Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Special thanks to my proofreaders/editors: chasethebrony and Rainbowsoldier94

WAR INSIDE MY HEAD

Our friendship had eased her pain, but it hadn't healed her scar. Rainbow slowly recovered her ability to fly again. Although it wasn’t as good as it was before the accident, it was enough to get her work back at the weather patrol; albeit as a junior cloud pusher instead of her former position as team leader. She moved back into to her home again and her life began to return to a semblance of normality.

After some weeks, Pinkie surprised us and told us that she was dating a colt. We felt so happy for her, of all of us she was probably the most... interesting to get along with. She kept her date a mystery until she threw him a party; apparently a colt named Mille-Feuille had just moved from Manehattan to Ponyville to open a bakery. Pinkie went over to look at the new competition and ended falling head over hooves in love.

Almost all the habitants of Ponyville were there at the party having a good time, but no members of the Apple Family was there. Normally it wasn't a big deal. Applejack and her family were usually up to their necks with work to be done on the farm. So naturally we just assumed that they were off fixing the barn or something along those lines.

We were wrong. So very wrong.

Nopony was aware of what was happening until the smell of smoke began to spread through Sugar Cube Corner. After searching the store for a fire everypony went outside to try to find the source of the massive cloud that was engulfing Ponyville.

In the dark of the night, a bright haze was glowing off in the distance. I remember tears coming to my eyes when the realization of what was happening hit me. I was about to witness the worst thing that I had ever seen. All the ponies gathered outside also wore the same grievous expression when we realized what was going on.

Sweet Apple Acres was on fire.

The group’s first reaction was to panic. Thankfully Twilight took control of the situation and organized the ponies into two teams, one consisted of unicorns and pegasi to start to extinguish the fire and the earth ponies were to go search for the members of the Apple family.

The first team gathered all the water that they could at the nearby lake and took all the clouds that were in the sky in that moment for an “emergency rain” and sent a messenger off to Cloudsdale for more help.

The second team of pegasi flew off to gather any available clouds for an "emergency rain". The unicorns galloped ahead and began to smother the fires with magic.

The other four girls and I ran to the Apple Family house together while the other earth ponies started searching the orchards. We hadn't found anypony outside, and they weren't in the nearby orchards. The only place left was the burning house.

After about an hour the fire in the house was completely extinguished. Not soon after, a huge group of pegasi arrived from Cloudsdale, bringing a large number of clouds to quickly put out the remaining fire in the orchard.

Nothing much was left untouched from the flames, almost three fourths of the property was down to ashes. The earth ponies reported that nopony was found out in the woods. The barn and the house were blackened; their crumbling frames needed only the slightest breeze to knock them down. However, the only possible place left for the Apples to be was inside them.

Even though she wasn’t at her best shape since her accident, Rainbow Dash flew into the house to look for them. After a couple of minutes she yelled from inside saying that she had found the Apples. Several other pegasi carefully went inside and carried them outside to a nearby glade.

They were tied up with rope and with their mouths were taped shut. We cut their binds as soon as we got them out, but they were too shaken to even talk. The medical team took them off to the Ponyville hospital in case of serious injury. Miraculously, other than some smoke inhalation and minor burns they weren’t hurt at all. But what was most shocking was the expressions of sheer terror on their faces.

A few days passed before Big Macintosh was finally allowed to leave the hospital but by then, everypony knew what had happened. That day, Princess Celestia arrived for a private audience with him and after some hours she came into public and announced what had happened at Sweet Apple Acres and what she was going to do about it.

She told that the Flim Flam Brothers and five other ponies were the source of all that destruction. They invaded the house two hours before Pinkie's party. The Apple family was bound and gagged and left at Applejack’s bedroom while everything was set on fire.

Nopony was in doubt about their motive. After the Cider competition, the Flim Flam brothers had gone into poverty, and eventually had to resort to petty crime to make ends meet.

Princess Celestia decided to open an investigation to confirm the identity of the aggressors and to mete out justice according to Equestrian Law.

Applebloom and Granny Smith got out from the hospital a few weeks later but what left us worried was Applejack. Her physical wounds had already healed over, but she was still mentally distraught.

We visited her as much as we could, though the doctors were forbidding frequent visits due to her abnormal and sometimes aggressive behavior.

She was diagnosed as having a severe case of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

On our rare visits she always said that they were hunting her at night… that they were laughing at her misery. She was scared even of being outside on the rare occasion she was allowed to take a walk around the hospital, even when the doctors were with her. Applejack was always looking behind her and inside rooms and closets in search of something that was chasing her.

Applejack attended several “help groups” to let out her inner demons. She began to take antidepressants and other kinds of mood controlling medicines.

While Applejack was under her intensive treatment, Princess Celestia and the mayor of Ponyville helped find a new house for the Apples to use. What was left of the orchard was being maintained with the help of several citizens, and of course, the girls and I were doing our best to help in any possible way.

Applejack was having some big improvements in her treatment and would soon be allowed to leave the hospital.

The rest of their property was being taken care of, but it would take some time for anything to grow again into the damaged soil but at least everything seemed to be coming back into place. At least it seemed so…