the music she thought she heard had stopped. She didn’t know for certain it was going on until she couldn’t hear it any longer, but now the silence was oppressive. The hooded figures all turned to Applejack and slid across the floor toward her. She turned to go back up the stairs, but there were two of them behind her.
“Now, y’all just hold on, I’m just here for the bits! If y’all want to do creepy cult stuff, you’re welcome to it, so I’ll just be on—” She was silenced as a gag was placed over her mouth with magic.
“Mmmph!” Applejack struggled, lashing out with her hooves in all directions, but they were unnaturally strong, and their magic combined with the weight of their bodies was more than a match for her earth pony strength. Soon she was tied up and carried over to their table.
Applejack could only watch and wait while they gathered around the table—and at the same time, her—once again. The music started up again, a low humming and thrumming filling the strange, dark basement. The robes ponies started swaying back and forth as the chanting went on, until a light started to glow over Applejack’s stomach.
“Wha-what is that? What are y’all doing? Stop! I just wanted to sell apple goods!”
The light descended onto her stomach. There was a faint stinging sensation when it touched, but it bounced off her stomach and floated up to her chest, up her neck, and stopped over her face. The light was purplish-white, and it swirled in a lazy figure-eight over her head for a brief moment, then dropped, as if all the weight it was previously ignoring came to it all at once. It spread over her muzzle and down her face, burning into her cheeks with unnatural heat. She screamed and struggled in her bonds, kicking at the table as the burning tore into her face.
Then, just as suddenly as it came, the pain was gone. She was left panting on the table, the pain but a distance memory. She felt at her face with her hooves, but it didn’t feel like she had any wounds. There was no blood, no sensitive flesh, and no unnatural bumps or anything. What had that light done?
That was when she realized her hooves were untied. She sat up and saw that the hooded figures all standing around her singing had fallen over. “What… what did you fellers do to me?”
Nopony answered her, silence filling the room as she slipped off the table. She walked up to the nearest pony and poked them. “Hey, y’all dead?” When they still didn’t respond, Applejack rolled them over to look at their face.
Buzzing flies and crawling maggots greeted her.
“Gaaah!” Applejack yelled as she jumped backward. She went around the circle, checking some of the others, but every single one of the ponies that had been singing not moment before was dead, apparently long-dead, and rotting. “What the hay is going on here?”
Applejack’s question was answered by a spine-chilling tingle crawling up her back. Instead of singing, she heard whispering, and it was getting louder. It seemed to be coming from the edges of the dark room, but the shadows that remained outside the candle’s dim light were preventing her from seeing anything clearly. The stairs beckoned, and she moved toward them, deciding it was time for her to go, no matter what had happened.
“Awright, if any of y’all are still alive, I wish you the best, but I’m takin’ off! Y’all can keep your bits!” Applejack walked at first, but when the whispering seemed to follow her up the first few steps she broke out into a gallop. She ran up the curving steps and burst out into the atrium, only to barrel straight into another hooded cultist. The two of them collided, sprawling to the ground.
“Oh nooooo, my pie!” the pony cried out. Out of reflex, Applejack caught it. She stared at it a moment, as if wondering why she had done that, then pulled herself to her hooves and passed the pie back to the hooded figure.
“Y’all ain’t gonna try to tie me back down are you?” Applejack asked.
The pony took the dessert, which had a huge bite out of one side, then threw the hood back. “What? Oh, no no no no. We only do that when it’s time for a sacrifice.”
“A wut.”
The pony was pink, with a bright pink mane that looked like cotton candy. She was all smiles and excitement, now that her pie hadn’t hit the ground, and was taking big bites of it while they talked.
“A sacrifice. Today was just practice, so I thought I would get some catering. You know, summoning the darkest beasts from beyond the stars is always kind of—”
The pony looked up from her pie to Applejack, and for the first time focused on her face. Both hooves went up to her cheeks in a loud gasp. She looked down the stairs, then back at Applejack, then she caught her pie before it could fall all the way to the floor.
“Did they perform the ritual without me!?” she screeched.
“Uh, if you mean, ‘did they tie up the caterer and summon a glowing ball,’ then yes. Didn’t do much of anything, but it hurt, and I think they’re all dead.”
The pony moved forward to scrutinize Applejack’s face. She sniffed her and walked around her in a slow circle. “Hmmm… the scent of eldritch presence, the telltale whispering of encroaching darkness, and… the demon’s mark! They DID perform the ritual without me!” The pony sniffled and sat down to chew on her pie, her mane going slightly listless.
“Hey now, it ain’t all bad, you survived, right?”
“But I missed the end of the party!”
Applejack scratched the back of her head. This pony was a little crazy. They all were. She just wanted to get paid and get back to the bakery before anything else crazy happened.
“Hey, uh, listen. I don’t suppose you’re Mina?”
“Oh, yeah. I was hoping to surprise everypony else with the catering. I guess you want paid, huh?”
“That’d be good, yeah. I’ll take half if you don’t want to keep the rest of it.”
Mina pulled a pouch out of her robes and started counting out bits for Applejack. Her mane swayed back and forth in front of her eyes as she passed Applejack bits.
“And, thirty. That’ll do, I guess. I hope you have a good day, Jack. You were Jack, right? The caterer I talked to? Sorry about the, y’know.” She waved a hoof in front of her face.
“Why, what’s wrong with my face?”
“You know, the mark of the demon thing?”
The whispering sound was getting louder again. Applejack turned to look at the stairs down to the basement. It seemed to yawn wider as she stared, dark whispers singing up from below.
“What… mark of the demon?”
“What are you looking at, Jack?” Mina turned to look at the stairs. “Oh! Are you hearing whispers?”
“Uh, yeah. Is that normal?”
Mina’s face broke into a manic grin, and her mane dropped flat on her head. “It worked! It all worked! Your bones will feed Lord Benebarriz, and your cries of pain will be the fanfare by which he enters the world!” She cackled madly.
Applejack was shocked by Mina’s sudden change of attitude, and by the crazy flattening of her mane. She shuffled a little bit toward the door. “What the hay are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know if they would succeed, but without me, and by the passing of their lives from this one to the next, they have opened a crack for Benebarriz to enter our world. Your body, marked as it is, will be the eventual resting place of his spirit.” She stalked after Applejack. “Don’t you feel honored, Jack?”
“Not, really, no? Is that him with the whispering?”
Mina nodded. “Oh, yes. He’s coming, and I get to watch! I thought I would have to help open the door, but I get to watch! This will be so exciting!”
Applejack looked at Mina, with her suddenly-straight and flat mane, then turned to look at the dark stairway the whispering was coming from.
“Okay, well, I’m out. It was fun, but this is not something I signed up for. Good luck helping him find me!” Applejack grabbed the platters of food off the cart, set them on the ground, and hitched herself up. Mina stepped in front of her.
“You don’t really think you can run from Benebarriz, do you?” She grinned a lopsided grin.
“If he ain’t comin’ up the stairs any faster’n that, nopony’s watchin’ anythin’! Enjoy your pies!” Applejack bulled past Mina, shoving the mare out of the way. Mina reached out and grabbed her around the neck with surprising strength. It wasn’t a painful grip, but it was shocking to see from such a small mare. “Let go ‘a me.”
“Good luck,” Mina said, then let go. She laughed and ran to the stairs. When she reached the top, her mane fluffed up once again and she bounced down them into the darkness. “Dark Lord, are you awaaaaake? Jack’s getting away from yooooou!”
Applejack shook her head and dragged her cart with more than a little haste out of the building. It rattled down the steps and onto the street. She looked back one more time, then trotted hastily away from the building, leaving it far behind her.
Work was busy for the rest of the day. The bakery Applejack worked at was famous in Manehatten and they got a lot of orders from businesses who wanted cheaper but delicious catering. It was good work, and honest, but tiring. Applejack had gotten work there when her brother took over the farm in Ponyville. They provided the apples the bakery used, and she was a shoo-in for a hire thanks to that, and her aunt and uncle Orange who took her in.
“Applejack, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” her boss said. “And what’s that on your face?”
“Ah’m fine, but we oughter call the police.”
“Were you attacked, did they hurt you anywhere?” Her boss looked at her and the cart and noticed the missing trays. “I don’t see any blood on you, did they just steal the food and draw on you?”
Applejack nodded. “Seems to be. I’ll just let the police know and maybe we can get the trays back. I got half the payment, at least.”
“Half? That’s an odd prank.”
“Ah wouldn’t really call it a prank, but I’ll be glad when I can wash my hooves of the whole thing. Mind if I wash up?”
“No, please, take care of yourself, I’ll call the police immediately!”
Applejack nodded tiredly and went into the restroom. They had tied her up and hit her some, but none of that hurt anymore. She wanted to finally see this “mark of the demon” Mina had been so happy about. That glowing ball hadn’t been nothing, but she wasn’t going to bring that up with her boss until the police had investigated the place and cleared out all the dead bodies. It was far more attention and work than she really wanted to deal with, she just wanted to go home.
In the bathroom, Applejack took off her hat and went up to the mirror. Tattooed huge across her face was a massive black design, covering her muzzle, her cheeks, her forehead, and some of her neck.
Applejack smacked a hoof against the sink. “Oh, come on! I thought it was going to be small! Ugh!” She turned on the water and scrubbed at her face with a washcloth. It didn’t budge the black and red markings that covered her face.
Wait, red?
Applejack leaned closer. Some of the markings were pulsing red with a small inner light. They didn’t feel any different, but there was a definite shimmering red light hidden deep underneath the strange ink. Applejack shook her head and scrubbed again. Still, nothing moved. She hadn’t even smudged it.
She turned off the water and leaned on the sink. “Blast it. This is gonna be annoying.”
Applejack’s ears twitched, and she leaned toward the door. She could hear singing. It was soft, and quiet, like a voice that was very far away. She dried her face and grabbed her hat, then opened the door.
“Boss, is that you?” Applejack asked. She listened closer and could hear the faint voice of her boss talking on the phone in the distance, but the singing was still there. “Who is that?”
The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere nearby, but she tried to follow it and it didn’t get any louder. She passed through the building and couldn’t find anywhere that it was louder than anywhere else, and there wasn’t anypony else this late in the day but her and the boss, so who was doing that?
The singing suddenly rose in volume all at once, until Applejack had to put her hooves over her ears. Then it just as suddenly, stopped.
“What the hay is that?”
“That’s the dark lord, Benebarriz, Jack. I told you that.”
Applejack jumped. Mina had somehow gotten into the back room of the shop. She was wearing patchy brown robes instead of the inky-black from before, and her hood was thrown back, showing her fluffy pink mane.
“What they hay? How did you get in here, and why are you in here?”
“I came to watch. I told you I was going to. I wouldn’t miss a party like this for anything!”
“What the hay party are you talking about? I’m at work! You can’t be in here!”
“You can’t stop me, Jack. And you can’t stop the Dark Lord, either!” Mina’s mane deflated, dropping flat as a pancake on her head, her mouth turned up in a sinister grin at the same time. “He comes!”
Mina opened her mouth and screeched. It was a loud and unpony-like sound, as though coming from a furnace or kettle. The building shook, and Applejack heard her boss screaming from the other room. Applejack stumbled and stared at Mina.
“What’re you doin’? What is this? Stop!”
The sound twisted and squealed up and down in tone until it sounded like a high note from a clarinet. Mina closed her mouth, but the sound didn’t stop.
“Boss, are you okay?” Applejack left Mina where she was standing and galloped through the building. She kicked off walls as her hooves skidded on the tile floor. Dust rained down from the ceiling as the sound continued, coating the floors and food as the walls vibrated. Applejack made it to her boss’s office and kicked open the door.
There was nopony in there. Just a small pool of blood on the desk, sitting next to the unhooked phone.
“I told you he was coming. He’s here, and he’s looking for you.”
Wild-eyed, Applejack turned to look at Mina. “What the hay kind of crazy magic have you put on me?”
Mina slithered closer, like muddy water trickling between rocks, she slipped quickly through the door and around to the other side of the desk to look at the blood. She leaned down and licked it, slowly. “Mmmm, ultimate despair right before death.”
Applejack cringed in disgust. “Something’s really wrong with you.”
The cracking of wood reached Applejack’s ears. It was coming from all around, the timbers of the building groaning in pain as some unholy force pushed its way into the building. The musical tone that filled the building quieted and strange lyrics started coming from the air duct in the room.
“He’s comiiiiing!” Mina joined in with the strange lyrics, chanting along and smiling. Her mane brightened and puffed up, and she bobbed her head along with the song like it was the Hokey-Pokey instead of some off-key otherworldly chant.
Applejack didn’t wait to see what would come. She ran out of the building, the dust-covered halls gave way to the street and her hooves scrabbled against the cobbles as she rushed away from her workplace. She aimed to head home, but she hadn’t gone two blocks before she saw Mina bouncing along the rode beside her.
“What the hay are you doing here?”
“I’m coming with you, silly! I want to see what you look like when you get devoured !” At the word devoured Mina’s mane dropped flat for just a split second. Her eyes widened briefly, then went back to normal. Applejack flinched at the sight.
“Why did you do this to me?”
“I didn’t do this to you! I was late!”
“I mean, why did your cult do this to me?”
“Oh, anypony would have done fine. You were just unlucky.”
“I don’t want this! How do I get rid of it?” Applejack pleaded as they ran. She thought she could hear the singing behind them, but every time she looked it was just a star-lit street.
“That would be telling! I don’t want to do that, then I won’t get to see what happens!”
Applejack wracked her brain for some way to make a deal with this madmare. “Okay, wait, you’ve never seen your Dark Lord before?”
“Sure, if we had, he wouldn’t have needed us to summon him!”
“So, there’s a way to stop the summoning.”
“There’s a way to stop everything, silly.”
“So, have you ever seen the way to stop him?”
“Oh, yeah. We tried to summon him once before, and some jerk who hates fun decided to bring the sacrifice to the singing stones. That was a drag.”
“Singing stones! Thanks!” Applejack put on a bit more speed, trying to leave Mina in the dust, but somehow the madmare casually bounced along beside her, not even winded.
“Wait… did you just trick me into giving away a secret?” Her fluffy mane bounced with every little hop she made. She squinted in thought, then her eyes widened as she realized what had happened. “Hey! That’s mean!”
They reached the Orange’s house and Applejack burst inside. She slammed the door in Mina’s face and locked it, bringing hoofsteps scrambling from the other rooms.
“Who’s there? Applejack, is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me. I got a problem.”
Uncle Orange strolled around the corner and gasped at the sight of her. “Applejack, what have you done to your face?”
“Oh, dear. I knew we couldn’t get the country out of her. What is it?” Aunt Orange gasped twice as hard. “Oh, Sweet Celestia, it’s horrendous!”
“Now listen, it ain’t a tattoo, I was captured by cultists.”
“Cultists?” Uncle Orange snorted. “There’s no such thing.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yes, there is such a thing, and I need you to tell me if you’ve ever heard of something called the ‘singing stones’.”
Uncle and Aunt Orange looked at each other, then looked back at Applejack in careful thought.
“Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! I know of them!” A high-pitched voice said.
Aunt and Uncle Orange turned around to see Mina bouncing just behind them. They gasped, Applejack sighed.
“Mina, how did you get in here?” Applejack asked, more frustrated than flustered.
“Benebarriz, the Dark Lord, praise his wicked name, dropped me off inside on his way in. He’s busy filling the walls with evil at the moment. You know—” her mane and tail dropped flat again, and her voice went deep and guttural “—to kill you and everyone you hold dear.”
Applejack heard the singing again. It started small, then began building in volume. She clapped her hooves over her ears, but it was like the singing was inside her head. She closed her eyes, as if not looking would help her keep out the awful melody.
Panicked shouting broke through her closed ears. She opened her eyes to look at saw her aunt and uncle Orange surrounded by darkness. Mina was stalking around them, watching as the amorphous mass of shadow slowly moved closer with a horrible look of enjoyment on her face.
Applejack pulled her hooves off her ears and yelled, “Stop! Don’t do this! I thought it wanted me!”
“He does, Jack, but right now he’s rather stupid. He’d rather devour everything that doesn’t taste like cultist before getting to you and your mark.” She tilted her head in thought. “It’s good to know, actually, very useful. It’s just too bad summoning Benebarriz kills everyone, or we’d have known that earlier.”
Applejack looked frantic. She needed to get him out of here, but Mina said he was after her to enter the world, so she couldn’t very well get herself killed. Instead, she had to try to save herself and her family. If he was only here because of her, then…
Applejack ran.
She bolted out of the house and down the street. Her hooves clattered against the cobbles as she galloped down the dark and unpopulated streets. There was the occasional carriage that yelled at her, and some pedestrians, but otherwise it was late, and this was the rich portion of town.
Applejack hadn’t gone several blocks before the fluffy-maned Mina was bounding along at her side. “You’re running?” she said with a giggle. “That’s not going to keep him away.”
“No, but it’ll get him away from my family, and that’s more important right now.” She spared Mina an angry scowl. “Are the Oranges okay?”
“Your family? Yeah, he can’t stay in an area that isn’t close to the mark. Or at least, he can’t affect it, so they’re fine. You aren’t, though.”
“I didn’t think I would be, but I gotta get outta town so nopony else gets hurt.”
“Ooooo! Clever plan! I like it! Let’s go!” Mina said as she bounded alongside Applejack.
“You’re insistent on following me, are you?”
“Yep! I can’t wait to help Benebarriz enjoy his ‘I’ve-come-to-destroy-all-of-Equestria-and-devour-everything-you-hold-dear!’ party!”
“Sweet Celestia I wish he’d eaten you,” Applejack muttered.
“I know, right?” Mina snorted in laughter as the two of them bolted for the road out of Manehatten.
It wasn’t easy keeping ahead of the Dark Lord, as Applejack soon found out. She got tired, whereas Benebarriz didn’t. She had to walk sometimes, at which point she could hear the singing music of Benebarriz catching up to her. Nopony else around her seemed to notice until it got within a certain distance, as she learned when she heard screaming coming from a building next to her.
The singing had approached, and Applejack had stood in the center of the street to see where it might be coming from. Out of nowhere the building next to her started tearing itself apart, wood splintering as it broke into pieces. Shrieking came from inside and ponies piled out of the building as it collapsed inward into a pool of darkness.
Mina found it hilarious, Applejack less so. She had started running again after that.
“Jaaaaack, why are you running? You’re making this far more difficult than it needs to be?” Mina asked.
The two of them were waiting for a train at the station. Applejack had bought a ticket, Mina had been stopped at the gates, but somehow had ended up on the platform with her anyway.
“Because, Mina. Some ponies don’t want to see your dark lord enter the world and destroy everything.”
“That’s silly. You’re silly.”
“Why do you even want to see everything consumed in darkness?”
“Because it would be cooooool, duh!” she said as if that explained everything.
“How did a mare like you get involved in a cult to a dark lord in the first place? You seem way too happy for that kind of thing.”
“Oh, it’s because I wanted to hang out at their parties. They’re holding them all the time, and they don’t judge you for being too loud or excitable or anything like that. They just wanted a warm body to fill out their ranks, and I thought: ‘I’m a warm body! I can fill out ranks!’, so I did!”
“That’s… I’m not sure how to respond to that,” Applejack said.
“You don’t need to respond to it, Jack. You just need to accept it and DIE.” For a brief moment Mina’s mane went flat and her eyes wide when she said ‘die’. Applejack had gotten used to that, though.
The train arrived and everypony piled on. The singing was coming, but it was having some difficulty following Applejack through the train station. It really liked buildings, and so would stay in them sometimes when Applejack ran off, giving her somewhat of a headstart. She had run in circles around the station before diving downward, leaving Benebarriz to hang out in a building for a few minutes while she climbed on the train.
As the locomotive chugged away, Applejack leaned her head back into her seat and tried to relax. She’d been running around the city all night, trying to find a way to get away or just relax long enough to sleep. She wasn’t going to trust Mina to protect while she caught a few winks, but she couldn’t keep running without taking a moment to rest. Mina’s voice ruined her reverie.
“So where are we going?” Mine asked.
“’We’ aren’t going anywhere. ‘I’m’ trying to find those singing stones you mentioned to get your stupid dark lord off my back,” Applejack replied.
“Ohhhh, well isn’t this train going clear across Equestria?”
“Yes.”
“Is that where the singing stones are?”
“I surely don’t know, but I’m really just using this for a nap.”
“Ohhh! That’s clever!” Mina threw her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She made snoring noises, pretending to sleep.
Applejack leaned back and put her hat over her eyes. She ignored the mocking sounds of fake sleep coming from the other seat and drifted off, exhausted.
No sooner had her eyes closed than she found herself in a dark landscape. Ahead of her were three massive stone pillars jutting up from the darkness. At their peaks sat three lights—red, blue, and green—which blinked in tandem with each other. Applejack heard a growling coming from behind and turned to look.
A dark cloud filled with red lightning stormed in the distance. Two white spots moved and shifted in the imposing darkness, seeming to blink at her. Great, smoky limbs reached out after her, but as one claw descended on her the landscape shifted and she was pulled away from it. A deep, wrenching cry filled the air as the claws stuck into the ground, shaking everything with the impact.
As the darkness pulled itself along the ground, following her as she moved without effort, a sudden deep, singing chime filled the air. The darkness halted its advance, brought its claws up to what must be its head and cried out in pain. The chime struck again. Applejack turned to look at the three peaks again, and the lights were glowing brighter, each light flashing one after the other when the chime sounded.
“Jaaaaaack!” the dark cloud called to her. “Jaaaaaack! I need you Jaaaack!”
Applejack shook her head and turned to run. Her limbs were sluggish, moving her slowly across the featureless landscape in an awkward, shuffling run.
“Jaaaaaack! They’re taking me away, Jack! You don’t want me gone, do you Jaaaaack? We’re friends!”
Applejack ran for the peaks, wading through a thick nothing toward them one hoof at a time, struggling and pulling.
“Jack!”
“Jack!”
“Jaaack!”
“Jaaaaaack!”
Applejack jolted awake to see Mina in front of her, with two ticket-taker ponies next to her.
“Whuh?” Applejack mumbled, still half asleep.
“Ma’am, I’ll need to see your ticket as well. Are you friends with this mare? She claims you are,” the one standing closest to her said.
Applejack blearily pulled her ticket out of her hat and held it up to him. “We’re acquaintances at best. She refused to buy a ticket, so kick her off. It won’t do you any good.” The two stallions looked at each other and shrugged.
“Jack, how could you!” Mina yelled, half-heartedly struggling against them.
“You’re just gonna jump back on anyhow. Don’t see why I need to get mixed up in it.”
“It’s the principle of the thing, Jack! I thought we were friends.”
Applejack just waved a hoof. “See you in fifteen minutes, Mina.”
Mina huffed and let herself be taken away. The ticket-takers gave Applejack a look, but she just covered her eyes with her hat and went back to sleep.
The dream dropped her right back where she had left it. The dark cloud was looming overhead and the peaks in the distance were playing their chime. Applejack was trapped between them. No matter how hard she ran or how much the dark cloud was pushed back by the chiming, she didn’t get any closer to either one.
The claws of the dark cloud thrust into the ground on either side of her. The ground beneath her quaked with each strike, but no matter how close they came, they never hit her. She didn’t get struck by anything, not even debris that flew up from the ground and off into the sky. Everything was rising and falling all around her, the cloud of darkness devouring everything in its path as it strove to reach her.
“Wha- oo- ye- -ahn!” Applejack tried to speak, but it came out in a muffled and awkward garble. Despite that, the cloud seemed to understand. It ceased its angry digging at the ground around her and focused its gaze on her puny, orange form.
It spoke, but it didn’t speak in words. There was a deep bass thrumming, in a tune that Applejack swore she recognized, but couldn’t place. It filled the air, and the peaks in the distance went dim as it pushed back against them. They struck again, harder, trying to fight back against the angry yowling of the cloud of darkness. The two fought each other, Applejack momentarily forgotten as the cloud realized it could now fight back, and she was thrown about.
She jolted awake, the train’s swaying waking her up as she almost rolled out of her seat. She blinked, and saw Mina sitting across from her. Her mane was flat again and her eyes were cold as she stared.
“Welcome back, Mina,” Applejack said with a yawn.
Mina just kept glaring.
“Y’know, I figured you’d get back somehow. How did you manage it this time? I can’t hear singin’, so I figure Dark Lord is struggling to catch up with the train.”
“I ran.”
Applejack snorted. “You ran to catch up with the train? Ahhh, that’s funny. Is that why you’re so mad at me?”
“Yes.”
Applejack wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Well, you’re here now. I knew you would be. If you really want to watch this that badly, more power to ya.”
Mina grinned. “That’s right, Jack. I’m only here to watch.”
“Yeah. You seem really intent on that. What if he never catches up, eh? I mean, how fast can he ‘float’, or whatever it is he does for travel?”
“He doesn’t get tired like you do,” Mina said, still smiling that toothy grin.
“Yeah, thank goodness for the train. I needed a place to nap.” Applejack rolled onto her side and covered her eyes with her hat again. “Hey, just keep it down, eh? I should get as much rest as I can.”
“I think you’ve rested enough.”
“Nah, I’ll sleep for as long as the trip takes. Get in as much rest as possible before I have to pick up running again.”
“No, I mean it. You have rested enough.”
Applejack lifted her hat from her eyes and looked at Mina. She still had on that ear-to-ear grin with far too many of her teeth showing. “What?”
“Time to rely on your own two hooves again, Jack.”
The train jerked and rattled. Applejack was thrown from her seat into the aisle as the whole car shook. Ponies screamed, metal squealed, and then there was a *BOOM* from up ahead. A series of *BOOMS* followed, and with each one the train car wobbled, until they reached their car. Mina remained seated upright and unaffected the entire time, even as the car tilted.
“What did you do?” Applejack yelled.
Mina just kept grinning. She stayed seated even as the car fell on its side and rolled. Applejack held onto the seat with all her might as the train car fell into whatever chasm they had been next to when the crash had occurred.
It seemed to last forever, but soon the car stopped rolling. There was the squeal of straining metal, and the sound of scraping, then they finally came to a complete halt.
Applejack was dangling from the seat, her hind hooves pointing down toward the ceiling of the train car. Mina was sitting pretty, upside-down in her seat without a buckle or seatbelt or even holding on to anything. Applejack wanted to ask, but she needed to save herself, first.
The roof clunked as Applejack let go and dropped to it. She looked around for anypony else, but the two of them seemed to be alone in their car. Mina slowly dropped from her seat, righted herself, and landed next to Jack with a light *tap* of her hooves on the metal roof.
“What the hay did you do?” Applejack jabbed a hoof at her.
“You weren’t willing to wait for the Dark Lord, which I was content with watching from afar, but leaving me to fend for myself when my entire life has been leading up to this point is unforgivable,” Mina leaned into the hoof, pushing her face up against Applejack’s. “Do not abandon me again, or worse still will happen.”
“You’re damn well mad!”
Mina laughed. She stood up on her hind hooves, flapped her robes, and twirled. “I’m so glad you noticed!” When she finished the twirl, her mane had fluffed up again and she had on a bright, genuine smile. “We should go, though! The train’s gonna fall!”
Applejack shook her head. She refused to try to understand how the mare did that. Instead, she turned and glanced out the window.
The train had slid to a cliff. Somewhere near the Canterlot mountains, if she had to guess a location. Whatever Mina had done to the train, the engine had fallen off the tracks slid down the hill and pulled the rest of the train with it. She could see the engine dangling off the cliff nearby. It was the only part of the train off the edge, but it was only a matter of time before it swung too far and carried the rest of the train over with it.
“Oh, horsefeathers!” Applejack jumped away from the window and made for the back of the car. She reached the door and hopped up to grab the handle. She pulled, turned, and the door swung open to reveal the chasm next to them. “Dammit!” She turned back and looked around, but couldn’t find any other means of escape… or Mina.
“Come on, Jack!” Mina’s voice giggled. “Don’t be so dumb. Just climb out a window!”
Applejack looked at the windows, and saw Mina, outside the train, waving cheerfully at her. She climbed easily out of the window and onto the rocky ground next to the pink mare.
“That was clever.”
“I’m very good at that.”
“At bein’ clever?”
Mina nodded.
Applejack trotted along the cliffside, which was dotted with destroyed trees and small patches of snow. The crowd of ponies leaving the train had congregated on a small patch of flat land just above where the train had come to a halt. There was one of the ticket-takers yelling for everypony to gather up so they could take roll and see if anypony was missing. Applejack joined them and sat down, ready to relax.
Mina followed her, and when they had sat down, she leaned in close to whisper. “You can’t stop here. He’ll catch up, and they’ll all die.”
“I know that!” Applejack hissed. “But it’ll take your Dark Lord some time to catch up, right?”
Mina shrugged. She stood up and bounded around the assemblage, looking for what, Applejack didn’t know. Nopony seemed to mind, in fact, they appreciated Mina’s upbeat attitude and cheerful demeanor. She was making jokes, causing laughter, and got everypony helping one another.
Applejack left her to whatever it was Mina was doing and went to talk to the conductor. The train was still groaning ominously, and the workers were all up near the engine, seeing if there was anything they could do to get it back up.
“Don’t think that thing’s comin’ back up, y’all,” Applejack said as she approached. Everypony except the conductor turned to look at her, the conductor just stared at his beloved engine. “Do y’all got anypony comin’ to pick us all up?”
“Ma’am, if you could just go back with the other passengers, we’ll come and address your concerns soon enough.”
“I was comin’ to see if there was something I could do to help, actually. Some way to help get these folks to safety, or at least keep them safe until help arrives.”
One of the stallions looked at the rest of the crew, then back at her. “Look, miss, we’re trying to figure out if it’s safe to go back into the train and get some supplies. The engine could go at any moment, and that would end up taking the rest of the train with it. You could… I don’t know… start a fire or something to help keep them warm?”
Applejack nodded and left them to their work. She, along with a few other ponies, began scrounging around for sticks and other flammable things to start a fire. When they had enough material, one of the unicorns was nice enough to hit a spark and get a crackling blaze going for them on the chilly slope.
Eventually, Mina came back to sit next to Applejack in the crowd of ponies. “Jaaaack. You can’t stay here, Jack.” Her mane was still fluffy, but it had lost some of its poof.
“I know that, Mina, thank you,” Applejack said with a frown.
“But while you’re hear, there’s a little family right over there that is concerned about the cold. The daughter is sick, and the chilly mountain air is only going to make her sicker. She could really use a blanket.” Mina pointed across the fire at a family of six. It was just a mare and five foals, none of whom looked any older than eight.
“Why are you tellin’ me this? I don’t have any blankets.”
“I know where you could get sooooome,” Mina sang, and pointed at one of the train cars. “In there is a biiiiig suitcase. It’s made of reinforced leather and locked with a combination lock. The code is seven-six-six-nine, and it is filled with hoof-made quilts. They will do nopony any good locked up in there, but it would save a lot of lives in this cold.”
Applejack looked at Mina. The mare’s eyes were wide and vibrant—perhaps too vibrant. “Why are y’all tellin’ me this?”
Mina shrugged. “I just thought you wanted to help, since you’re still hanging around here instead of moving on.”
Applejack looked down at the accident site. The stallions below had attached ropes to the engine and tied them to some trees. It looked like they were trying to pull the engine back up, or at least get some slack so they could disconnect it from the rest of the train.
“What’s the catch? You’re being strangely helpful.”
Mina looked offended. “Why, Jack, I just want to help my fellow ponies. I’d go myself, but, you know.” Mina made a noncommittal gesture that made no sense whatsoever to Applejack.
“I’m not quite sure I do, but fine.” She stood up. “I’ll go fetch your blankets, since you think ponies need them. I never turn anypony away. That’s not the Apple Family way.”
Mina grinned a toothy grin. “I knew I could count on you, Jack! Be safe now!” Mina waved.
Applejack climbed down the hill and approached the car Mina had pointed at. It was solidly on the edge of the mountain, no part of it hanging off the lip. It would be safe enough to enter, and nothing she could do short of jumping out the windows on the other side would cause her any harm.
The real danger was the engine.
If they lost control of it and it fell, they would have to be quick enough to decouple the cars or it would take the whole train with it.
Nopony paid much attention to Applejack descending to the train. Some glanced at her, but they didn’t expect her to do anything to it. Nopony was that crazy. Applejack glanced at Mina. She waved and smiled, her mane fluffy.
Nopony was that crazy.
She entered the car and looked around. The car was a jumbled mess of bags, suitcases, clothes, jewelry, and other traveling items. All of them were valuable to somepony, and she was sure they wanted them, but the workers had suggested nopony re-enter the cars to get their things until they knew it was safe. A suggestion Applejack agreed with.
But those cold foals weren’t going to save themselves. If there truly was a bag full of blankets, everypony would appreciate that. How Mina found out, she didn’t know, but she had been talking to a bunch of ponies. It made some amount of sense. She could have even suggested she’d go get the item, which is how she knew the combination.
Applejack sifted through the suitcases strewn about quickly, she didn’t want to be in here any longer than she had to, and soon found the reinforced leather suitcase. It was big, and it was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. She grabbed hold of it in her teeth and turned for the door, when she heard singing.
Her blood went cold. Had she really been waiting that long? Had she really taken so much time out of her day waiting with these ponies that the damned cursed dark lord had caught up to her?
Something in the window caught her eye and she looked at it. It was Mina, mane flat once again, grinning at her through the glass with her hooves flat on the cracked fixture. She mouthed something Applejack couldn’t hear, and then the train shifted again.
Applejack scrambled for the exit, dragging the suitcase with her at first. After the train shook and tilted once more, she dropped it and ran. She got to the door only to find it slammed shut, Mina blocking it.
“Mina, what the—?”
Mina put a hoof to Applejack’s mouth. “You were getting too comfortable, Jack. You thought you could keep running, and helping ponies, and maybe even find those singing stones you love so very much, but you need to understand, okay?” Her other hoof came up and caressed Applejack’s mane. Applejack brushed it away, and Mina looked hurt. “There’s no escaping, and you can’t help, and capricious fate won’t allow you to get away, ‘I’ won’t allow you to get away.”
The singing was louder now, the cacophonous trumpeting of thousands of pained voices screaming in Applejack’s ears of things best left unknown to all of ponykind. Metal squealed, and something tugged the train a few feet across the ground.
“Mina, let me out. I don’t want to have to hurt you,” Applejack warned.
“Jack…” she looked sad. “You can hurt me, but it still won’t stop the inevitable from happening. Don’t you want to take the leap? See what’s out there?”
“Not while I still got life left to live!” She reared up and kicked at Mina. Mina didn’t move and took both hooves to the face. One of her teeth flew out in a spray of blood, and she crumpled to the floor of the train. Applejack pushed past and tried to open the doors, but they only rattled in the frame.
The singing grew louder, and the scraping of metal came once, twice, then the whole train went over the edge. Applejack heard a stallion’s voice shouting as she went over, and then she was weightless.
Suitcases, jewelry, and stray clothing flew up around her. There was no sound in her ears except for the cursed, deep singing of Benebarriz as his dark clouds filled the train car around her. Her face burned where she knew the markings were and she cringed in pain. Her hat flew up off her head and floated in front of her face as she fell. She sighed inwardly and waited for death to take her.
Then there was pink.
Mina’s grinning, toothy smile appeared in front of her out of the darkness. The smokey blackness parted and her flat mane and slightly-sharp teeth filled Applejack’s vision. She felt strong hooves take hold of her, and then a rushing feeling. Wind whipped at her mane and stung her cheeks, and then… silence.
The rush of blood to her head cleared, and Applejack’s vision slowly returned. She was standing in a forest, on flat land. Not too far away was a cloud of smoke rising up out of the forest. Her hat was next to her, held out to her by Mina, who’s mane was now fluffy again.
“Wha—” Applejack stammered in confusion. “Why… the hay did you save me? And how? What was that?”
When Applejack didn’t immediately grab her hat, Mina put it on her head and smiled brightly, teeth no longer appearing sharp. “Because the Dark Lord, while super-duper evil and nasty, is kind of dumb sometimes. Taking over your body in a falling train?” Mina waved a hoof dismissively. “Pfft! Bad idea!”
“But… how did you do that?”
Mina tilted her head in thought for a moment, then giggled and spoke in an imperious, memorized or mimicked tone. “Through the Dark Lord, all things are possible. By his hoof, time is frayed. By his teeth, space is rent. By his breath, speed is given. By his body, the weak are carried. By his gaze, death is delivered.”
“And you just used that to save his vessel, which would be me?”
“Of course, silly! There’s no point in helping him into this world if the vessel’s just gonna die immediately. You need to be kept in perfect condition. Like an egg, before you crack it.”
Applejack leaned back and flopped onto the cold ground. “I’m just an egg, huh?”
“Or a chrysalis, if you like that word better. Cocoon, chrysalis, egg, unbaked batter, unrisen dough, unpopped corn, un—”
“I get it, thanks.” Applejack pulled herself back to her hooves and adjusted her hat. She looked at the dark cloud floating over the forest where the train had fallen. “I guess it’s time to get moving again, huh?”
“You can wait for Benebarriz if you want. He’d be happy about that.”
“You would be too, huh?”
Mina just shrugged. “I don’t care one way or the other! I’m just here for fun.”
“Just for fun, huh? Sure doesn’t seem that way, what with the way you keep going nuts.”
“Oh, Jack. I don’t go nuts, I just get earnest.”
“Earnest to see me die.”
“That’s just not true, you know.”
“Then why’d you send me into the train? You knew it was gonna fall.”
“Of course! Benebarriz was coming, and it was easier to isolate you that way.”
“Your Dark Lord could have done his own dirty work.”
“You would have run down the tracks with all the other ponies if I’d left you up there, then you would have been rescued by another train, then we would have had to do this song and dance alllll over again. That’s a drag. You can’t have a party the same way twice in a row, it’s tacky.”
Applejack stood and started plodding away into the dark woods. The moon was up and the stars were twinkling in the sky, but as the canopy spread over their heads, it became oppressively dark in the forest.
Not to mention cold. Applejack was soon shivering, wishing she had grabbed a blanket or two from the suitcase before it had all fallen and been destroyed.
“You look cold.”
“I am c-cold.” Appelejack’s teeth chattered.
“You want a spare cloak?”
“You h-h-have one?”
“I always carry a spare just in case. You never know when you’ll get a juice stain on your good cloak and have to put on the ratty one.” She pulled a full-on cultist cloak out of her mane somehow. “Buuuuut, since my entire cult is dead, I guess you can have it.”
Applejack took it and quickly slipped it on. It was delightfully warm and quite cozy. Despite the connotations of wearing it and the strange rituals it had seen, she didn’t care. They were in the middle of the woods in the middle of the mountains, and survival was the first order of business right now.
Now that she wasn’t going to die of cold, Applejack was able to pick a path through the forest a little bit easier. There were crags and cliffs and crevices and boulders and who knows what else around them, and trying to travel at night was an exercise in danger, but she couldn’t stop to rest or start a fire with Mina’s Dark Lord right behind her.
“Don’t suppose you can tell me how fast your Dark Lord can travel, Mina?”
“Oh, it comes and goes. Sometimes he’s quick, sometimes he’s slow. He really likes enclosed spaces for some reason.” Mina leaned in close and whispered loudly. “I think he likes the way they make his singing sound. ”
Applejack couldn’t suppress a chuckle. “Seriously?”
Mina just smiled and bounced along next to her. “Well, why else would he spend so much time inside them? Unfortunately his singing usually breaks everything so he has to keep moving.”
“Is that why the singing stones stop him?”
“Search me. I don’t worry about how to stop him. That was never in our plans.”
“Makes sense.”
“Why’d you pick a cult to join, of all things?”
“Because I found them first.”
“Y’all don’t need to join the first group you find, you know.”
“Oh, I know, but no one else was joining them. It had been years, so I thought, ‘let’s throw them a bone, they’re trying!’ You need to reward effort sometimes.”
“Questionable logic when it comes to world-ending groups, but okay. Y’all just seem too cheerful for it, half the time.”
“What do you mean, ‘half the time’?”
Applejack waved a hoof. “You know… that… earnest… thing.”
“Ohhhhhh!”
Mina stared at Applejack a moment, then shuffled away into the darkness.
“Mina?”
She could hear hoofsteps crackling on fallen branches and dry leaves around her in the dark. Wherever Mina had gone, she was circling around Applejack, back and forth.
“Mina what are you doing? I’m sorry I brought it up. Y’all come out now.”
Applejack whipped her head around, looking for the mare, only to come face-to-face with the pointy-toothed, flat-maned, crazy-eyed Mina! She yelped in fear.
Mina held something up and it burst into flame. She was holding a torch, the fire crackling in the darkness. She smiled wider, wider, and wider still, until her smile reached too far back on both cheeks. Applejack backpedaled away and Mina stalked after her.
“Because, Jack. Half the time ponies need encouragement to keep going, and the other half, they need…” Mina held the torch up to a nearby tree, the dry branches caught fire. “…incentive.”
She charged at Applejack, waving the torch and cackling. Applejack turned and ran.
The darkness was a barrier, but as the cold and dry wood behind her blazed up, Applejack could see shapes and edges in the darkness. Mina’s hooting behind her spurred her onward and she dove over boulders, leapt over crags, and skirted along the edges of short cliffs as the other mare hounded her across the mountains, setting things alight as she went.
As Applejack ran, she could hear singing coming from somewhere. At first, she thought it was the Dark Lord of Mina’s coming after her, but this singing wasn’t deep and terrible, it was melodious, and a low alto instead of a rumbling bass. It was like the sound in her dream that had come from the three stones. Were those the singing stones? Were they near?
The trees were blocking her vision of everything but what was immediately in front of her, and it was all she could do to keep herself from getting hurt as she ran, but Applejack picked a direction that went uphill and scrambled up the rocky cliff, hunting for a good vantage point.
The snapping pursuit of Mina followed her up, up, and up the rocky bluff until she burst out of the trees and onto the top of the hill. She was greeted by a pink, fluffy face.
“Hiya, Jack!”
“Gyaaaaah!” Applejack swung a hoof and struck Mina in the face, the pink mare rolled backward and back to standing. Her expression hadn’t changed but now there was blood streaming from her broken nose.
Mina walked back up to Applejack and grabbed her around the withers, then tugged her out of the tree-line and onto the rocky cliff. “Calm down, Jack. Look at this. Lookie lookie lookie.” She pulled her out to the edge and together they stared out across the craggy landscape.
Applejack was terrified of what Mina was planning, but the view blew that out of her mind. Ahead of them, at the bottom of the craggy mountains, in a valley covered by trees, floated three stone monoliths. One was glowing blue at the top, another red, and the third one green. The music Applejack was hearing seemed to be coming from them, washing over her and drowning most of the Dark Lord’s music out.
“Looks like you found them, Jack!” Mina said with a smile.
“I guess I did… but what do I do with ‘em? What are they, even? How and why are they floating?”
“I don’t know, but you really need to calm down. I mean, a single second of ANGER and you freak out.” Mina’s mane drooped at the word ‘anger’ and her eyes widened. Applejack jumped away out of Mina’s grip, but she did nothing, and her mane went fluffy again immediately.
“Y’all need to stop doin’ that!” Applejack said with a hoof pressed to her chest.
“I don’t know what you mean, but if you’re curious about the singing stones, I don’t know what you’d have to do, either. Like I said, we were in the business of summoning evil, not banishing it.”
“That ain’t very helpful.”
“You’re welcome!”
Applejack made a straight face and looked back at the trees they had come out of. The Dark Lord’s shadow was creeping through the trees, making the darkness under the canopy even more bleak and oppressive than it already was. Applejack couldn’t wait. She scrambled down from the bluff and into the trees, making her way down into the valley below.
Mina leaped down after Applejack, bounding along behind, and the two crawled through trees, over rocks, down toward the stones. The light coming from them gave them enough illumination to see by, but it was still difficult to traverse because of all the drop-offs and rocks blocking the path. Eventually, they looked up and could see the singing stones above them.
“What the hay? How am I supposed to do anything with them if they’re up there and I’m down here?”
Mina just shrugged and wandered around in circles, nose to the ground as she sniffed about for some reason Applejack didn’t understand. Applejack stood directly underneath the three spinning stones, watching them orbit above her.
The lights on top of the stones, from this vantage point, didn’t seem to be attached to the monoliths. They glowed and pulsed while the music faded out, then back in, humming and singing along with the glowing of the lights.
Applejack felt something itching on her face and reached up to scratch. She watched a while longer, then felt another itch. She scratched that and stared up at the monoliths.
Dark Lord Beanburies or whatever his name was, was coming up behind her fast, and the only hope she’d possibly imagined would have been these singing stones, but now that she was here, there was nothing going on with them that she could fathom would be any help in getting her free of him. Was there some incantation or something?
Finally, Applejack had had enough. “Hey! Rocks! I got a problem comin’ up behind me real quick, and I was told you’d be able to help me! What am I supposed to do?” She waved a hoof back from where she had come, where the Dark Lord’s angry, roiling cloud of black crawled down the valley.
Applejack did a double take. The black cloud of the Dark Lord wasn’t just coming in from one side—it was coming in from all sides! The mountain peaks were buried under an encroaching wall of blackness that covered everything; trees, rocks, crags, peaks, and was even rolling overhead to blot out the stars.
“Mina, what the hay is going on?” Applejack turned to find Mina and yelped when she saw the flat-maned pink mare sitting directly behind her. She had a stern look on her face.
“The Dark Lord isn’t happy with the way you’ve kept running from him, Jack,” Mina said. She reached up to Applejack, who only weakly resisted her grip. She pulled her in tight for a hug, then started humming in her ear. It was the same, alien tune the Dark Lord was singing; deep, sonorous, and inevitable.
Applejack felt tired. Running all night, barely any sleep followed by a train crash, then a fall down a mountain followed by even more running through the woods. It would have been so easy to just give up and let Mina have her way. Just let the Dark Lord do whatever, take over her body, and then screw everypony else, at least she’d be able to rest.
A higher, more pleasant tune broke through Applejack’s thoughts. It burned away the fog Mina’s humming was drawing over her mind and cleared away the cobwebs. She was still exhausted, but now she was thinking more clearly. She pushed Mina away with some difficulty, but the mare didn’t stop her, she just looked at her, confused.
“Jack, why are you still trying so hard?”
Applejack stumbled away from Mina. The singing between the stones and the darkness were clashing in her mind, confusing her and muddling her thoughts until she didn’t know what she was doing.
She turned away from Mina and stumbled. Dimly, she realized her hat had fallen off. She tasted blood, and she felt a pain in her mouth. She dabbed a hoof to her tongue and pulled away blood. She must have bit it somehow in her confusion. She tried to take a step but fell over. More pain flared up in her mouth.
She spat. Red came out.
“Ah’m… tryin’ t’live, Meenuh,” she slurred. “Dun wanna be a Dark Lord.”
Mina hovered on the edges of Applejack’s vision. She seemed to be on both sides at the same time, just on the edge of her sight. Applejack’s head swayed as she tried to follow her, but she was unable to keep her head steady, and she wobbled back and forth as she tried to get back up.
“Jack, you wouldn’t be the Dark Lord. You’d be dead. You’ll get to rest, and the Dark Lord will do whatever he wants. You can stop worrying. It’s easy. It’s simple. It’s no work on your part.”
Mina’s voice was low and rumbling. It fit the cadence of the Dark Lord, meshing with it and burrowing into her ears. Applejack’s face felt like it was on fire. She rubbed a clumsy hoof over her muzzle, trying to scrape it off.
“I dun wan dis. Aye dun like dis.” Her words were getting harder to say, her tongue fat and obstructive in her mouth. She bit it again and grumbled. She grabbed it with her hooves and tried to pull the stupid thing out, so it wouldn’t get bit again.
“Come with me, Jack. Come away from here and come to the shadows. The cult loved me, Jack. They wanted me there, and I want you there.” She pointed at the edge of the valley. Applejack’s head swayed, but she let go of her tongue and looked.
Shadows had gathered at the edge of the valley, melding with the trees a short distance away from the singing stones that floated above.
Had they stopped singing? Applejack couldn’t hear them anymore.
Mina grabbed her by the hoof and tugged. Her flat mane sat against her head, and her mad eyes stared into Applejack’s, urging her on. For a split second, Applejack swore she could see Mina with her fluffy mane. The big, happy blue eyes shook her head and she giggled and pointed up. She put a hoof to her mouth in a shushing motion. Then she was gone, and the flat-maned Mina was all she could see. Applejack stumbled under Mina’s tugging, but slowly and softly, tried to hum.
It was clumsy, and she almost choked on her tongue, but Applejack began to sing along with the faint song she remembered from her dream. She felt her hooves moving, but soon there was nothing. No feeling whatsoever, and she found herself in a wide-open landscape again with the cloud of darkness behind her and the three floating stones and their colors in the distance. Applejack was in the middle, with Mina at her side.
“What… what’s happening?” Mina said. Her mane was flat, with the faintest hint of a curl at the base. She laughed nervously.
“Aye dunno, but aye wanna goe tha’way,” Applejack mumbled. She fell into Mina and pointed at the floating stones. Upon hearing her decision, the dark clouds roiled and surged forward.
“Wait, why are you telling me?” Mina asked, confused.
“Aye c’n burley think, tek me thur, pleez… Mina…” Applejack’s weight all dropped onto Mina. The pink mare was left with a comatose Jack and the dark cloud of her lord behind her.
She wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hoof, the Dark Lord was waiting for her to deliver on her promise as a cultist, but Jack trusted her enough to help?
Why?
She’d done nothing but betray her and sabotage her. She was even the cause of her problems, yet Jack wanted her help? Was she crazy?
Mina looked at the cloud, then at the stones, and picked up Jack onto her back. Her mane drooped a little bit more as she turned to face the dark clouds, and she took a step toward it.
“Thenks, Mina,” Jack mumbled, “Yer a good fren.”
Mina shivered. Her mane fluffed once, then went flat, then fluffed again. She’d never had a real friend before. Just ponies who tolerated her. The cultists only wanted her around because she was a warm body that could fill out their needed quota. They didn’t even remember her name, and they hadn’t waited to eat the snacks she’d ordered from Jack before killing themselves! They didn’t truly appreciate her and her efforts to make them happy!
Mina set her jaw, her mane exploded up to fluff, and she turned and ran for the stones!
The dark cloud surged after her across the black and blasted landscape. Her hooves pounded against the hard, dark ground, but it was thankfully flat. The cloud roiled, the lights beckoned, and Mina ran.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this! I don’t even like you! It would be so easy to just let Equestria be devoured in darkness!”
Jack said nothing. She just laid there, limp and unresponsive, trusting Mina to take her where she wanted to go.
Mina gritted her teeth and charged forward, but no matter how hard she ran, the stones didn’t appear to be getting any closer. She could hear their singing, but the Dark Lord’s deep voice nearly drowned them out, and he was gaining on her.
“Come on! I gave up my life as a cultist to try to help Jack, why aren’t you getting closer!”
There was a loud chime, and Mina saw the blue light flash. There was a higher chime, and the green light flashed. Then the red light flashed, and another chime happened, harmoniously melding with the others.
Panting as she ran, Mina followed along, humming the three notes, one after the other. She could feel a tingling in her hind hooves and hear the singing of the Dark Lord behind her, but she didn’t look. She hummed the final note and tripped when the landscape suddenly shifted around her.
She found herself underneath the stones, the Dark Lord’s cloud roiling around outside of them, and the lights above shone down. There was a bright glow, red, blue, and green, that grew in intensity until it went entirely white, and Mina could see nothing more.
When Applejack opened her eyes, they were in the valley in the mountains. It was daylight, and the stones that had been floating the night before, were craggy boulders on all sides of them. Mina was asleep on the ground next to her, her mane poofy, and her cloak laid over the both of them.
“Mina?”
Mina opened her eyes. “Jack? Good morning. You’re still you, I see.”
“I am. What happened?”
Mina sighed. “I was a bad cultist, I guess.”
“Well, you were a good friend. I’m grateful to you, and I promise I won’t devour you or Equestria as thanks.”
“I guess I should take that as a compliment. I still think it might be fun to see how getting devoured feels.”
Applejack cringed. “I’d prefer you didn’t. At least wait until I’m dead.” She looked around. “Don’t suppose you know how to get home from here?”
“I have no idea!”
“Well, no better way to find it than to start walkin’. You can tell me more about yourself now that I know you ain’t out to kill me. You wanna hear about the time I ate so many apple fritters I couldn’t walk?”
“I once ate six cakes and had the same! What a coincidence!” They laughed. Mina’s mane flattened for just a moment, but neither pony noticed.
The End.
