Empire Apple

Chapters

Chapter 1: Everlasting Twilight
Chapter 2: Dreaming Hopeless
Chapter 3: Center Stage
Chapter 5: Shine Eternal
Chapter 6: Upheaval
Chapter 7: Momentum of Change
Chapter 8: A New Order
Chapter 9: Heights of Power
Chapter 4: Push and Pull

Chapter 1: Everlasting Twilight

A stabbing pain jolted Applejack back into consciousness. Her back ached. Shards of rock and dirt had dug into her flank. The suffocating stench of brimstone and ash made her gag. The terrible silence around her was only broken by her coughing and the whistling of the wind. A couple of fragmented rocks around her head glowed bright red and crackled as their heat dissipated. Small fires flickered around her as mountain bushes and small trees smoldered blurry through her crusty eyelids. She dragged herself up, one leg after another. Every single part of her body hurt.

Applejack could not remember where she was, how she had got there, or why she had woken up lying on the bare ground. The wind blew through her sooty mane. She was high up, high enough to see the sun setting beyond the mountains. Over the nearby cliff, she could see Forest canopies stretch into the horizon. It was a plateau, or a mountain summit, flat and wide, above everything else around them. The world was painted crimson red by the glow of the twilight.

The pain and shock were starting to wear off with every breath Applejack took. She could finally think clearly. Turning away from the hidden sunset, she tried comprehending what had happened. In the middle of the high mountain summit she was stranded on was the source of the horrible brimstone stench. A giant smoldering crater had been violently carved into the very stone of the mountaintop. large enough to bury a barn in. The edges of the pit were black and burned or melted into glass. Debris was scattered all around the opening. She could only guess, but it seemed like she had been close to an extraordinarily powerful explosion.

The realization of her predicament started slowly dawning on her. Applejack was alone. She couldn't be, there must have been somepony else with her. It didn't make sense. She took a step forward, but her left front leg gave away. She fell with a thud back on the rocky ground, hitting her head. The pain caused flashes of memories to race through her mind.

***

It had been a regular day at the farm, full of chores and hard labor. Applebucking season was just around the corner. Applejack had already started cooking supper when a message arrived from the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. She had sent for Applejack and all the rest of the guardians of harmony. The troupe had gathered at the Princesses' castle in Ponyville. The meeting had taken place in the map room, where they had all sat down to listen to Twilight.

The Royal Guard of Canterlot had sent her a report. An unknown group of non-ponies had been sighted traveling through Equestria, avoiding cities, roads, and all habitation. The first sightings had been near the western coast of Equestria, but the mysterious travelers had made their way to the center of Equestria, mostly without being seen. Their target was supposedly Flat-top Peak, a small mountain about an hour's gallop away from Ponyville.

Applejack remembered Twilight being worried. Her magical instruments had started picking up increasing magical activity from the direction of the mountain not long after receiving the report. Applejack knew as much about magic as a blue tit knows about playing a banjo, but Twilight Sparkle on the other hand took to magic like a fish to water. She knew well enough to listen when her friend talked about magic. It had been her educated opinion that whatever they were picking up was strange enough to investigate. Magic of this specific frequency could only come from casting an elaborate and long magical ritual. Naturally, the entire party immediately raced off to solve this mystery. Unknown magic was rarely a good thing, especially not this close to their homes and Canterlot, the capital of Equestria.

The ponies had raced through the west forest lit by the early evening sun. The bright rainbow mane of Rainbow Dash flickered between the branches as she gracefully dodged back and forth between them. Pinkie Pie hopped along, singing a bright cheery song, Fluttershy galloping next to her, occasionally joining in with her soft voice. Rarity took the lead, wanting to avoid being covered in kicked-up dust, and also because the western mountains were familiar territory to her. Her gem-hunting trips often took her there and beyond.

Twilight flew in the air, pondering deeply about the kind of magic they might have to deal with once they arrived. Magically levitating scrolls and books flew behind her like ducklings following their mother. Spike had to keep constant watch so that his distracted steed didn't crash into either the trees or Rainbow Dash.

Applejack brought up the rear. She always liked watching her six friends run together when they were heading towards yet another fantastical adventure. There was nothing they couldn't beat together.

Rarity had guided them along a narrow dirt road right up to the foot of the mountain. A steep mountain path jutted out of the side of the mountain, wide enough for a single pony to traverse. It would take them straight to the summit. They couldn't make out what was happening at the top from down there, but hearing the occasional strange ululation and a growing sense of magic made them nervous.

Twilight was sure something sinister was happening at the top. Applejack dug the earth anxiously with her hoof. Magical shenanigans were her least favorite type of adventure since she knew as much about it as a blind herding dog knows about hammering nails. Still, they marched on, with Rarity guiding the way up. You could find the most precious pink quartz crystals on this very mountain.

***

Pain in Applejack's left ear flared up and the smell of molten rock once again stung her snout. She snapped back to reality. Her friends had been with her. They had come here to investigate something, something that had caused the explosion. Applejack pushed herself up and looked frantically around. That's where she had woken up, behind a large rock, half of it melted.

Black soot and cracks around the stone made it clear that the only reason she was alive was thanks to the rocky shield protecting her. It was a miracle she could even walk. The force of the mysterious explosion had annihilated half the summit. The shock of almost having perished made her heart pound. Her friends, what had happened to her friends?! Applejack closed her dry eyes and gritted her teeth trying to remember what had happened.

***

Rarity had stopped talking about the crystals by the time they had reached the summit. The sun had almost set, and everything was illuminated solely by the hazy light of the evening twilight. They found themselves in an open area on top of the mountain, a flat summit large enough to herd sheep on. There they were met with a horrifying sight.

A raised platform hewn straight into the rock stood alone in the middle of the patch of flatness. Behind it, the cliff terminated into a sheer drop down into the valley. It couldn't have been a natural formation. The steps were hoofmade, but not ponymade. Something more ancient and despicable had carved this stage.

On the rock platform were a dozen hooded figures arranged in a circle, all of them twice as tall as ponies, chanting in a coarse and throaty language. The largest one of them, with visible horns sticking out from under its hood, stood in the middle, facing the setting sun, its back turned to Applejack and her friends. The cloak of the largest one had moved to reveal two arms and a torso under the horned head. The ritualists had either not noticed the ponies, or they simply did not care enough to try stopping their meddling.

'Centaurs!' Twilight exclaimed under her breath.

'Centaurs? In Equestria?' Rainbow Dash whispered.

'Oh my, what are they doing here?' whispered Rarity.

'A creepy ritual in the middle of a full moon night? Nothing pleasant I reckon' Applejack answered.

Fluttershy let out a timid squeak and hid behind Applejack.

The ponies spread out and kept their eyes on the hooded creatures. Twilight was visibly confused as she tried to comprehend what exactly she was looking at. Fluttershy stayed behind and made the mistake of peeking over the edge. She let out a concerned muffle as she glimpsed the hundred-foot fall behind them.

Twilight was baffled. 'How. Or more importantly, why. Why here? Centaurlands are far away across the sea, why come all this way here to cast a spell?'

Pinkie shrugged. 'Maaay-be they're having a magical midnight picnic party?'

'Quite an uncouth time for a piquenique Pinkie' Rarity whispered.

'If old Tirek didn't fall far from the family tree then they're up to no good. And we're here to put a stop to it.' Rainbow Dash said, slamming her hooves together. 'What's the game plan, Twilight?'

Applejack had stayed silent as Twilight started explaining what they'd do. Her friends were a varied bunch, but they had one thing in common. Their shared friendship would help them pull through no matter what.

***

Applejack opened her eyes and took another limping step toward the edge of the smoking crater. Remembering was like trying to catch greased-up pigs. Had they confronted the strange centaurs? Did Twilight attempt to talk with them? Maybe? That's what Twilight would have done.

Then a fight. Definitely a fight. Something terrible had happened. Applejack could swear Princess Celestia, Luna and even Cadence had appeared at some point. But that was crazy. How could they be there? Or maybe she had hit her head worse than she thought. There had been shouting, casting magic powerful enough to shake the mountain. Or had they fought, then talked? Nothing lined up in her mind. Her memories were jumbled up and disconnected.

She continued stumbling through the carnage. The few small trees hardy enough to live this high had been torn out of the ground like weeds. Everything that hadn't blown away had been blowtorched. Her bucking legs were sore. She did remember giving one of those hooded creatures a nice firm kick. The creature had roared in agony, but it had not backed down. Not fearing for its safety. As if their only job had been to stall them.

Another stab of pain in her head. A bright light. A horrifying whirlpool of light. She remembered it. Her friends screaming. The force of the light had almost pulled her in, but Twilight had saved her. She had pulled her into her embrace and told Applejack something, something important. Then she was gone. All of them were.

Applejack was tired. She was breathing hard. The world started spinning. The pain in her heart was pounding. Her muscles ached. She felt like throwing up. Applejack fell onto her knees as the world kept spinning. Tears stained her face, weaving ugly wet streaks into her grime-covered coat. She refused to believe it. Applejack rose laboriously back up. Her eyes darted around desperately, trying to find anything, anything that would make things okay again. It couldn't be real.

She managed to drag herself all around the crater before finally finding something. Something purple was stuck in a crevasse in the stone. A feather. Beautiful and purple, big as a swan's. She half trotted, half stumbled to it, diving the last few feet to grab it between her hooves, afraid that the wind would steal it from her. There was no doubt. The feather, magically preened to perfection, was Twilights. Her head felt like it was exploding. The pain made her shriek. Applejack finally remembered the last words spoken by Twilight Sparkle.

***

The four Princesses, her friends, and everypony else had been drawn into the vortex. The pull of the magic had been too strong for all of them, even for Princess Celestia. Everyone else had already fallen in, except Applejack and Twilight. Stones and dust flew past them into the bright light bursting out of it. Hungry tendrils of vicious white twisted around, seeking anything to pull in. Applejack was strong, but even she could not hold on for long. Her hoof had slipped, and she fell towards the maelstrom.

A sudden yanking feeling and the sound of heavy chains jangling broke her fall. Applejack could barely see in the magical storm but through it all she could make out Twilight. Her conjured golden chains had grabbed her around the waist mid-fall. With great effort, Twilight managed to pull Applejack towards her and into her embrace.

The howling of the magic gale was ear-splitting. Twilight had anchored herself to the ground with magical chains as well, the golden fabrications embedded deeply into the ground. The maelstrom raged around them, ripping and tearing at her magic shield. Bit by bit her shield and the magical constructs started giving out, chips shorn off by the threads of harsh light. Not even she could fight against whatever was drawing them in.

Once she was sure Applejack wouldn't fall, Twilight's attention turned toward the vortex. She stared fiercely at the vortex, her extraordinary mind racing to find a solution. Finally, as if coming to an unwanted conclusion, she turned her gaze back towards Applejack, hugging her tightly. Twilight looked deep into her green eyes. She spoke with a voice amplified with magic. It hurt Applejack.

"Applejack!" Twilight shouted. She had tears in her eyes. All Applejack could do was hang onto her for dear life.

"Princess Celestia! Luna! Cadence! Our friends! I have to go after them!"

Applejack couldn't respond. The pull of the vortex was paralyzing. All she could do was silently shout at Twilight in her mind. What? She thought. No! What are you doing!?

"I don't know where it will take me, but I have to go in. I know I can find them. I can bring them back."

Twilight!

"It'll close any second." Twilight buried her face in Applejack's neck and hugged her tightly for one last time.

Please.

"I trust you, Applejack."

I can't do this alone.

"Protect Equestria while I'm gone."

And with a burst of alicorn power and magical force, Twilight launched Applejack away from the vortex. Then she pulled her wings close to her body, let the chains break, and dove head-first into the vortex. The world exploded, and everything went dark.

***

It was hers. The purple feather. There was no doubt about it. It was all real. They were all gone. Lost inside some cursed magic portal. Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, the Princesses. Even Spike.

Applejack flopped down on her side, the gravel, and sharp rocks once again digging into her side. She curled up. All she could do was hold the feather tightly against her chest and cry. Cry until the fatigue, the pain, and the tears drifted her back into unconsciousness.

A thud and a jump shook Applejack. Through a deep fog, she could hear someone shouting or giving orders. Her head swayed as she felt herself being lifted on somepony's back like a bag of potatoes. A white-gray flank of a stallion, and a peek of deep blue mane. She was reminded of how Big Mac used to carry her on his back when she was a filly. It was nice being carried.

The ride down the mountain path felt endless. The pony carrying her was careful enough not to drop her, but clearly, they were in a hurry to get down. Finally, the mountain path ended. Although she could only see blurry outlines, Applejack knew they were on the wide field next to the road up the mountain. A large and noisy blob stood in the middle of the field. An airship, or an airboat depending on who you asked, was parked right on the grass. The conical balloon and propeller were unmistakable even to her concussed mind. She had always wanted to take a ride on one of the smaller airships, which were big enough to carry half a dozen ponies.

Applejack was laid down comfortably on a gurney and then hoisted into the covered cabin in the gondola. Her rescuers strapped her gently down and covered her in a warm blanket. They even placed her hat caringly on her chest. In the glow of the oil lamp, she could finally see the face of her savior. It was Shining Armor, looking distraught. Behind him, she saw a figure, her sight too blurry to make out the details. All she saw was dark blue. Applejack raised a hoof to point at the figure, but she couldn't move her aching legs. She gaped her mouth to tell Shining Armor about what had happened to his sister, but only whispers would come out. Her dry mouth tasted like ash.

Outside she could hear the propellers spin into action. Her stomach dropped as the gondola rose rapidly, and then accelerated forward into the air. Maybe she was worse for wear than she thought. It didn't matter much. She was about to pass out again. But she had to tell someone what had happened on the mountain. If only she could talk. Shining Armor... He needed to know what happened to Twilight. What had happened to them all? Maybe once she woke up...

Chapter 2: Dreaming Hopeless

The next time Applejack opened her eyes she found herself in a hospital. The clattering sounds of medical equipment and the smell of antiseptic assaulted her senses. Her bed was crowded by nurse ponies. She had no recollection of how she had ended up in the infirmary bed. Wading through the stupor she turned her head and looked outside through the window. All she could see through the haze of confusion and headache was the same red sunset she had seen on top of the mountain.

On the mountaintop... Twilight! Her body jolted forwards, sending medical instruments flying and startling the ponies around her bed. She tried to talk, but words kept getting stuck in her throat. She started violently hacking and coughing. Her mouth tasted like ash.

As soon as the cough subsided, the nurse ponies around her continued their work. Drips and bandages were checked and applied in quick succession. A disturbed-looking doctor pony entered the room and walked over to Applejack. The nurse ponies made room for him, all seemingly on edge for some reason. The unicorn doctor wanted to ask Applejack a couple of questions.

"Do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is? How many hooves am I holding up?"

All Applejack could do was nod and cough. Noticing her discomfort, a nurse brought her a cup of water to drink out of, which soothed her burnt throat and helped her breathe again. She could finally speak, although only in short sentences. The first thing she wanted to know was how she had ended up here, wherever here was. Shining Armor had managed to evacuate her safely from the mountain to the Royal Canterlot hospital. The destruction he had witnessed on the mountaintop had been catastrophic, and he had been worried that Applejack had been seriously hurt. The Royal Canterlot Hospital had the best medical facilities in Equestria, so naturally that's where Applejack had been airlifted to.

"All in all, you're a very lucky pony, Miss Apple, considering the circumstances. You have suffered multiple minor lacerations, multiple first-degree burns, a dislocated shoulder, a mild concussion, and some inhalation burns, but so far we have found nothing that some bed rest and ointments couldn't cure. However, we would prefer to keep you here for a couple of days to monitor your condition."

"Ah... need *Cough* need to speak with somepony."
Her chest rattled as she drew breath."From the castle. *Wheeze* Anyone"

The doctor looked concerned. "I'm sorry Miss Apple, but I do not know if that is currently possible."

"Why not?"

"The entire city is... That is, to be frank, among other things, there is no way to the castle. Or out of Canterlot. The Royal Guard has ordered all the gates closed and a curfew. Captain's orders."

"..."

"Again, I'm sorry Miss Apple. Is there anyone I could contact on your behalf? Any family or friends?"

Friends... Not anymore...

"Ponyville. *Gasp* Sweet Apple Acres. Stallion named Big Mac."

"Right". The doctor wrote down the name and address with a pen between his teeth and turned it over to one of the nurse ponies. "Nurse Penny, please send a letter to Miss Apple's relatives telling her where she's hospitalized." He turned back to Applejack. "Hopefully the gates have been opened by the time they receive the letter."

The Doctor nodded his head with sympathy and left to continue his rounds. That's odd, Applejack thought. He didn't use magic to write the note. The nurse ponies prepped her room for a longer stay and then went to attend to other patients. Applejack was left alone in the room. She stared at the roof, and then at the red glow out of the window, then back at the roof. It felt like the entire world was standing still.

When the clock struck seven, the familiar nurse ponies returned. They helped her up and fed her supper, lukewarm carrot soup. Afterward, they started preparing her for bed. Applejack hated being babied like that, but moving around was still difficult. Her entire body felt like it had been squeezed through a mangle.

A quick sponge bath helped scrub off the last of the stench of burnt fur. The ointment they rubbed in her wounds stung bitterly. A small tea kettle filled with boiling water and herbs was brought for her to inhale from. The aromatic steam helped calm the irritation in her lungs. Applejack started to feel much better as the nurse ponies finished their work and tucked her in. They shut off the lamps in her room as they left. The door clicked shut, and once again Applejack was left to lie alone. Her eyes strayed from the ceiling to the window. The nurse ponies had forgotten to draw the drapes shut. The unceasing crimson glow flowed through and spread around the entirety of the room, turning the white-yellow walls putrid orange.

'I wish Big Mac was here. I wish Applebloom and Granny were here.' Applejack turned around on her side, trying to ignore the pain, and making sure no one was there to see her, started weeping into her pillow. In the middle of all of it, as the foundations of Equestria shook, all she wanted was to see her family again. Slowly but surely she drifted to sleep.

Applejack opened her eyes. The room still glowed red. She was sure she had fallen asleep, but the never-ending twilight made it impossible to say how much time had passed. Was she even awake? Everything felt like a dream. The cuckoo clock on the wall pointed to three, presumably in the morning. Her blanket had fallen off. She reached out to retrieve it, winced from the pain, and almost jumped out of bed from fright.

Slumped next to her on the chair was a seven-foot-tall monster, a monster she knew all too well. The one and only spirit of chaos, Discord. Tall enough to hit his head on the ceiling, the creature made up of odd scraps of different animals looked even worse than Applejack felt. The parts of him which were covered in fur were shedding tufts of hair, bald spots defacing his hide. Fella looked like a mangy scrapyard dog, Applejack thought. Scales on his foot and tail were drying up and peeling off. His already ugly face was gaunt. For a fleeting moment, Applejack thought he was already dead.

Discord opened his yellow eyes sluggishly. Narrowing his eyes, he tried to focus his sight on Applejack. The spirit was barely staying conscious.

"Applejack." His tone betrayed his contempt.

"Discord," Applejack replied, her voice still hoarse.

"I do not have much time or patience to speak with you, so listen carefully. All magic is gone. I cannot come back after this. Reality without magic is poison to me. Even talking to you is torture, more so than usual." He let out a small laugh, before wincing from pain.

"What? No magic? What are you blathering about?"

"Be quiet and listen". Discord stood up. His presence filled the room as he loomed over Applejack.

"The pretty pony princesses are gone. Little Twily is gone. The old queen mare herself is gone. Magic is gone. My powers... are fading. The princesses, your little buddies, and my Fluttershy are gone, but not dead. No, they are alive, somewhere where even I cannot reach them."

Discord's legs almost gave out. His massive lion paw grabbed the frame of Applejack's bed for support. He raised his head, eyes filled with disdain.

"Out of every single possible pony it had to be you. You who managed to stay here. The boring apple horse. The background character in everyone else's story. As interesting as a shallow bowl of piddling applesauce."

A shiver interrupted Discord's litany of insults. He steadied himself against the bed. The frame creaked under his weight. He took a deep breath.

"Sorry, just wanted to clarify that. But now, you are the last hope for this place. MY last hope."

Discord raised his clawed hand. A pile of photographs appeared on it.

"I took these just for you, miss honesty. I know how much you love looking at my vacation photos. Centaurlands, lovely this time of year." Discord dropped the photographs in Applejack's lap. "Centaurs, my chimeric brethren. They're the ones responsible, and they're not stopping there. Oh no, they are coming with an army." A devilish grin crossed his patchy face. "Not soon though, I made sure of it. Caused a bit of patented chaos before they managed to drive me off and turned their mighty war fleet into..." He snorted. "Tar sleet."

The final joke was too much. Discord now had to grip the bed with both hands to stay standing. For the first time in Applejack's life, Discord looked at her without a hint of snideness or hostility. All she saw was desperation and grief.

"Promise me you'll save her. Save my Fluttershy."

Applejack, still shaken by everything Discord had revealed to her, looked straight into his eyes. The varmint meant it. After all, he said he still had the gall to beg her. Applejack hesitated for a second, then placed her hoof on his arm.

"I'll try."

Discord closed his eyes and nodded. With a snap of his fingers, a sizzling portal opened underneath him. He tumbled through it like a discarded marionette puppet. The portal closed with a zap. Applejack was left alone and befuddled. Her heart beat like a drum. She pulled her fallen sheets closer against her and put her hooves around her knees. Any pain she had felt before was now replaced by shock.

What in dozen barreling barrels of barley was going on here? A war with the centaurs? The sun stopped in its tracks? All magic gone? It was all nuttier than squirrel soup. Panic started slowly creeping in, inch by inch. First, her friends were lost, and now Discord comes out of nowhere with his blazing "vacation" pictures. What was a pony supposed to do? Why was she the one who survived? Why did she promise him she'd try bringing Fluttershy back? Why did Twilight ask her to protect Equestria? What did she know about magical portholes or leading a blooming war. Everything was, quite frankly, getting completely out of hoof.

The photographs lay in her lap. She spread them around and went through them one by one. Black and white, but clear as day. The pictures showed thousands of centaurs, all armed to the teeth. Some photographs were of the centaurs marching through a desert, some were of them lying around campfires surrounded by large yurts. The marching armies and war camps seemed to stretch far into the horizon.

Discord was in all the pictures, of course, either in the background blowing a raspberry, lying on a sun chair, or posing in the forefront with sunglasses and a fruity drink in paw. The pictures not of the centaur hordes were of what Applejack suspected were the aftermath of their arrival. The pictures were of cages full of enslaved creatures, destroyed villages, and burning fields. Other pictures had been taken from high up in the air, overlooking a barren wasteland, everything trampled and despoiled by the centaurs. Nothing but dust and dead trees remained.

Applejack was losing hope with every single picture she flipped through, until the very last two. The first picture had been taken from a lighthouse overlooking a large natural harbor surrounded by high rocky cliffs. A fleet of hundreds of great, oared ships were moored off the coast, seemingly ready to sail off. In the next picture, every last ship had collapsed into giant piles of black sludge. Hundreds of tiny figures were stuck in the goop floating in the bay. Some of the black mass in the background had already caught on fire.

Applejack let out a strained chuckle. "That goat-faced, snake-tailed old creep knows how to stir things up"

The last two pictures contained all the hope she needed. Equestria still had time. She still had time. Any more sleep was out of the question. Thoughts kept racing through her mind as she lay wide awake until morning.

An early morning, according to the clock at least, knock on the door stirred Applejack from her thoughts. It was Shining Armor.

"Applejack, It's me. How are you holding up?"

"Feels like I got pushed through Granny's sauce maker, but I'll make it." She was still a bit rough, but the care at the hospital had done wonders.

Shining Armor closed the door behind him and wandered over to her bed. Dark circles around his eyes told Applejack he hadn't gotten much sleep last night either. He sat down on the same chair Discord had lain in half-dead just a moment ago. Twilight's older brother, slumped over on the stool, looked like death warmed over.

Neither of them said a word. Applejack was afraid to ask what the situation was. The awkwardness was amplified by the fact that they had only ever spoken a few times, mostly about Twilight and apple fritters.

Applejack spoke up first, her voice still frail and harsh. "Shining, your sister, Cadence, everyone. They're alive. I know they are, somewhere out there."

"You kept repeating that when we airlifted you off the mountain, even though you could barely speak. 'They're alive.' Just over and over. The captain sent out more search parties immediately after we arrived. I happened to be on the evening patrol boat when we saw the explosion. They could probably also see it from Canterlot."

"Good." Applejack let out a cough. "Did they find anything? Any sign of my friends?"

Shining Armor covered his face with his hooves. "Nothing. In the past twelve hours all the guard has done is search the mountain and the valleys around it. No sign of them."

He put his hooves in his lap and gave Applejack a mournful look. "Everything is falling apart. My sister, my wife, the princesses, your friends, it's as if they disappeared into thin air. Not even a single strand of mane to be found."

He stood up and walked over to the window. He stared out of it, towards the mountains, behind which the sunset glowed.

"And that's not all. The sun has stopped moving. Without Princess Celestia guiding it all of Equestria is now covered in a never-ending... Twilight." He let out a sad little laugh.

He turned back to Applejack. "Also, just to rub salt in our wounds, all of the magic in Equestria is gone! Poof! Gone away, just like that! I can't even lift a single bit with my horn now!"

He sat back down. Fear and desperation were written all over his drooping, unshaven face. Applejack felt she needed to say something to calm him down.

"Listen. I reckon I owe you for saving me off of that blasted mountain, Shining Armor."

Shining Armor gave her a tiny smile. "It was the least I could do. After what I saw I had to get you to help as soon as possible. It was terrible."

"I know."

Shining Armor pulled himself together and stared directly into Applejack's eyes.

"Applejack, what exactly happened to Cadence and Twilight? I need to know." He had the same look as Discord, Applejack thought.

"Honestly, I ain't sure what happened to Cadence. Those hooded creeps conjured up some kinda magical storm, too powerful for even Twilight to fight against. Ya couldn't even hear yourself think over the noise. All I know is Twilight told me she had to go into the twister if she wanted to bring them all back, so that's where she and the rest probably are."

Tears were starting to well up again. Applejack wiped them off. "She didn't hesitate for a second. Dove straight in after them."

Shining Armor looked down, holding back tears. "...Twily."

He failed, and the tears flowed freely down his cheeks. Shining Armor hid his face behind his hooves. "Oh, Twily..."

"She had to, Shining. I couldn't stop her."

Applejack pushed a box of tissues on her dresser toward Shining Armor

"If it makes ya feel any better she did say she can do it, to save them and come back. If Twilight said so then that's what'll happen."

Applejack genuinely believed it. But Twilight's last words did still bother her.

"But before she jumped she asked me to protect Equestria. Said she trusts me, an I ain't going to break that trust. I'm promising you that right here. And while I'm at it might as well see if we can help her on this side somehow. I dunno much about all them fancy magic holes and portals, but like Granny always says, a door's got a handle on both sides."

The eternal twilight and disappearance of magic wasn't the end of it though, she thought. Might as well pull the rotten tooth off right now and show him what's coming next.

"Granny also said it don't hurt being prepared for unwanted visitors, and these boys sure seem unwanted."

Applejack turned over to her dresser and took out the photographs Discord had given her. She laid them out on her bed in front of Shining Armor. It took a moment for him to comprehend what he was looking at, but when then realization hit him like an anvil out of the sky.

"Where did you get these?"

"Discord gave 'em to me"

"Discord?! But when? How? Why?"

"Just a couple of hours ago. Magic. Cause there's only one pony he gives a flying feather about and it ain't you or me."

"I don't, wait... The pictures are real?" He kept shuffling frantically through them. "There's an entire army of centaurs amassing on the other side of the ocean?"

"Yup, and I reckon they're planning on invading now that all the princesses are out of action."

"This is not good."

"Nope."

Shining Armor stood up again and started pacing in front of the window, his silhouette breaking the red glow with each pass. Applejack laid back on her bed and put her head on the pillow. Sharing the truth about the nightmarish things she had learned had helped calm her down a bit. Other ponies, much smarter than her she thought, would soon know about this. Then they could fix the broken sky, save Twilight and the rest, and then kick the centaurs back where they came from. Easy as apple pie.

Shining Armor stopped his pacing. "We have to take this to the emergency gathering, ponies need to know what is coming."

"The what gathering?"

"Emergency advisory gathering. The messages were sent all across Equestria by hoof late last night, as soon as we learned about the disappearance of the princesses. 50 ponies from our largest cities and towns will arrive at Canterlot to make decisions on the Princess' behalf."

"So a town hall meeting, but for all of Equestria."

"Exactly, if the Ponyville town hall was established by an ancient royal degree dictated by the Princess herself a thousand years ago and to be called only when there were no able Princesses to rule us."

Shining kept pacing, talking half to himself, half to Applejack.

"I thought I'd never see it happen. The Royal Guard has never before had to enforce that decree. During my time as the Captain I didn't even remember that it was an enforceable degree. The situation just has never been bad enough."

He stopped and looked at Applejack. "We have to get you in front of the gathering as soon as you're feeling better. Any idea when you'll be let out?"

"Still feels like I got caught between an ornery bull and a brick wall. The doc said they still want to keep me here for a couple of days. Even then I might need a bit of help getting around."

"I don't want you overexerting yourself. It will take the gathering a few days to assemble anyway, so rest while you can. I'll be at the castle helping the current captain of the guard with the search. I'll come to visit again tomorrow."

"Aww shucks, but what about Flurry Heart?"

"Flurry Heart is back in the Crystal Empire with her favorite nursemaids, but I'll have to go back to take care of her soon."

"Is all magic gone?"

Shining Armor's face was grim. "Yes. Magic is gone, at least here in Canterlot. By noon we will know what the situation is outside the city. If magic is truly gone from all across Equestria, then we are in big trouble. Might even be bigger than the never-ending twilight or the invasion."

Applejack's head was starting to hurt again. When it rains it does pour until the proverbial river bank crumbles and your entire farm is swept away. "The problems just keep piling up."

Shining Armor nodded. Noticing her pain, he clumsily poured water out of the pitcher and pushed the glass over to Applejack, almost spilling it on her. The comedy of watching a unicorn try and do mundane tasks without magic made Applejack feel a little better. She took a sip, placed the glass on her lap, and stared at it.

"Ya know Shining. I spent the entire night pondering. It shouldn't have been me who got away, who survived the storm." A tear rolled down her snout, and then another. They dropped into the glass, forming rings spreading out on the surface.

"Twilight asked me to protect Equestria. Me, when it should have been anypony else, even Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy. They'd know what to do or how to help. All I do is be friends with Twilight and kick bad guys on the backside when I get the chance. What the hay am I s'posed to do now? Heck, half the time I don't even know what's going on when we're just outside Ponyville."

"What are you talking about Applejack? You're one of the guardians of harmony. You, Twilight, and your friends have saved Equestria more times than most ponies can count. We need you."

"Yeah, me and the girls together. I ain't cut out to do anything on my own. I'm useless."

Shining armor reached out and placed his hoof on her shoulder. "But you're not. You're much more than just Twilight's friend, and you don't just kick bad guy backside. You're Applejack, the element of honesty."

He gently lifted her chin. "Applejack, Twilight always tells me all about the adventures you girls go on. In every one of her stories, you're always the anchor that keeps her grounded. You're immovable in the face of danger and unstoppable once you get going. She could have never saved the world as many times as she did without your help."

He pulled out a napkin and offered it to Applejack. She took it.

"Believe me, you will be a huge help, especially at the gathering. Ponies know who you are. They respect and admire you. When you talk they listen. Once they're here it will undoubtedly take some convincing for them to take this new threat seriously, especially with all the other problems we already have. I can't do it alone. That's where we will need you. They don't know me as they know you. I'm just another pompous and useless Canterlot unicorn to them. But you, you're a hero. You can help them by warning them."

Shining Armor smiled and reached over to give Applejack a gentle hug. Applejack embraced him back. He reminded her of Big Mac. How she wished her family could come sooner.

"Thanks for getting my hat."

"Of course."

Shining Armor let go of her and headed for the door. He turned back to give Applejack a final tired, but hopeful smile. "I hope you recover soon. Flurry Heart is going to need me back soon. I can't stay and help save the world like you can."

"Hey! You've only got one baby, I've got a full orchard of them!"

Shining Armor and Applejack shared the first genuine laugh either of them had had since the disappearance. Hope was starting to flourish once again.

Chapter 3: Center Stage

Morning had finally come, at least according to the clock on the wall. It was the fourth day after the disappearance of the Princesses and her friends. Applejack lay in her hospital bed and waited. Shining Armor arrived sometime after noon. All members of the emergency gathering had finally arrived. They could go see the first meeting if Applejack was feeling able. She was more than ready to leave after lying in bed for days. Applejack was now allowed to leave the hospital during the day, as long as she returned by the time night would have normally fallen. Shining Armor helped Applejack up on her wheeled chair, and together they rolled out of the hospital and to the streets of Canterlot.

The past few days of rest had done Applejack good. Her voice was back to normal and her shoulder had stopped aching. Even the singed hide and burned-off patches were starting to grow back, but for now, she preferred to keep a shawl over her shoulders to hide the worst damage. With her favorite hat back on her head she was ready to face the gathering. If the only thing she could do right now was to warn ponies of the coming danger and to assist the gathering in finding her friends, then that's what she would do.

The streets of Canterlot were the same color as her room at the hospital. All white surfaces glowed sickly orange, and all dark surfaces were painted deep crimson. Nothing cast a shadow in the twilight. The streets were empty and dreamlike. Only the occasional startled pony scurried past them, saddlebags filled with either food or day-to-day supplies. The unceasing twilight had scared the citizens of Canterlot into hiding away in their homes. The unicorns they saw, powerless and meek without their magic, were especially terrified by the cursed twilight. Applejack didn't blame them. The permanent glow was starting to get to her too. The headaches were not as bad as they had been a few days earlier, but she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling in her brain.

Shining Armor and Applejack headed towards the Canterlot Magic School for Gifted Unicorns, where the first emergency gathering would be held. The school's lecture hall seemed fitting, considering one of the first topics of discussion would be the mysterious disappearance of all magic in Equestria. Although the rest of Canterlot was abandoned, a large number of ponies had crowded around the field at the entrance of the School. Shining Armor and Applejack pushed through, the ponies around them gasping and whispering as they noticed Applejack. I guess seeing me up and about was bound to cause a bit of stir, Applejack thought. Wonder what they were gabbing about me.

Two members of the Royal Guard stood stoically at the front doors of the school, spears in hoof. They stopped and checked all the comers for invitations. When Applejack and Shining Armor finally managed to push through the guards didn't stop them, but instead saluted them and stood aside to let them in. See, everyone knows who you are, Shining whispered. The duo walked through the main doors and into the grand foyer of the school. Opposite them was another set of doors, across the marble floor, beyond which was the lecture hall.

Although the benches of the lecture hall were only half full, the room was filled with the shouting and arguing of the ponies inside. The invitation to attend the gathering had been sent to every pony deemed important enough to have a say in the future of Equestria, but unlike the Grand Summit, the ponies in this meeting did not represent provincial or rural concerns. All were very important ponies from very important cities and organizations.

Shining Armor pointed some of them out to Applejack as he rolled her across the floor toward the front of the room. "See her? She's the premier of Vanhoover. And there's the president of the Gags Galore corporation. You might recognize the EEA representative. Grandmaster Flank from South Bronxo recordings. Silky Smooth, mayor of manehattan. Oh, and there's Fancy Pants, you know him. He's good friends with Rarity from what I've heard. All the most important ponies in Equestria are here."

"Hoo boy."

"Don't sweat it, Applejack. With ponies like this around we'll save Twily and the rest in no time."

Applejack wanted to believe him, but she wasn't convinced. The room was full of the stench of pomp and self-importance. Not even the rooster back at the farm acted this cocky. Already some of the ponies were arguing loudly about the seating arrangement, of all the inconsequential things.

The stench of elitism wasn't the only thing disturbing her. Applejack felt like she was being watched. Her chair suddenly wobbled as a large red unicorn in an expensive-looking pinstripe suit bumped into her. "Scuse me doll," he said as he kept pushing past them to the front row, not caring in the slightest who he banged into. A mare dressed in a long blue dress almost fell over as he barged into her. Even through the elegant face veil, Applejack could see that she considered almost walloping the crude behemoth for his behavior.

Ignoring the quarreling representatives, Shining wheeled Applejack to the end of the first row and sat on the bench next to her. The clamoring and ruckus continued until an auburn brown unicorn stallion dressed in the royal guard uniform appeared from the wings and walked up to the podium. He took off his helmet, revealing a military-trimmed, sand-colored mane.

"That's the captain of the Royal Guard, Stern Sentinel. He took over when I left for the Crystal Empire." Shining Armor whispered to Applejack. "Not my first choice, but he was the most experienced and he has been pleasant enough to work with. A bit overly formal though."

Captain Sentinel placed his helmet on the podium and stamped his armored hoof down for attention. His green eyes scanned the audience. When the noise had settled he cleared his throat and addressed the ponies in the hall. He spoke deep from his chest with a baritone voice.

"Fillies and gentle-colts, respectable members of the Equestrian society. You have been gathered here under the auspices of Princess Celestia herself, may she reign eternally. The Princess, in all her wisdom, foresaw that one-day tragedy might strike Equestria, and we would be left without her guidance. Per the Bull Solarum, dictated one thousand and six years ago, the Royal Guard has called forth the gathering of mares and colts of reputable character. You must guide Equestria through these trying times, with the assistance and patronage of the Royal Guard."

Murmur and chatter started spreading through the crowd. Sounds of uncertainty filled the room.

Captain Sentinel continued. "The gathering of reputable characters, or the emergency gathering, shall take control of Canterlot. The Gathering will be responsible for the making of new laws, and the execution of old laws, in their sacred duty to bring harmony and peace to Equestria, until the gathering is disbanded by consensus, or the princess, or other, returns to once again raise the sun. Princess Celestia be praised."

The crowd grew louder and more excited until the entire room was in uproar. Celestia had ruled for a thousand years. The arrival of Luna, Cadence, and Twilight had already been a major upheaval of the old order, but now even that had been thrown out. Talking and shouting filled the lecture hall. Ponies in the back row stands started hooting and hollering, declaring themselves kings of Equestria. Some ponies looked horrified out of their wits, other's had wide grins on their faces. The big, rude stallion Applejack had seen push other ponies around was laughing his head off as if he had heard the funniest joke of his entire life.

Applejack looked down the first row at the frantic attendees. Only one of them stayed calm and collected, and didn't participate in the commotion. She was the one Shining Armor had pointed out as the mayor of Manehattan, Silky Smooth. The mayor was an earth pony with a metal grey coat. Her straight pale green mane swayed back and forth as she took down notes with the pencil between her teeth. An elegant wide-brimmed hat hid most of her face. She leaned down to put her notebook away and stood up. Now visible, her eyes were dull amber, and her expression unreadable. She stamped her hoof down on her pulpit for attention.

Pinstripe suits, mysterious veils, and dramatic wide-brimmed hats. The whole spectacle was starting to feel like one of those late-night detective mystery parties Rarity had loved to throw. Applejack had never been a fan.

"Captain Sentinel! Fellow members of the gathering!" Silky Smooth spoke with poise and a calm demeanor, with a practiced air of authority. A tinge of Manehattan accent gave her words a hint of edge. "Are we to believe that is all there is to the Princess's orders? No rules on how the gathering will be arranged or how the order will be kept. How are we to administer without a set form of guidelines? Currently, we are not so much a ruling body as we are a formless mob."

"Miss Smooth, I have read what has been written. The archivists of the guard are currently searching for addendums, but for now, it seems, regrettably, that the Gathering is free to decide for themselves how to proceed."

With that, Captain Sentinel withdrew from the podium. A pony shouted that since he arrived first, he should get to speak next. Another pony rose and bellowed something about oat subsidies. Another pounded the table and demanded lower taxes for saddlebags. Others started rising from their seats as well, vying for the empty podium. Circles of scheming and conversation started forming around the shouters. The sharply dressed red stallion had disappeared from the seat next to them and appeared to now be sitting with Mayor Smooth. Applejack noticed they were engaged in lively conversation.

Shining Armor and Applejack stood on the sidelines and watched as the political power vacuum was beginning to be filled, not knowing what to make of it. They waited, but as the shouting slowly petered out and the gathering formed into small groups, they were forced to admit that today was not the day Applejack would get to tell her story. Until ultimate power in Equestria was brokered no one was in charge. Applejack no longer wanted to stay. The vulture-like wheeling and dealing of power made her head hurt. She and Shining Armor left dejected.

The foyer of the Magic School was as prestigious as ever, even in the dim glow of the eternal twilight. Pushing Applejack through the doors of the hall, Shining Armor recounted some of his favorite memories of attending the school, spurred on by the nostalgia. Applejack listened to his stories half-heartedly. She had not had big expectations, but even those had been dashed. Saving her friends did not seem like a priority to these ponies.

"Guardian Applejack, Prince Shining Armor."

The two ponies stopped and looked up. It was Stern Sentinel, walking down the right side of the split staircase that encircled the foyer and framed the entrance to the main lecture hall. He held his captain's helmet under his hoof, respectfully bowing to them as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Howdy Mr. Sentinel."

"Captain Sentinel, glad we could speak." Shining Armor said. "How are you holding up?"

"Thank you, Prince. I am as fine as can be in the midst of this nightmare."

"Any news from the search parties?"

"Nothing. We expanded the search outside the valleys around the mountain, but without magic, it is an arduous task." Stern Sentinel lowered his head. "The Princess, her sister, your gracious wife and sister. The Royal Guard's failure to protect them has dishonored us all."

Shining Armor raised his hoof and placed it on Stern's shoulder. "Stern. You know as well as I do that it is not that simple. We may have guarded them from enemies outside our walls, but we could never protect them from themselves. All we could do was offer our best advice and support when their will took them to danger where we could not help them. Trust me, I would know."

Applejack couldn't help but smile at Shining Armor's words. "Yup, when Twilight got an idea in that big head of hers all you could do was grab on and hang on."

The expression on Stern's face did not change, but he did raise his head. "Thank you, Prince, Guardian Applejack."
Applejack tipped her hat. "No worries, partner. And just call me Applejack."

"Thank you, Applejack. But it does not lessen the shame. The reading of the Bull was a public acknowledgment of our failure."

"The Bull Solarum. All the captains knew about it, but by the time I was in charge it was nothing but ancient tradition."

"How I wish it had stayed as such, Prince. Reading that vile parchment to those ingrates was by far the lowest moment of my entire life. But it was the will of the Princess that I do so, and it is not my place to second guess her. I only hope those disgraceful commoners understand the gravity of the role the Princess has bestowed upon them."

Like a bunch of hungry pigs at the trough, Applejack thought. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the pain of being blown up, but she felt uncharacteristically bitter about the situation. "So, what do we do now? How can I help?"

"The wizards of the magic school began their investigation immediately after we found you at the site of the tragedy. They are preparing a report on the subject as we speak. Your description of the events has already been a big help. but we need you to give a detailed account of the entire gathering soon. That should motivate them to reauthorize the search effort again."

"What!?" Applejack was shocked. "You stopped searching for them?!"

"Yes, and I share your frustration. The guard was called back to Canterlot to keep the peace during the change in power, as was ordained in the bull."

"No, no, no, you can't stop the search! I know they're out there! They might need help! Twilight might have already come back badly hurt! You can't stop!"

Stern raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that the top priority of mine and the entire guard is to find the Princess, even the pretend ones, and your friends as soon as possible."

Applejack's cheeks turned red. "I wasn't trying to, I mean- Sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude. I just thought everyone would agree that's what we all should be focusing on." Applejack glanced towards the lecture hall doors. "But I guess not."

Stern Sentinel looked towards the lecture hall as well. His face remained unchanged. He took a deep breath and addressed her. "Guardian Applejack. I took a vow to protect the Princess with my life on the day I joined the Royal Guard. I assure you, I will do whatever it takes to return the Princess to her rightful place."

"Ah'm glad to see at least one pony in this crazy place still has their head on straight. I'd go out myself to search for them, but sleepin an eatin's about all I can do right now. Never felt so useless before."

Shining Armor interjected. "I keep telling you you're not useless. Just seeing you here alive in Canterlot is going to do wonders for everyone's spirits."

"Keeping folks keen is all nice and dandy, but I was never one to sit on my flank all day and just cheerlead sitting on the porch." She looked at Stern. "As soon as I'm back on my bucking hooves I'll be joining the search. You can bet on it."

"I am glad to hear that, Guardian Applejack."

Stern Sentinel bowed again and went back inside the lecture hall. Applejack and Shining Armor went the opposite way and exited the school. They didn't see a single other pony on their way back to the hospital. The red glow continued to permeate everything.

On the morning of the fifth day, the Apple family arrived in Canterlot. Applebloom burst through the door of Applejack's hospital room and launched herself towards her big sister. Applejack winced from the impact as she hugged her hard enough to dislocate her other shoulder. Granny Smith entered not far behind, steaming furious. She almost started pummeling Applejack with the apple basket they had brought her, shouting at her for making them worry so much, before joining the hug and crying torrentially. Even Big Mac got emotional when he came through the door and saw her. He rushed over and pulled them all in a great big bear hug.

Thanks to Shining Armor they had received special passes to come visit Canterlot, even though the capital was still closed off. The Apples would stay in Canterlot for one night, even though the sun never sets, and leave on the first-morning train. The day went by quickly as Applejack talked, laughed, and gossiped with her family. Applejack desperately wanted to know how her apple orchards were holding up without sunlight. She was especially worried about the newly planted trees on the north side groves since those could only last for a few weeks without sunlight.

It did not come as a surprise to her that the never-ending twilight and news of the disappearance of the Princesses had almost caused mass panic in Ponyville. The town's unicorn artificers were out of work as they realized they no longer possessed magic. No pony was sleeping well and what little sleep they got was plagued by nightmares. Granny Smith had a theory that the eternal twilight was messing with ponies' minds, making them act stranger than usual. Applejack admitted she had been feeling on edge ever since the tragedy, but she thought that was caused by all the nightmares. Princess Luna was no longer safeguarding their dreams after all.

The clock struck ten, and Granny, Applebloom, and Big Mac had to leave. Their train would leave early in the morning. Applejack felt newly reinvigorated after they had said their goodbyes and left. The rest of the week she focused fully on recovering, focusing all her discipline and willpower trained during years of hard farm work. She slept when the clock in her hospital room pointed to nine and woke up when it pointed to five. She asked for seconds when the food cart came by and spent the days trotting briskly around the ward and doing stretches and working out in her room.

The nurses tried at first to calm her down and get her to stay in bed but to no avail. A nurse pony she had not seen before, with a dark blue mane tightly wound in a bun, was especially adamant about trying to keep Applejack resting. The stubborn filly wasn't going to have any of it though. Applejack was on a mission and this wasn't her first time when it came to recovering from injuries. She always made sure to never strain any of the stitches or her dislocated shoulder enough to hurt herself. By the time a week had passed, Applejack was back in her old form, more or less. Some bald patches remained on her coat, but otherwise, she looked and felt as good as ever.

Applejack wasn't the only one reconstituted. During the week Applejack spent recuperating in the hospital the Gathering had finally agreed on how to conduct their business. Shining Armor explained the new code of conduct to her when he visited on the night before her full release. The rules were simple. A chairpony led the Gathering. Committees had been arranged to focus on specific issues affecting Equestria. All decisions required the full consensus of the Gathering, meaning everyone had to vote unanimously for whatever they were voting for. Experts and eyewitnesses were to be called whenever the decision concerned matters of Equestria's safety.

The Gathering would decide tomorrow whether or not the guard would continue the search. It was horrifying how long it had taken them to continue the search for the Princesses, Applejack thought. She had been invited to appear as an eyewitness to the disappearance. Her testimony would be vital in their decision on how to proceed with the rescue of the Princesses. She was determined to make sure that they'd put every single quartet of hooves on the ground and search all across Equestria for her friends. There was nothing else she could do.

The next morning Applejack and Shining Armor entered the great lecture hall through the main foyer. The members of the Gathering were there, some looking disheveled as if they had spent the last few nights there. The piles of blankets under the seats reinforced that theory. They found places to sit, again at the front and to the side. The chairpony banged his gavel on the podium signaling the start of an official Gathering session. Next to Applejack and Shining Armor sat other ponies who seemed to be preparing for a presentation. Applejack suddenly felt school trauma emerging deep from her mind. Should she have prepared a presentation? No pony had told her to prepare a presentation!

The chairpony announced that the Gathering would now hear experts on the cases of the "nullification", aka disappearance of magic, its effects on Equestria, and the eternal twilight. The experts were the three unicorns sitting next to Applejack and Shining Armor. By the look of their impressive beards and wizard hats Applejack assumed they were professors from the magic school.

The chairpony called the first expert on the stage, a frail-looking elderly wizard and the oldest one of the trio. He had nothing but bad news to present. Magic was well and truly gone from the world of Equestria. Magical creatures had been seen crossing over the borders of Equestria, obviously fleeing the magical drought. Not even the most skilled and powerful magicians in Equestria could produce even a spark from their horns. There also did not seem to be any way to reverse it that they knew of. It wasn't that magic was being pulled away somewhere else, or that it had turned into an unusable form. There just simply was nothing left of it, which is why the occurrence had been dubbed "The Nullification" by the academia.

Unicorn members of the gathering seemed to be especially devastated by the presentation. The large red unicorn in a suit chortled at their reaction and muttered to himself, right behind Applejack and Shining Armor. "Nice to see these pompous jerks get taken down a notch." While Applejack wasn't particularly empathetic to unicorns over losing their magic, she still thought there was no reason to rub it in. And wasn't he a unicorn too? What strange ponies had been dragged into this mess?

The chairpony had to bang his gavel multiple times to quiet the crowd. The disappearance of magic was catastrophic, but the wizards had still more to say. The second wizard in seniority lifted a presentation stand and placed a full-scale diagram of a pegasus skeleton on it as the older one stepped down. His curly red beard bounced as he spoke. The loss of magic, or "the Nullification" wasn't just a unicorn tragedy. It had also practically crippled the flying ability of pegasi. It had always been known that a very minor and basic magical force had played an integral part in the ability of pegasi to fly. This was obvious when compared to non-magical flying creatures. Pegasi would have required much bigger wings or frailer bodies to be able to fly without assistance. This passive and minor amount of magic had helped generate enough lift for their winged brethren that even the weakest pegasus could fly. The magic seemed to have been somehow connected to cutie marks.

The disappearance of magic had thus essentially grounded all except the most athletic fliers. Pegasi with exceptional flying ability and stamina, such as the Wonderbolts, could attain enough altitude by themselves to then glide along air currents for long distances. Other pegasi required some kind of a boost to attain enough altitude for gliding, so flight was not completely impossible. All pegasi could still glide from an elevation, which is how the pegasi of Cloudsdale had been evacuated to the ground.

The implication of no pegasi weather wranglers or access to Cloudsdale's weather factory was, of course, terrifying to a farmer like Applejack. The lack of rain would be just as deadly to her apple trees as the lack of sunlight. The bad news brought by the second wizard had an even larger impact on the crowd. Without pegasi, there would be no weather, no rain, no winter, and no crops. The ensuing food scarcity, drought, and ecological disaster. It all affected everypony. The disappearance of magic was going to be the end of Equestria.

The crowd had completely forgotten their own rules of conduct as panic started spreading. The third wizard, a younger unicorn with a short and smart black beard and a lavender-blue coat, tried to give a presentation on the research he had done on fixing the eternal twilight.

He began by explaining how Princess Celestia had not left any written or verbal instructions on how ponies could move the sun and the moon without her or the other Princesses. The researchers had been looking for any references to the historical sun-raising ritual used before the time of Celestia and had some good leads on magical parchments and artifacts concerning the matter, but so far they had found nothing concrete. Now, as the black bearded wizard began there was one very good lead on...

Applejack had a hard time listening to what he was trying to say over the racket. "Excuse me!" The black-bearded wizard tried to continue. "If you could please stop talking. As I said, a very good lead on the existence of... Excuse me! An artifact that could potentially be, excuse me, sir, if you could let me finish speaking, on how to raise the sun, but this requires that the school allows for— Augh!'

After interruption after interruption, the young wizard finally gave up. It was clear no pony was listening. Dejected, he rolled up his presentation posters and exited stage left. The Gathering had decided the eternal twilight was not a contender in the race for the end of Equestria.

Finally, it was Applejack's turn. She climbed up on the stage without any visual guides. Had they expected her to make some? Was she supposed to? Applejack wasn't prone to stage fright, but standing on the stage she did feel completely out of place and awkward. She'd probably mess up somehow, but it didn't matter. If a small bit of humiliation was what it took to save her friends, then she'd gladly pay it a thousand times.

The crowd quieted down as they realized who was standing on stage. It was the pony who had survived the event where the Princesses disappeared. Fiddling with her hat and swallowing nervously Applejack began telling them all she could remember of the tragedy. Twilight summoning them to her castle, the road to the mountain, the strange centaur ritual on the summit, the appearance and disappearance of the Princesses, Twilight saving her from the vortex, Twilight's last words, and finally her sacrifice jumping inside the bright light to save everyone, followed by the explosion. She decided not to mention anything about the information from Discord. She did not want to take any more attention away from saving her friends. The time for that was later.

The lecture hall hummed with whispering and talking as the members digested Applejack's story. She was the element of honesty, of course, everyone knew that, but she did admit to not remembering entirely what happened. And the explosion. It had vaporized half the mountain. How could anyone, even a Princess, survive that? Applejack answered a few questions, but largely she had not said anything new that wasn't included in Shining Armor's summaries.

The question of assigning more guards and resources to search for the princesses and the rest was not that simple. All hooves were needed to keep the peace in Equestria, especially if the magic and weather situation was going to be as catastrophic as it seemed. A sinking feeling started clawing at Applejack's stomach. What were these ponies talking about? Of course, the rescue was a top priority. Everything else would be fixed the moment her friends came back. Not saving them had never even crossed her mind. What the hay were these ponies thinking?

Applejack, not sure what to do, sat back down at the behest of the chairpony. The fifth and final guest speaker was the professor of magical transportation, Whisker Wind. Tall and skinny, she had been brought in to comment on the magical portal Applejack had described. She was also expected to make an educated guess on if the Princesses had survived.

The old mare wizard, dressed similarly to the other, was cold and analytical when she spoke. "It is my professional opinion that any scenario involving a magic portal releasing explosive energy of this magnitude would annihilate everything between and around both ends of the portal." She adjusted her glasses. "It would not matter if it was a portal through space, time, or dimensions. Instability events go through them all, vaporizing everything." She stopped for a second. "I am afraid nopony could have survived a duplex system implosion like that."

Applejack shot up, angry beyond all belief. "No! Twilight said she could save them! She knew what she was jumping into! She knew-, knows everything there is to know about magic!"

Whisker Wind was startled by the sudden shouting. She cast a dirty look at her. "Miss Applejack, control yourself. I will not speculate on the capabilities of the late Princess, but there simply is no other possibility. She may have miscalculated the exact timing of-"

Applejack finally lost it. The trauma, the frustration, the pain of getting blown up, and the fear of never seeing her best friends ever again burst like a dam and was unleashed in one profanity-riddled shouting rant.

"You hack! You fraud! You miserable old goat! How dare you!" She peppered every insult with a heavy step toward the wizard.

"She is the greatest magic user there ever was! She's worth a thousand of you cob-web slinging, parchment-huffing, dust bunny-wrangling nincompoops! If she said she'll come back SHE. WILL. COME. BACK!" Applejack stomped both of her hooves down, the floorboards underneath creaking under the abuse.

The crowd was in shock at her display. Professor Windy Whisker's jaw had dropped. Silence fell in the lecture hall. Only the red stallion, already well known for his crude behavior, was doubled over and trying to stifle his giggling. Silky Smooth was sitting next to him, furiously taking down notes. Applejack finally snapped out of her trance and bolted towards the side door of the lecture hall with tears in her eyes. She rammed through the door, kicked it closed, and ran down the hall and around a corner. She slumped against the wall and slid down. She covered her face with her hat, not wanting anyone to see her red face and tears. What an idiot she had been, losing control like that. What an absolute donkey. Now they would never send anyone to save them. All seemed lost.

It was Stern Sentinel who first came searching for her. Looming over her, the brown military pony offered her his hoof. Applejack took it and he helped her up. Applejack wiped any remaining tears off her face and looked at Stern. His face was as stoic as ever.

"Guardian Applejack. These disgraceful ponies do not deserve your rage, nor will they save your friends. They are corrupted by greed, blind to the light of the Princess. They can no longer be allowed to gimp our efforts to bring Princess Celestia back. The Gathering must be disbanded, by force if necessary, and I would need your help to do so."

Applejack stood silent, shocked by the sudden proposition. He wasn't joking. Not this rebar in the concrete.

Applejack sniffed. "I might've made an absolute rodeo clown out of mahself just now, but I ain't no lawbreaker. The law says those fools are in charge." She dusted herself off. The halls of the magic school had not been swept for weeks. "We just have to work harder, make em see that they are alive. That finding them's the only way to save Equestria."

Stern looked at Applejack and then took a few steps toward the window next to them. The eternal twilight glowed on his face and reflected off his golden armor. What he said next sent a shiver down Applejack's spine.

"I know about the Centaur invasion. Shining Armor briefed me on the intelligence you provided. How you came into possession of something like it, I cannot even imagine." He turned back towards Applejack. "You know as well as I do that these degenerates will not be able to protect Equestria once the enemy arrives. Please reconsider my proposition, Guardian Applejack. You need to choose right, for the sake of all Equestria." Stern bowed to her and left, rounding the corner and walking back towards the lecture hall.

Applejack did not reply. She silently watched as Stern walked away. His words had hit their mark and planted a seed of doubt deep in her heart. Maybe the Captain was right. Maybe the gathering had been a bad idea. It was all decided a thousand years ago. How could Celestia have known what would happen to them and what they would need in a thousand years? Maybe ponies just were less selfish and scared back then.

Applejack stepped over to the window Stern had stared out of and slumped on the windowsill. From this point of view, you could see Castle Canterlot, beautiful and imposing in the setting sun.

Twilight. She thought. How could you do this to me? Asking me to protect Equestria and then abandoning me. Why did it have to be me, I'm just a dumb farm pony, all I know is growing apples. How could you place such a burden on me? The pain in her heart made it hard to breathe.

Shining armor finally found her. He had done his best to smooth things out with the Gathering to the best of his abilities. The pair left the magic school in an awkward silence. Now that she was out of the hospital Shining Armor had arranged for Applejack to stay at his and Twilight's parents' house for the time being. The large house was not far away from the Castle, standing at the corner of a busy street interjection. Twilight Velvet and Night Light welcomed her with smiles and open hooves, but she could tell they were just as devastated as she was by the disappearance of their daughter and daughter-in-law. Applejack had always thought having an alicorn for a daughter would be the most reassuring feeling in the world, but it seems parents will always fret for their children, even if she's one of the most powerful beings in the world.

After a fantastic dinner of baked stuffed potatoes and homemade carrot juice, Applejack headed upstairs to the guest room and plopped down on her ready-made bed. She was tired and her muscles ached. She closed her eyes and just lay on the bed unmoving. The burden of it all was starting to get too heavy. Protecting Equestria had always felt much easier with her friends by her side. She forced herself back up and went to sit on the lazy boy by the window. He rested her cheek on her hoof, propped up on the armrest, and once again stared out at the window towards the castle. What luck, she could admire the tallest tower standing defiant in the red radiance. It made her sick.

Applejack sat in silence and thought about her friends. They had always known what to do when Applejack felt ignorant and weak. Rarity would have never in her life lost her cool like she had, at least not until she was well and clear out of earshot. Not when the pressure was on and everyone was counting on her. Most of the time.

It was probably for the best Rainbow Dash hadn't been there, Applejack smirked. She would have started kicking all kinds of flank until the entire room agreed to get the search going. Pinkie's compulsive need to throw parties probably would have ended with the entire Gathering covered in cake. Applejack snorted half-heartedly. Now that would have been funny.

Fluttershy. Kindness doesn't come easy to no pony except you. Aside from Twilight, she might have been the one Applejack missed the most. What would you have said? That everyone in that room was afraid, that they all needed a little kindness and hope. Maybe then they wouldn't have been so afraid to help.

Twilight. Twilight... What would you have done? Read the rules a million times and then played the game perfectly by them? Of course, that's what you would do. Read the rules a trillion times and then figure out a way to outsmart them all. Know the rules, that's how you win a game. The rules...

The rules!

Applejack's eyes flew wide open. A bolt of lightning had hit her brain. She jumped out of the chair. It was so simple! At that moment she knew exactly how to get rid of the Gathering.

Chapter 5: Shine Eternal

How long had she been in Canterlot? A week? Two days? Three weeks?

Maybe Granny Smith had been right. Maybe there was something about the permanent twilight. Something was slowly scraping the insides of her head.

The last few nights had been especially tormenting, the soft glow permeated everything and disturbed her sleep. She hadn't had any dreams either, which for some reason made her more sleepy. Or nightmares. Maybe fears and terrors of the night couldn't fit in a pony's head together with that infernal glow. Applejack shook her head. Now she was having crazy thoughts.

She was lying back against the front stairs of the Canterlot palace, her elbows resting on the steps. Applejack was waiting for her new acquaintances.

She raised her face directly up and looked at the sky. Her hat flopped backward on the stairs. Sometimes you could almost see the stars twinkling through the red haze. She looked back down. No sign of the replacement soldier Shinging had sent to aid her in his stead or Black Creek, the artifact expert from the school of magic. The inner courtyard was as empty as it had been when she got there.

As soon as Applejack had received the key to the palace she rushed directly back to Shining's parent's house. She had found him there preparing to leave, just as he had told her back at the magic school. Even minutes before leaving he was elbow-deep in paperwork. Those city ponies in the committees loved their inventory lists and purchasing orders. Before leaving he did tell Applejack more about the pony he'd asked to be his replacement. His name was Dull Pauldron, and he was from the prestigious Life Company of the Royal Guard. They were the guards responsible for the safety of the Princesses when traveling outside Equestria. Only the most loyal guards were recruited into the Life Company, so he felt comfortable leaving Applejack alone in Equestria.

Hopefully, this one wasn't a stick-up-the-hoohaa kinda pony some of the other guards were, Applejack thought. Stern wasn't half bad, but his obsession with Celestia and formality was not her bale of hay. However, loyalty was something she appreciated. Especially now that Rainbow Dash was gone. She missed her.

Shining had already sent for his replacement before she had arrived. The guard pony coming to her help scrounging for the staff would also fetch Black Creek from the magic school. They would meet at the palace doors. Applejack and Shining had then exchanged goodbye hugs. Shining had been the only friend she had in this city, so his leaving did hurt. Thankfully she had managed to meet some new ponies who could help her.

Speaking of, there they were. Black Creek and one of the biggest pegasi she had ever seen walked through the main gate. The duo headed towards her. The creamy yellow pegasus wasn't as stocky as Ponyville's resident weightlifter, but he was almost a head higher. The giant would have easily given Bulk a run for his money in hoof wrestling. Applejack wouldn't have been surprised if they were related. The Royal Guard armor and the gigantic saddlebag he was carrying didn't help with his already gigantic stature.

Applejack stood back on four legs and trotted to greet them.

"Howdy Black Creek, who's your new friend?"

The huge pegasi gave her a winged salute and greeted her. Applejack's hat almost fell off as the boat sail-sized wing whipped to attention.

"Ma'am Guardian Applejack Ma'am sir Ma'am, Lieutenant Dull Pauldron reporting for duty."

"Nice ta meetcha Dull. No need for pleasantries, just Applejack's fine."

"Yessir Ma'am Applejack. I mean, yessir Applejack."

He lowered his wing and grabbed the bag he was carrying on his back with it.

"Here you go, Black Creek."

"Thanks, Mister Paul- Oof!"

The bag landed on Black Creek with a thud. His legs almost gave out under the weight. The bag clattered with the sound of metal and glass.

"Whatcha got there Black Creek?"

He adjusted the oversized bag on his haunches with effort.

"A few select artifacts I felt could be useful. Considering casting magic is currently impossible, artifacts 'are', 'in', 'fact' -'" Black Creek winked. "- the only way to use magic. And I happen to know everything about them."

Black Creek's smugness was dampened by the weight of the bag slowly crushing him.

"Just the type of pony Ah need. Did ya have trouble getting here?"

"As a matter of fact, we did. The guards have started acting peculiarly. They're stopping and searching everypony. Even us! They would have taken my bag if Mister Pauldron here hadn't been there."

Applejack looked over his shoulder at the massive bag and raised an eyebrow.

"You sure do seem keen on them magical do-hickeys. You sure we're going to need all of them?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised. It took me hours to prepare everything. Anything a wizard can do, an artifact can often do better. Add to that their wonderful history, their ability to bestow amazing powers to anyone without prejudice, or how every piece is in a way a reflection of the soul of its creator. They're fantastic!"

He blushed and crossed his hooves.

"That, and I never was very good at casting magic."

"It's our blessing then that you weren't. Now giddy up colts, We've got a farm and Equestria to save!"

She kicked her front legs in the air and started running up the steps. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek followed, the other a tad slower under the weight of his equipment.

Applejack opened the front doors of the palace with the key she had gotten from Stern. The huge doors swung open. Before them opened up the Royal Palace, which had been empty and abandoned since the Princesses disappeared. Not long enough for cobwebs to start forming, but long enough for dust to start gathering. She led the other two ponies towards the maintenance crew quarters, down a flight of stairs, and into the deep and dank bowels of the Canterlot Castle.

Applejack had prepared a torch for the descent, but Black Creek's bag thankfully contained a very handy bright light orb, which floated above them and lit up the path forward. As they dwelled deeper, the catacombs got bigger and bigger, culminating in a giant vaulted cavern. The clops of the hooves echoed through the empty The bottom was shrouded in darkness, and only a gentle sloshing and dripping of a lot of water could be heard. They continued the path that had been hewn into the side of the cavern. The drop was terrifying, and the lack of railings didn't help.

"I reckon this here's where they keep all the clean water they use upside. Wonder where it comes from."

Black Creek did not reply to her question. He desperately clung to the wall, not daring to go near the edge. The side of his belongings scraped against the stone masonry. Dull Pauldron was unfazed, more interested in the light orb floating above them. The path they took would take them to the center of the catacombs, a place Twilight had described to them once in her castle. The instructions had been clear. She was going to have a vault built right under the palace, next to the underground reservoir. The way in was a simple tunnel hewn to the wall of the rampart they were walking on. The tunnel was about a hundred feet deep. There they'd find a metal door to a room with an entrance to the artifact vault.

"This here's it ya'll." Just as Twilight had said. At the end of the simple rock-hewn tunnel was a metal door. She and Dull Pauldron pushed it open. The heavy metal door opened up to a simple, perfectly rectangular room all sides twenty feet long. The walls themselves were made out of seamless granite blocks. The crystalline specks in the granite made the room glitter in the light of Black Creek's light caster.

"Impressive containment structure." The black-bearded wizard said, looking around the room. "The monolithic structure and mineral mix of granite absorbs and deflects magic better than almost any other material, except maybe silver alloys. It's also very difficult for would-be criminals to dig through."

"Yup. That's why we ain't going to even try." Applejack took a step forward. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek followed. "Twilight was a genius when it came to magical stuff, but she had the common sense of a flock of chickens."

Applejack walked across the monotonous stone room to the other side where a single horseshoe-shaped crevice broke the surface of the otherwise smooth wall. She raised her hoof and put it on the crevice. A second later small holes, unseen before, started glowing with light. Applejack heard the dull sound of a mechanism moving and locking into place behind the stone blocks.

"So we helped her design the place. Never been here before m'self, but I know the gist. We spent an entire night in her castle planning it."

A light shone on the wall to the right of them and another horseshoe-shaped crevice appeared. "It's all real simple like. The first lock opens when Twilight or any of her friends puts their hoof on it. The second locks a magic word lock." Applejack strutted to the wall, happy as a pig in mud, and spoke into the hole. "Flurry Heart." Again small pinholes in the wall lit up, and a third horseshoe appeared on the wall opposite.

Applejack couldn't help but smile. Everything was going according to plan. Black Creek and Dull Pauldron were standing in awe as she unlocked the room piece by piece like it was nothing. It's a good thing Twilight had trusted her and the others so much.

She headed over to the third horseshoe. "The third an' final one's the easiest. All you've got to do is look into the horseshoe. Twilight says every pony has eyes that are unique to them, so the lock knows exactly who you are. Not even changelings can get through this one." She stopped in front of the crevice, took off her hat, and looked into the hole with one eye. Predictably the wall lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree and they could hear a third lock shift into position.

Applejack flipped her hat back on her head and turned towards the first wall, expecting another light show.

Nothing happened.

"Huh?" Applejack looked confused.

Dull Pauldron and Black Creek stood silently, not daring to speak up.

Applejack trotted over to where she expected the wall to open up and reveal Twilight's stash of dangerous magical artifacts.

"What the hay is going on?" She stood up on her hind legs and pushed on the wall. "It's supposed to open after the third magic doodad." She kept stomping at the door, expecting it to swing open at any moment.

Dull Pauldron and Black Creek shifted around awkwardly until Dull Pauldron spoke up. "Um, Ma'am Applejack, are you sure there isn't a fourth lock you need to open?"

"No! Twilight said she put in three so there are only three. That's what we had agreed on." Applejack was getting frustrated. Why wasn't it working? She did everything just as Twilight had explained. Did she go behind everyone's back and add a fourth lock?

"No, she wouldn't. She trusts us."

"Ma'am Applejack..."

Applejack stomped for the final time, her hooves hitting the heavy stone with a solid thud. Nothing changed. She leaned her head against the wall in frustration, gritting her teeth. She looked directly down.

There it was, the fourth horseshoe. Right under the first one on the floor. Twilight, did you add a fourth one without telling us? Why?

Applejack raised her right back leg and put it on the fourth horseshoe. Nothing at first, and then small lights appeared on the floor. This time they were red. The room started to shake violently.

Applejack had to steady herself against the wall to stop herself from falling over. Dull Pauldron and Black Creek stood spread-legged, struggling to stay upright. Then the rumble stopped, and the red lights started flashing slowly. On and off, on and off. Applejack pushed herself away from the wall and ran to the metal door on the other side they had come in from. It was closed. She tried the handle.

"Tarnation, it's locked." She turned back around to look at her questing buddies.

Dull Pauldron was sitting on the floor, holding his tail and rocking back and forth. "I have to admit Ma'am, I don't much like being locked underground, not at all. " He wasn't going to be any help, but Black Creek seemed to be up to something. He had stuffed his head inside the large bag he had dragged along with him and rummaged inside. He pulled out what looked like a wagon wheel with three long spikes jutting out of it. He held it in his teeth with one of the spikes pointed forward and the other two backward to his sides.

"What's that?"

"One of my havori'e a'ifac's." Black Creek spoke with the object in his teeth. "I uf i' almof' e'ery day. It re'ealfs 'he 'haumau'hic lines whih di'ect 'he flou of mahic, mafes i' eafy to fiks 'hingf."

Applejack regretted asking.

Black Creek walked over to the fourth horseshoe. As he brought the object close the frontal spike started glowing cold blue. Lines of purple light appeared inside and around the mechanism and the stone surrounding it, glowing through, as if the blocks had turned partially transparent.

"Mmmmf. In'e'esting." Black Creek pointed at a line that projected away from the wall and towards the middle of the room. Black Creek walked into the middle. The line went all the way to the middle, where it started descending in a spiral formation. A complex and dramatically drawn magic circle lit up. "I go' i'." He dropped the artifact back into his large bag.

"There's no door, it's a currently inactive short-range teleportation glyph."

"Where does it go?"

"I would hazard a guess of about forty or fifty feet underground. Perfectly reasonable, the deeper the vault, the more inaccessible it is. And since we're sitting on top of a mountainside it's all surrounded by solid stone on all sides. No danger of magical leaks."

"And how do we use it?"

"All it needs is a spark of magic to activate, nothing else. The only problem is that the glyph is here, and the interstice is over there." He pointed at the fourth horseshoe. "So the one who activates the glyph does not get to use it. It needs an operator who stays behind."

Applejack had a realization. "Or can jump in after by themselves."

"Well yes, technically of course, but your average unicorn is nowhere powerful or skillful enough to cast a relocation spell into a solid space they cannot see or sense in any way."

"But Twilight's not your average unicorn."

Applejack had mixed feelings. Of course, Twilight had not forgotten her friends, but again her brain had gone before common sense, like wagon before pony. How did she expect her friends to ever get in without her? That had been the entire point of planning this vault together. She let out an exasperated sigh. No time to cry, she decided to just have to give her a kick on the flank when she comes back. Right now she needed to focus on the staff.

"Then let's get to it. Reckon you got a contraption in there that could give us the spark we need?"

"That's an interesting question. Maybe if I take the lens off the lesser elemental condenser I might be able to-"

The room rumbled again. The red lights on the floor stopped blinking. A magical voice reverberated through the room. It spoke with the voice of Twilight Sparkle.

"-How does this, okay, it's on now. Hold it steady Spike. He-hem. Dear intruders. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle speaking. You should not be there, I mean here, that is, where you are currently. The golems will keep you company until the castle guards arrive. Please do not resist, and have a nice day. Was that too rude? Not rude enough? What do you mean Sp-"

As soon as the magical voice stopped, four sliding doors opened up in the roof of the room, and with a heavy thud, four piles of rock fell from each one of them. Dull Pauldron screamed and jumped up. Black Creek just looked confused, unfamiliar with being in any kind of real danger.

"Golems? No one mentioned Golems! Wait, did I bring my discombobulator with me? Please tell me I did!" His head disappeared into his bag.

Applejack took a low stance, her hooves spread out and back legs ready. She narrowed her eyes and stared at the piles of rocks. A zap of electricity flickered between the rocks, then another. Soon they rose, being propped up by the bluish lighting crackling between the individual pieces, forming into a crude mimicry of a pony. The rock ponies had them surrounded on all four sides, but they did not move.

Applejack took a careful step forward. The round, eyeless heads of the rock golems instantly moved toward her direction. She took another step. The rock golems took two rapid steps toward her.

"You find that discombombator yet Blacks?"

"Give me a second! I swear I packed it!"

"Dull?"

"Heee! I can't stand their faceless heads staring at us, oh my Celestia."

"Oh for Pete's sake."

The rock golems' attention shifted to the wizard stomping around and rummaging through his bag. The constructs started walking towards him in unison, but before they could reach him Applejack sprinted forward and managed to get right next to the one closest to her. She went low, spun around, and kicked the artificial rocky pony straight to the side of its figureless head. The stone skull rocketed right off its shoulders and bounced off the ceiling, striking sparks along the way. The rock pony fell apart, reverting to a pile of roundly shaped rocks. The three other golems changed their direction in perfect unison and came straight toward Applejack.

The second one came at her from behind. Big mistake. Another swift kick from McGillicuddy & McGee sent the second rock pony flying backward, where it violently smashed against the wall, falling apart. The third golem moved unnaturally fast behind her, attempting to grab her with its two cylindrical appendages. Dull Pauldron appeared out of nowhere and body-slammed the construct before it could lay a single stony hoof on Applejack. The fourth rock pony charged her, but she pressed her legs against the floor and jumped right over it, landing on its rocky back. Applejack grabbed its rocky tail with her front legs and wrapped her back legs around its waist. The brainless construct didn't know what to do and just started jumping and bucking like a wild bull at the rodeo.

"Yeehaww! Now we're talking!" Applejack hung on and rode the rocky stallion with the talent of a professional rodeo pony.

As she kept the fourth golem occupied and Dull Pauldron wrestled with the third one Black Creek was left unmolested to find his combo-whatchamacallit. Then she heard the concerning sound of stone scarping and rolling against the floor. The first and second golems she thought she had put out to pasture were starting to reform. The smooth round stones climbed over each other and rearranged back into their crude equine form.

"Jumping Junebugs! Blacks! Where's that combubator?"

A muffled shouting from Black Creek's bag did not alleviate her fears.

The two golems had reformed. They started walking towards her and their rodeo-victimized colleague. The fourth golem finally kicked too hard, almost straight up, and Applejack flew off. She landed with a painful smack and a wallop on the hard stone floor.

"Ooof..." All air had been punched right out of her. All she could do was watch as the three pony golems started approaching her, probably with malicious intent.

Then she heard the sound of a hammer breaking a vase. One of the golems stopped and simply fell apart. The stones lay inertly on the floor, no magic sparks between them. Then another sound of a vase breaking and another golem fell apart. Two more screeching sounds and all the golems were down for the count, just four piles of useless rocks. She stood up. Dull Pauldron looked confused under a pile of smooth rocks, which had just been a commendable wrestling opponent.

Applejack turned towards Black Creek. He was standing on his back legs, with a round metal ball in his hooves. The inlaid brass rings on it pointed toward the now defeated artificial guardians. His hooves were shaking, barely holding on to the discombobulator.

"Nice work partner."

"T-t-thanks Applejack." He fell backward on his flank.

"Hoowee! What a show, I even got to ride a bucking bronco! Great work boys."

She trotted over to Black Creek and helped him back on his hooves.

"But seriously though, I'm going to tan Twilight's hide when she gets back."

The next step of their adventure was simple. Dull Pauldron would stay behind and activate the glyph with Black Creek's modified artifact. In 20 minutes he'd do it again, and then every 5 minutes. Applejack wasn't completely on board with the plan since she'd just met the pony whose hooves they were putting their lives into, but there was no other choice. She wasn't going to let Black Creek go alone, but she also needed his artifact expertise. Protect Equestria, she thought, as the glyph sparked under them. She blinked once and the room around them changed.

The room they found themselves in was much larger than the one above them, at least five or six times as big. Standing in the middle of the round room they were greeted with rows and rows of artifacts. The shelves radiated from the middle where they were standing, in the shape of spokes on a wheel. Applejack looked around. This was all sitting right under their flanks, an entire warehouse of extremely dangerous artifacts. No wonder Twilight had put extra effort into guarding it. As they stepped off the glyph platform teal fire appeared in cups around the room, lighting the room sickly light green.

Black Creek was floored. He let go of his bag and started running back and forth between the shelves. He had never seen so many powerful artifacts before, but here they now were, right under his snout. Applejack let him have his fun. He looked like how she felt when she attended the apple exhibit at the Equestrian Farmers convention. She started going through the shelves too.

Light flickered on the metal shelves. Glass panels kept the artifacts insulated away from both the looker and each other. She walked by rows and rows of magical rings, knives, daggers, amulets, hats, and statues. Most of them are evil, or at least dangerous. There was even a familiar-looking broken bell in one of the cabinets. Some other artifacts she recognized from their adventures, but it was clear some had been collected by Celestia long before Twilight's time.

Black Creek was starting to calm down. He had stumbled back to his bag and was now laying on it breathing heavily. He was over the moon. "I can't believe this! So many legendary artifacts! Sultan Shakra's snakeskin sandals! The alicorn feather duster! The Sword Named Death of All Who Stands In My Way and Some Behind Them! Incredible! Everyone thought these were lost forever! But don't worry, I do remember why we are here." He shimmied over to the mouth of the bag and pulled out a small wand. "I do hope you'll let me come back here after this is all done."

He scrambled back up.

"Now, let's see if my intuition was right."

He held the wand in his mouth and tapped it against the floor. The wand lit up, the light growing brighter by the second. Black Creek put his hoof back in the bag and pulled out a much smaller bag. "Got to wrap it in some insulation, the metrics in here are off the charts." He dropped the wand lit tip first into the bag and turned it around. The fabric dimmed the light enough for there to be a visible difference as he spun it around in different directions of the round room. The wand finally hit its peak illumination when he pointed it toward a set of shelves that were surrounded by piles of abandoned boxes and crates.

"Over here." Black Creek hopped over to the piles of containers. Some piles reached high enough to almost touch the ceiling. A pony could just barely fit through the space in between. He squeezed through one gap. Applejack followed close behind him. The tight space was covered in dust, and the deeper they burrowed the dustier it got.

"Woah! It's picking up something big!"

Applejack could see the light from the wand shine from behind all the boxes. She finally shoved through to where Black Creek was. Flank to flank in the tight space, they stood in front of the most mundane-looking dresser. The wand in his hoof was vibrating and glowing hot.

"Really?" Applejack said.

"Umm. That's what the wand says." Black Creek was getting nervous and sweaty. She could smell it. "I guess we better open it?"

She reached for the left door as he reached for the right one. They pulled together, and the dresser opened up. Inside, wrapped unceremoniously in brown paper and tied with a piece of string, was something shaped like a staff. Applejack could not believe it. It couldn't be this. What kind of a pony leaves something as powerful as this just lying around in the back of a dresser?

Black Creek, now completely mesmerized by their discovery, reached out and grabbed the long package. Together they managed to half push, half crawl back through the boxes. Black Creek didn't even bother dusting himself off and rushed to place the package on one of the tables in the center, close to the teleportation glyph. He opened it as Applejack finished slapping the dust off her hide and trotted over to the table.

There it lay. A masterpiece of ancient ponish crafting, every inch of the beautiful redwood transcribed with perfectly inlaid and symmetrical runes. The staff was twice the height of a pony, but light as a feather. On the top end was inlaid a giant red ruby, cut brilliantly round. It was simple, elegant, and brimming with power. Even Applejack, an earth pony, could almost feel the magical force around the artifact.

"Well butter mah biscuits. It's real."

Black Creek was almost salivating over their finding.

"You were right. This is it."

Black Creek traced his hoof carefully across the shaft of the Sunstaff.

"It's perfect. Look at the craftsponyship. The carving quality, the perfect undulation from the focal point to the primaris anchor. The size of that conduit. Oh dear sweet Celestia, it's magnificent."

"So how does it work?"

"That's the beautiful part. It's an intention-directed object, wouldn't expect anything else from an artifact of this caliber. All you do is 'point and hope', and the staff takes care of the rest."

"So it can read mah mind?"

"Technically it predicts your intention based on multiple factors including your body language and current center of attention, but yes, in essence."

"Neat."

"I, I think I need to sit back down."

Black Creek staggered over to a pillow on the floor and flopped on it. Applejack kept staring at her reflection in the large ruby embedded in the staff. A thousand Applejacks stared back at her from the many facets of the round gemstone. She had done it. The first step was done. But it wasn't the last.

She stared back at her reflections. The faces reminded her of Twilight. Of her friends. She ground her teeth. No matter how many more it took, she would do everything to get her friends back. But to do that she had to do what Twilight had asked of her. The middle reflection almost looked like Twilight. Her coat looked almost purple as the light of the blue magical fire reflected off the ruby. She was somewhere out there. Applejack could feel it. She'd use every tool available, every pony if she had to, to make sure of it. Equestria would be protected even if she had to drag it to safety by force.

Applejack shook her head. Wait a second. What was she thinking? Using ponies? Applejack closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Why did she think that? Where were these strange ideas coming from?

She grabbed the staff while trying not to think about anything, hoping it wouldn't explode in her face. She motioned Black Creek to follow her. Dull Pauldron would start up the teleportation glyph at any minute. The weakened academic stood on his wobbling legs and walked over next to Applejack. It didn't take long for the glyph to light up around them. Once again as she blinked her eyes, the artifact vault disappeared, and the puzzle room reappeared. Dull Pauldron was waiting for them, the tiny magical artifact looking comically small in his giant hooves.

"How'd it go Ma'am?"

Applejack took the staff out of her teeth, put it on her shoulder, and smiled at him.

"Bullseye, Dull. We hit the bullseye."

The way back up went without a hitch, and the trio soon found themselves back outside the palace. The feeling of escaping the deep dark was dampened by the lack of sunlight, but the fresh air helped make up for it. The quicker she got back to Stern, the sooner she could finally feel the caress of the sun on her face again, Applejack thought.

"Thanks again for the help boys, I'm heading over to Stern right this minute. Blacks, can you go see if Shining Armor is still at his parents' house? I'm sure he'd like to know that we found the first piece of the puzzle. Dull, go with him. Make sure he gets safe back to the school afterward. I have a feeling we're being watched."

"Yessir Ma'am."

"Sure thing, Applejack."

The odd pair took off running, both still high on their first real adventure. Applejack smiled, and headed towards the Royal Guard barracks, the Sunstaff held carefully on her shoulder.

Once she got in, Applejack was escorted by four members of the guard up the stairs back to the Captain's office. They opened the door for her, and she walked in. She saw Stern standing on the balcony through the open balcony door. The wind had blown through the open door and scattered some of his paperwork across the floor. That's strange, Applejack thought. She placed the Sunstaff on the desk and joined Stern outside on the balcony.

"Guardian Applejack, was your expedition a success?"

He didn't even turn around to look at her. Applejack walked to his side. Only then he turned his head towards her.

"Sure was, you can look at the results once we get back inside. I can't thank you enough for letting me in the palace."

"Of course." Stern seemed distracted. As if he had just woken up and was just waiting for the morning coffee to finish brewing.

"Listen Stern." Applejack began. "Glad to see you're pleased as punch, but now we can get rid of the Gathering. The staff on your desk, it's the key to all our problems."

"That sounds wonderful, Guardian Applejack. I was sure there was no way to disband them without the Princess herself."

"No need for the princesses, all we have to do is take the staff and—"

Stern raised a hoof to silence her. His short sandy mane quivered in the wind.

"I am very glad you decided to join me. This will all be much easier now. As for the gathering, I have already taken care of them."

"What the hay are you talkin ab—"

He pointed towards the magic school. Even from high in the tower, Applejack could see rows of the royal guard marching into the building. They returned dragging members of the Gathering out. Some of them got violent. The wind carried the sounds of screaming and shouting up to them. Applejack was stunned.

"What have you done."

"Only what needs to be done."

As the chaos escalated in front of the magic school, the ponies of Canterlot started coming out of their homes to witness the spectacle and crowds started to form around the struggle. Some Gathering members were not going to go down without a fight. The red unicorn Applejack had seen at the gathering meetings was especially vicious, taking down half a dozen guards before getting piled on and dragged off. A few ponies from the bystander crowds joined in the scuffle, trying to tear the guard off the Gathering members. Some of them threw trash and vegetables at the guard. A full-blown riot was festering.

"No! This is not how it was supposed to be done! The ponies of Equestria are not going to go along with this!"

"This joke of a gathering is powerless to execute the only task that matters; finding the Princess. The future of Equestria cannot be jeopardized by such incompetence."

"Stern. This is bigger than Celestia! This is bigger than my friends!" Applejack jumped in front of him. "It took me a while before I realized it! I was so focused on my friends that I wasn't looking at the big picture. There is no sunlight! No magic! No rain! Equestria will not survive if we spend a single moment longer fighting with each other!"

"There is nothing to worry about Guardian Applejack. Once Princess Celestia returns she will fix everything."

"But what if—"

Applejack hesitated. Stern looked directly at her. All amusement had escaped his face.

"What if they don't return?"

Applejack couldn't believe what she was saying. The dark, nagging thought that had stalked her mind ever since the disappearance had finally been spoken out loud. Tears already started forming in her emerald green eyes.

"What if they are gone?"

"What did you say?!" Stern's face was no longer stoic, far from it.

"IF they are gone, then all you're doing is tearing ponies apart for nothing." She wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"I reckon I want them back just as bad as you, but Equestria won't survive if we continue bickering like a couple of fillies over the last slice of apple pie. But now we have the Sunstaff. We can raise the sun without Celestia. We can—"

"Foolishness. I can't believe you are just as weak-willed as those clowns down there, thinking they can mimic the greatness of the Princess. The truth is we are lost without her guidance, blind and ignorant. She must be searched with everything we have. Everything else can wait. "

"I thought so too, for a while. But now I know better. We can't ignore everything else that threatens Equestria. If we do, then there won't be an Equestria for them to return to. We have to help ourselves before we can help them."

"Be quiet you earth pony maggot! This is what you wanted! Bringing the princess back will save Equestria! There is no other option!"

Applejack took a step forward towards Stern.

"But I do understand. I understand that to you it was never about protecting Equestria. You don't care two bits about Equestria. All you care about is Celestia."

"How dare you!"

Stern was now shouting, the words tangling in his throat as he screamed them out.

"CELESTIA IS EQUESTRIA! There is nothing without her! We're nothing without her!"

He lowered his head. For a second Stern looked nothing like the steadfast royal captain he appeared to be, but instead, he reminded Applejack of a lost child, desperately looking for his mother.

"She has to."

He raised his head and stared directly into her eyes. She could see heavy dark bags around his eyes. He had not slept for days. His eyes reflected the unceasing red glow of the cursed twilight, as he tried his best to hold back tears.

"We need her! The Princess will return! She will fix it all! She is the eternal, perfect ruler of Equestria!"

"No. She ain't perfect. None of us are."

Stern was finally overcome by bitter rage. He let out a cry, turned around, and kicked his armored back legs directly toward Applejack's head. Applejack pulled herself down and dodged him. The steel greaves scraped the top of her hat. With a low spin and twist of her body, she pushed against the floor with her front legs and bucked right at Stern's chest plate. Her hooves connected. Applejack felt a rib break as the armor gave way and caved in.

Stern was launched through the air and back inside through the balcony door and though his office. The furniture fell over with a thunderous crash as he slammed into them before finally being stopped by the heavy desk. Applejack ran after him. Stern lay on the floor, paperwork and appliances scattered around the room, gasping for air. Before Applejack could find a way to escape, the guards outside rushed in. They darted towards Applejack. She got a couple of good kicks in as she tried to reach for the Sunstaff, but the stallions managed to wrestle her down and tie her up. The Sunstaff was left lying on the floor right next to her.

Stern got up, moaning in pain and clutching at his side. He coughed up something into his hooves. It wasn't strawberry jam. He slowly lurched towards the Sunstaff, reached over, and propped himself up against it. Applejack could only stare furiously at him as the guards held her down.

"Take this traitor to the dungeons."

The guards dragged the struggling Applejack through the door and out of the captain's office without a word. They were not gentle as they dragged her down the stairs and into the depths of the castle.

Chapter 6: Upheaval

The guards were not especially considerate as they dragged Applejack down the stairs of the Captain's Tower and into the darkness below. This was probably because she had been able to land more than one solid kick on them before they had managed to subdue her. The four guards, three of them limping, clearly felt uncomfortable with the situation. Arresting a guardian of harmony after she attacked their captain was unheard of. Still, they did their job with professional discretion.

On the ground floor of the guard barracks was the doorway to the dungeons, a labyrinthine underground structure that encompassed the entire underside of the castle. The black iron hinges whined as the thick oak door swung open. Applejack couldn't believe what was happening. The Captain of the Guard had committed a coup. Before she had bucked Stern right across his office she had seen the guards beat up and drag members of the gathering off somewhere. This dungeon was probably where she'd find them. The solid stone walls gleamed with moisture as the torches flickered. A musty wind blew out of the dark depths. She tried twisting and kicking to break free, but to no avail.

After being dragged from one hallway to another, Applejack and the guards finally arrived at her designated cell. The guards removed her bindings and kicked her in. She landed softly on the hay-covered floor. Applejack immediately stood up and charged at the door, but her captors had already locked it shut. A few rebellious kicks at the solid steel door did nothing but shake mortar off the walls. The guards trotted away, leaving Applejack panting in the torchlight.

"Gosh. Huff. Darnit."

She had struggled to get free with all her strength, but four against one had been too much. At least they respected her enough not to underestimate her. Besides, she could've taken them if she hadn't been hogtied. At least that's what she kept telling herself as she clung to the bars, looking down the hall as the guards vanished into the darkness.

"I say, if it isn't Miss Applejack. I see Rarity isn't the only one who knows how to make an entrance."

Applejack spun around, beads of sweat flying raining from her mane. There was another pony in the cell with her. A stallion rose from one of the bunks standing next to the stone walls. The blue mane, the sophisticated manner of speech, and the classy tuxedo were unmistakable. Even if his outfit was a tad frayed and crumpled.

"Fancy Pants?"

"In the flesh, Miss Applejack."

His greetings were interrupted as he coughed into his sleeve.

"Please excuse me. The air down here is absolute murder on the old windpipes."

"How'd you end up here?"

Applejack was still stunned by his sudden appearance.

"The last time I saw you was a couple of days ago at the gathering."

"Our good captain had me thrown in here after one of those delightful meetings. Something about being a 'dangerous agitator' and a 'demagogue'. I've carried quite many labels but a traitor to the realm is a new one."

Fancy Pants walked over to the single cracked mirror, framed over a small bubbling water fountain, the only one in the cell. His mane, always well-coiffed when out in public, was starting to lose its luster and volume. It was a miracle he had kept it as well-groomed as it was, down here in the dungeons.

"And even after I always make sure to invite him to my delightful evening getaways. What a shame, always too busy with work to unwind and socialize. No pony was surprised when he was promoted to Captain, but I do believe his zealous dedication is partly to blame for his current breakdown. "

"Breakdown? He's gone nuttier than a squirrel's pants about bringing back Celestia! The gathering, he had the guard arrest them!"

"It's just what I was worried about. I'm certainly not a healthcare professional, but during my meetings with him, I did sense a certain, how would you say, instability in his behavior. Out of sheer professional courtesy, I took the matter up with him. After a very intense and nonsensical speech about the dear missing Princess and the fate of Equestria, he had me thrown in here quite unceremoniously."

Fancy Pants kept working on his mane, attempting to get it to stay up with pure willpower and tap water.

"But arresting the rest of the Gathering, how strangely bold. Wonder what finally gave him the courage to go through with his power grab."

Applejack sat down on the stone floor. She cast her eyes down and stared at the cracks in the floor.

"Me. He was waiting for me. He thought I was gonna help him."

"Well, aren't we lucky you didn't."

"I was going to, ya know. I was just as blind as he was. Thought only saving my friends mattered."

"Ah yes, and then you saw the infamous big picture. It does have a bad habit of putting a damper on personal quests and goals. I am glad you did however, with you on his side he would have succeeded."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Fancy Pants abandoned his futile attempts to prop up his mane with sink water alone and turned towards her.

"Miss Applejack, with all due respect, you are the last remaining element of harmony. Of honesty no less. With your support, the popular opinion would have been entirely on his side."

"That's crazy talk. No pony gives a flying feather what I think."

"I disagree most vehemently, Miss Applejack. We are living in uncertain and turbulent times. Strangers are at our doors ordering us around and telling us how to live, old institutions of safety have been found weak and wanting. The sky itself bleeds red and magic is gone, maybe for good. The cornerstones of our fair land, the Princesses, have disappeared. I do not remember Equestria ever having faced such an amalgamation of disaster. Ponies are rightfully scared out of their minds."

He turned back around and stared at his visage in the broken mirror.

"And worst of all, I am running out of my favorite imported mane grooming product. Tragic."

Fancy Pants looked back at Applejack and winked cheekily.

"So naturally ponies seek safety from familiar faces. Such as yours."

Applejack was starting to get frustrated. She paced around the cell, kicking hay and grumbling. Fancy Pants ceased his hygiene attempts and sat down on his bunk. Applejack kept pacing.

"So what? Just cause they know who I am makes them think I make decisions for them? That I know what's best for 'em? Ya'll want me to take over? To sit on that hoity-toity throne and pretend like ah know exactly what's going on? What a load of horse apples."

"It would be an upgrade to our current startup no doubt, but first things first. The good Captain must be stopped."

"Now that's what I want to hear. He'll tear all of Equestria down to look for Celestia."

"Quite. Now, where did you last see him? Did he ask you anything else other than your support?"

"I went to see him. I had something I thought he needed, that we needed."

"What was it?"

"A staff that can raise the sun..."

Fancy Pants sat still for a second. He then continued, as if the explosive revelation was completely obvious.

"Naturally, I expected nothing less from a Guardian of Harmony. When you save Equestria you certainly don't hold back. So what happened? Does he plan on using it? Or will he lock it up in his zealous loyalty to Celestia and start marching around Equestria looking under pebbles and bushes for them?

"He took it once I told him off, but he ain't going to use it. He's got some issues with it. Also, he might not walk for a while, not after our last meeting."

"Ooh, how dramatic. How bad was it?"

"Just a broken rib, hopefully. I honestly didn't expect the armor to fold in that easily."

"Mostly ceremonial my dear, some of it's just brass."

Applejack turned around and grabbed the bars of her cell. Fancy Pants got off the bunk and joined her.

"Tarnation. I ain't going to buck this open. It's too heavy. Need to figure some other way out."

"I have followed the guards as they make their nightly patrols, and I believe I could —"

He was cut off by the sound of a heavy crash, which vibrated through the hallway. Then another. A pony shouted in the distance. Applejack and Fancy Pants both craned their necks through the bars to see what was going on. The sound of shouting was replaced with the sound of footsteps racing towards them. Half a dozen ponies rounded a corner and dashed right past their cell, before comically skidding to a halt once the leader noticed Applejack. It was none other than Silky Smooth. She was followed by a bunch of ponies from the Gathering, one of them being the large red unicorn. Applejack and Fancy Pants stared at them. They stared back in silence. The red unicorn spoke first.

"Well well, lookie here. If it ain't my favorite earthy in this entire slagging city. How are you doing doll?"

Applejack could only stare at them dumbfounded.

"Oh, right. Never had the pleasure to make with the acquaintances."

The red unicorn dusted himself off, walked over to their cell, and extended his heavy hoof.

"The name's Street Sweeper." "

Applejack shook his hoof, still dumbstruck.

"Now let's get the two of ya outta there."

Street Sweeper pulled out a keyring from his frock coat. He started going through the keys looking for the right key to their cell. The rest of the Gathering ponies had arranged into two groups and kept watch towards both ends of the hallway. Silky Smooth was whispering orders to them. Street Sweeper grunted as he found the right key. He pushed it in and the lock clanked open. Applejack and Fancy Pants stepped out. Silky Smooth turned towards them.

"Miss Applejack. A pleasure.

She finally noticed Fancy Pants.

"And... You..."

Fancy Pants didn't skip a beat.

"Silky Smooth my dear, lovely to run into you."

He was met with a stare cold enough to wilt roses.

"Quite."

Applejack felt the tension between them, but now was not the time for personal drama.

"I, um. Nice to meet ya'll. I'm Applejack. Now, which way outta here?"

Fancy Pants interjected.

"Please fillies and gentle-colts, if you would follow me. I know these dungeons like the back of my fetlocks."

He pointed towards the opposite way the escaping ponies had barreled through from.

"The coal door next to the castle wall is an excellent way to sneak out undetected."

Silky Smooth and Street Sweeper looked at each other and nodded. Street Sweeper tapped him on his shoulder.

"After you, buddy."

The Applejack and the rest of the escapees followed Fancy Pants as they raced through the twisting hallways of the dungeon. Cell after cell swept past them. What did Celestia need all these cells for, Applejack thought, as she ran close behind the rest. Finally, after a couple of flights of stairs, they barged into an abandoned maintenance room. High on the wall, right next to the ceiling, was a small door just large enough for a pony to squeeze through. The group started stacking chairs and boxes. They quickly had a makeshift ladder, and carefully climbed their way up. The rusty hinges of the utility door creaked as Applejack and the rest pulled themselves out into fresh air.

They found themselves on a side street, located right under the inner walls of the castle, which separated the palace and castle grounds from the rest of Canterlot City. The other three ponies who had escaped with them raced off down the street without saying a word and disappeared. Applejack, Fancy Pants, Silky Smooth, and Street Sweeper were left standing there. The sounds of unrest and fighting echoed through the buildings. Multiple pillars of smoke were rising on the horizon.

Silky Smooth looked around frustrated. Her pale green mane had streaks of black from the dirt and the coal dust they had crawled through. The façade of a composed and emotionless mare Applejack had seen at the gathering had completely fallen off. The metal gray earth pony ground her teeth.

"The peanut brain sent his muscle out on the streets to round up the other gathering members. We need to find a safe place to recollect ourselves."

Street Sweeper dusted himself off.

"Not a bad idea Silky. My throat's dry as parchment from all this running around."

Fancy Pants through for a second, and then clapped his hoof on the ground.

"I know, we can pop around the corner. There's a lovely little tea shop right there. The purveyor will most certainly let us catch our breath and maybe even have a spot of afternoon tea."

Having no better alternatives, the ragtag group once again followed Fancy Pants. Applejack kept staring at the smoke rising around them. The shouting and noise only got louder as they went deeper into the city.

The 'little teashop', as Fancy had described it, was very much the opposite. The elegant tea room took twice the space of the shops around it and was fancy, even by Canterlot standards. The place looked closed, with the terrace and garden completely emptied and the windows closed and shuttered. Fancy Pants trotted confidently over to the door and gave it a light tap, and then another. The peephole on the door opened. An eye looked him over and the door opened. A wizened old unicorn in a smart vest opened the door. He gestured them inside.

The tea room was even more impressive on the inside. Elegant woodwork with flowing floral patterns decorated the pillars and the booths of the shop. The floors were covered by patterned wool carpets, and herbs of all kinds hung from the ceiling. It would have been even more impressive if the lights had been on and the entire tea room wasn't devoid of customers.

The only source of light was a candle held by the proprietor of the place. Fancy Pants exchanged a few pleasantries with the pony and asked him to bring them a pitcher of water and something to eat. The pony nodded, lit another candle for them, and disappeared into the kitchen.

Fancy Pants took the candle and set it on the table closest to them. Everyone pulled up chairs and sat down. Applejack looked at her fellow escapees. Big red, the unicorn named Street Sweeper, sat down with a grunt and loosened his frock coat. Silky Smooth held her torn dress up and sat down elegantly. Her wide-brimmed must have been left in the dungeons. Fancy Pants acted just as he always did, with a sophisticated, if slightly unconcerned air of class. Applejack didn't bother with keeping up appearances and just pulled the chair under her bottom, put one elbow over the backrest, and stared at the ponies around the table. She was beaten up, tired, and still quite peeved off by Stern's sudden coat turn. Most of all she wanted to know what the hay was going on. Silky Smooth started.

"There is nothing much to say. We were in the middle of our meeting on irrigation channels when the guards suddenly kicked the door down. Unlike some other ponies at this table, I didn't bother fighting back."

Street Sweeper continued.

"You missed out on a right wallop Silky. Those colts in gold can take a pounding. Not like the ones back home in Fillydelphia. There they'll drag you down to the precinct, strap ya to a chair and only then give you a pounding. But the ones here are old school. Love it! Taught them a thing or two before they turned my lights. Eye of the dragon baby!"

"Once Mister Sweeper managed to get his 'lights turned off' they dragged us into the dungeons. The Captain must have thought the gathering would stand up to his coup and targeted us first. Committee leaders and spoke ponies. Anyone who could try and stop him."

Silky Smooth started tapping the wooden table with her hoof. The tapping accelerated. Her usually calm face turned into a grimace as she ground her teeth. She started swaying back and forth while whispering to herself.

"Stupid mistake. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should have seen it coming. Stupid. Should've seen it coming. Stupid mistake."

Applejack looked at the poor mare with a worried expression. She tried addressing her.

"Hey, are you alright, Miss Smooth?"

"Don't worry doll, she'll be fine, just let her get the jitters out. As for me, I woke up in a jail cell with my head hurting and this sour broad looking down on me. Wouldn't be the first time. Ha!"

He gave a hearty laugh and elbowed Silky Smooth. She was not as amused. She punched him right in the shoulder, which seemed to calm her down. She fixed her mane and straightened her dress. She cleared her throat.

"Indeed, this red buffoon only came back to his senses in the dungeon. That is when the strangest thing happened. After the guards who arrested us left, another guard appeared. She came right up to the cell door, threw in the key ring, and just ran off."

Applejack squinted her eyes in disbelief.

"What? What did she look like?"

"None of us got a good look at her face. All I remember is that she was a pegasus with a dark blue mane and light blue coat. Could be anyone."

Dark blue...

Applejack was beginning to see a pattern. Someone was out there watching her, and helping her. Great, just what I needed. Mah own mysterious stalker. Just perfect. But maybe she wasn't a danger to her or anyone else. The stranger could have left them all to rot in the dungeon. Maybe she tried to help.

"Can't look a gift dog in the mouth. We got lucky and someone took pity on us."

Applejack stood up and leaned on the table.

"But luck ain't gonna last. We need a plan. You two, are you going to help us? We're going to need all the hooves we can get if we want to stop this madness."

Street Sweeper rested his heavy head on his hoof.

"What's there to do? Ponies are running wild and scared. It'd take a miracle to calm them down."

Applejack slammed both of her hooves on the table. Everyone turned towards her in unison.

"Then we give 'em a darn tootin' miracle. We're going to put a stop to this twilight and raise the sun ourselves."

As soon as Applejack said 'Raise the sun' Street Sweeper burst out laughing. What a jovial pony, Applejack thought. She was starting to get annoyed by his flippant attitude.

"I knew it! I knew you did something to upset that old brush hair. Enough to send you in the potato cellar! So what is it? An amulet? A spell? Some kinda spirit come and help you out?"

"Not an amulet, no. A magic staff to raise the sun. The only problem is it's in Stern's hooves, and he ain't ever gonna use it. He'd rather wait for the Princesses to come back and do it herself."

Silky Smooth stared at Applejack hard enough to bore holes in concrete, then looked down. She started drawing imaginary lines and circles on the table, muttering to herself. Street Sweeper glanced sideways at her, then winked at Applejack.

"You get used to it. So, Miss Applejack. A way to raise the sun, eh? Would not expect anything from a super mare like yourself. You come in, chew out the entire Gathering, and instantly bang out a solution to a problem we've been struggling to even make a committee about. The looks on those pompous faces, when we raise the sun, are going to be unforgettable! I LOVE it!"

He reached over for a hoof bump.

"I'm in. Let's take that sheathe-hole down. It'll be easy now that you've got the guild master of the United Dockworkers and Teamsters Guild on your side."

Applejack bumped back.

"Glad to have you on board, Mister Sweeper."

"Only my lawyers call me Mister. Call me Sweeps, or whatever you want."

"You got it, Big Red."

"HAH! I love this filly already!"

The proprietor of the tea room came back with their food. They all took a break to eat and drink, mostly stale bread and some cheese. He had taken the time to boil them some water for brewing tea. Silky Smooth and Fancy Pants used some warm water to clean up. Once they had finished Silky Smooth pushed her empty teacup to the side and also reached over to Applejack, not for a hoof bump, but for a hoofshake.

"Miss Applejack. I thought it over. Helping you is our best chance at taking the situation back under control."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence pardner."

"Not a vote, but a fact. I suspect the shouting and the smoke are from the riots against the gathering being dragged off. The guards will be busy pacifying them. The riots won't last forever though. Now is our best chance to take the staff back. Then we use it to cause shock and awe by raising the sun. That will demoralize the Royal Guard. Currently, our chances are suboptimal though. We need more help."

"Ah know just who we need. There's just one thing."

Silky Smooth's dull amber eyes fixated on Applejack.

"Ya'll do realize once the sun rises the Gathering's gone? You'll all be out of a job."

"I am fully aware of this. And I am glad. The Gathering was not the right place for me. Too much... Red tape."

Street Sweeper interjected.

"She means she didn't get to boss everyone around like she's used to."

Silky Smooth threw him a dirty look. She slammed the table. Her Manehattan accent pushed through.

"How in blazes we're we supposed to get anything done with those raggedy stunads wasting everyone's time! That two-bit operation was doomed from the get-go!"

Silky Smooth looked back at Applejack.

"So yes. I'm in because I want to make a difference. You are the only pony here who seems to be making one. I'll help any way I can."

"Now we're talking. How about you Fancy Pants?"

Fancy Pants had been quiet all this time. He peeked through the gap in the shutters and sipped his tea. He continued staring outside as he spoke.

"Miss Applejack. As a lark, try to imagine if someone was trying to tear down your lovely little town of Ponyville. Someone ready to destroy everything without any consideration for how beautiful, wonderful, magical, and ancient it is? Just to prove some delusional point?"

He turned over to them and placed his empty cup on the table.

"I'm not going to let that happen to my city. Let's go sort the Captain out, Applejack. And then some."

"Looks like we've got some of the posse rounded up, but not all. We still need some serious muscle and magic, and I know just the ponies for it."

The proprietor of the tea house let them out through the backdoor. The red glow of the twilight barely lit the back alley. It stank of uncollected trash. The old tea master closed the door behind them, and the four ponies started galloping down the alley. They were heading to where Applejack had sent Black Creek and Dull Pauldron, to Shining Armor's house.

Black Creek and Dull Pauldron were the only ponies who Applejack trusted enough who could help them get back the staff. If the artifact vault had proven anything it was that both of them could hold their own in a fight. Applejack and the rest raced through the streets, now crowded with ponies and debris. The citizens of Canterlot had come out of hiding, braving the red glow of the eternal twilight, and looking uncharacteristically angry. Word had already spread that the Captain of the Guard had arrested the Gathering and was trying to take over by force. Worst of all, he was going against the will of the princesses. The ponies of Canterlot had had enough. The ponies had taken to the streets, and crowds were angrily staring down any guards who dared to try and disperse them.

As they rushed through the crowds and weaved past makeshift roadblocks made from piled-up furniture and garbage, Applejack once again felt like someone was watching her. A shadow was following them on the rooftops. The mysterious stalker probably wasn't any danger to her, but she was getting annoyed by their persistence.

They finally reached the Sparkle family house, the large two-story house in the heart of Canterlot. The front door had been kicked in. They went inside through the broken door. All they could find indoors was upturned furniture and signs of a scuffle. Applejack stomped the floor in frustration. The guards must have gotten them while they were searching for her. She grabbed her bags, which she had left lying in the corner of the kitchen. Already she felt more secure knowing she had her trusty lasso with her.

Her ears perked up. A pony was shouting outside on the streets. Then without warning one of the royal guards came flying through the window and crashed right in front of them in the living room. He was out cold from the impact.

Applejack glimpsed through the broken window. There they were. Black Creek and Dull Pauldron were standing in the middle of the street, between a bunch of beaten Gathering members and a group of very angry-looking Royal Guards. The armored soldiers had them surrounded.

The leader of the guards ordered them to give up.

"Stand down! By order of the Captain!"

Dull Pauldron stood his ground.

"Not happening, brother. Ain't no way I'm letting you take these ponies."

"Dull, please. This is my last warning. Step away from the traitors. You'll lose everything."

Dull Pauldron looked at the cowering ponies behind him, then at the sergeant. He did not move. Black Creek was standing next to him, shaking like a leaf in the wind under Dull's massive shadow. He was holding one of his strange contraptions tightly in one hoof. Cold sweat was pouring down his face.

The sergeant, taking a deep breath, held up his hoof, and prepared to give the command to charge.

"Guards, on my command! Cha—

"STOP! EVERYPONY STOP!"

The sergeant was cut off by Applejack as she skidded to a halt from behind the Sparkle's house. Dull Pauldron's and Black Creek's eyes lit up and he shouted from joy.

"Ma'am Applejack!"

All the ponies on the street, including the guards, turned around to stare at her.

Applejack filled her lungs and shouted as hard as she could.

"Ya'll have to stop fighting! You have to stop!"

The sergeant was baffled. So was the rest of his squad. The sergeant spoke.

"What the hay is going on? Guardian Applejack? Shouldn't you be at the palace with Captain Sentinel?"

"Stern's gone bonkers! He doesn't know what he's doing. But ah do, if you'll just listen to me. We found an ancient artifact, but Stern took it. It can raise the sun! This nightmare can end if you'll just believe me!"

The street became silent. Only the beaten Gathering members kept whimpering. The guards were stunned, taken completely by surprise. Their eyes darted back and forth between Applejack, whom they all recognized, and the ponies that were standing between them and their duty. The sergeant motioned them to huddle up, which they did.

"What is she talking about? Raising the sun? The Captain's gone crazy? That's nuts!."

"But she's one of Princess Twilight's guardian gang."

"Yeah yeah, Applejack. She's supposed to be the element of honesty."

"No no, she's the element of loyalty. Rainbow Dash is the honest one."

"I've seen them around the palace a bunch and it's always her who's too honest."

"I thought it was the pink one."

"No, it's Rainbow Dash, she's the best."

"Did you even read the book, Applejack is the element of honesty."

"Whatever, I guess we should at least hear her out then."

The sergeant stepped forwards from the group and confronted Applejack.

"Is this true Guardian Applejack? Do you have a way to raise the sun? And Captain Sentinel knows this, and still will not use it?"

Applejack looked him directly into his eyes.

"Yeah, Ah do, and he won't. Swear on my life."

The leader of the guard squad looked back towards Dull Pauldron. He had his orders, but in front of him was standing a pony who had more than proven herself as the savior of Equestria. Dull Pauldron stepped forwards.

"Shining vouched for her. And I trust her."

The sergeant stared at Dull Pauldron. He was distressed. Disobeying a direct order from the captain and working with the enemy would mean the end of all their careers the guard.

"Dull, am I doing the right thing?"

Dull Pauldron took off his helmet. The long golden mane flowed like water from under the helm. He threw the helmet down on the ground and stomped his giant hoof on it. All that remained was a crumpled circle of brass and a few crushed plumes.

"There's your answer, brother."

The sergeant looked at him and then at the helmet. Then he took his helmet, looked at his reflection on it, and threw it away. His gray mane stood up in a mohawk. The clanking of the metal headpiece echoed loudly on the street as it bounced off the cobblestone. His squad kept staring at it as it rolled into a pile of trash. One guard took off his helmet as well and threw it away. Then another. Before long all of the guards had started throwing down their helmets. Sergeant Iron Wrought and the bareheaded squad of guards turned towards Applejack. They saluted in unison.

Dull Pauldron walked over next to the Sergeant and tapped him on the shoulder. He seemed to be relieved he didn't have to wipe the cobblestones with his friend's face. Then, like the stench of bad cologne, Fancy Pants appeared as if out of thin air next to Applejack. Applejack jumped and let out a yelp.

"Bwaah!"

Fancy Pants dusted his frock, cleared his throat, and began an eloquent speech directed at the guards.

"Madam Applejack. Former guards. I know from personal experience that every single member of the Royal Guard takes a sacred vow to protect and serve the Princesses, even at the cost of their lives. But now the Princesses are gone, and the banner of the Royal Guard has been stained by this disgraceful attack on Canterlot. Not only that but by the execution of this irrational coup d'état, the current rogue captain has not only endangered the lives of all of us but also the lives of every single pony in Equestria. The Royal Guard, as I see it, is beyond salvation. Or is it? Hope rises from the ashes much like a phoenix, and in my opinion, ours is Miss Applejack, the last remaining personal champion of the Princesses. She is the one who will save the Princesses, so would you not agree with me, that to enact your holy vows you must now follow her? Champion, would you let them offer you the chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of Celestia, and let them serve you?"

Applejack was stunned. She had been prepared for a fight but was now suddenly put on the spot as some kind of a champion. The world had gone topsy-turvy. Street Sweeper and Silky Smooth had finally appeared, standing further away on the street corner.

"Woah Nelly! Champion? That's, Ah mean, That's—"

"Champion Applejack! We will follow you!"

Dull Pauldron shouted at the top of his massive lungs. The rest of the guards, moved to tears by Fancy Pants' speech and reinvigorated by Dull, joined the hollering, shouting her name. Even Black Creek tried to join in, but could only get a few feeble yippees to come out.

How did he do this, turning loyal guards around with just a few words, Applejack thought. This is nuts. Me, a champion? What the hay was going on? And worst of all, now she had to start giving speeches. She hated speeches. Fancy Pants lightly tapped the stupefied Applejack on the shoulder, breaking her out of her stupor, and pointed at the castle.

"Ma'am, I beg your pardon. We can leave the hows and whys of your new status for after we save Canterlot maybe? I believe we still have to fix the source of our current predicament first."

Her gaze turned towards the spires, which were visible through the gap at the end of the street between the tall buildings. Fancy Pants was right. The violence wouldn't stop unless they did something dramatic. Like kick Stern's ass and raise the sun.

The shock of her sudden promotion was replaced with determination. That's where they needed to go, and they needed all the help they could get. She addressed the guard ponies and her rag-tag group of comrades-in-arms. How she wished she had Twilight's eloquence or Rarity's shameless charisma to help her out, especially standing right next to Fancy Pants.

"Now listen up ya'll. You were given bad orders by a confused pony and you did some things we all regret. But that's alright, you can help us make it right. The captain has what we need to get the sun back up where it belongs. He ain't probably taken it nowhere, so it's bound to be back at the captain's tower in the castle. That's where we're going. He either gives it up, or we make 'im give it. Any questions?"

Black Creek raised his shaking hoof.

"Yeah, Blacks?"

"D-do I have to come too?"

"Ya know it, cowboy."

Applejack reared and kicked the air with her front legs.

"Yee-haw! Let's ride!"

Applejack, her new friends, and the now helmetless unit of former guards raced off toward the castle through the riot-stricken streets of Canterlot.

Chapter 7: Momentum of Change

The road to the castle felt longer than it was, but Applejack marched on, determined to see the sun rise over Equestria once again. Her new entourage of guards helped make way through the masses lingering on the streets. It didn't take much for one or two of the ponies to start trailing her, with others wondering out loud what she was doing and where she was going. Fancy Pants and Silky Smooth saw an opportunity and started talking to them. The two silver-tongued demagogues were right in their element agitating the already frustrated commoners. Slipping from pony to pony they whispered about the illegitimate takeover, the guard captain's madness, and the will of the princesses. The last catchphrase seemed to be an especially popular hit.

With every step Applejack took more ponies joined her. The citizens of Canterlot opened their windows to watch her march, the crowd of ponies following her growing with every step. Soon enough hooves were stomping to make the cobblestones quake. Along with the sound of thousands of hooves, Applejack could also hear shouts of frustration, anger, and fear. The small ponies of Canterlot had had enough. Any remaining loyal guards standing in their way either threw down their helmets and joined the march or fled in terror. The masses were on the move, and Applejack led them toward the Castle.

The impromptu army of ponies finally arrived in front of the castle gateway. Applejack approached the great doors, but to her shock, they were already ajar. She wasted no time. Applejack screamed for Dull to help her as she galloped towards the gate.

"The doors! Help me open them!"

The white giant nodded and rushed to her side. Together they pried the wall-high doors open. The groans of the massive gate opening were met with cheers from the crowds behind. Ponies were chanting her name. A sense of fleeting clarity made her heart race. What was she doing? Here she was, leading a mob to storm the castle. She let go of the gate door and looked at the crowd. Silky Smooth and Fancy Pants were still running around the outer skirts of the crowd, stopping here and there, shouting and whispering something inaudible. Everywhere they went the masses started stomping their hooves harder and harder. Words were starting to emerge from the formless shouting.

'Applejack! Will of Celestia!'

Oh Sweet Celestia, what had she gotten herself into?

She dropped down on four legs and looked around. Her new compatriots gathered around her, waiting for her to tell them what to do next. Dull Pauldron's long golden mane swayed in the wind. Black Creek was hyperventilating and on the verge of passing out. Street Sweeper was chewing a long piece of hay and gave her a cheeky wink. Silky Smooth and Fancy Pants ran back from agitating the crowd. Every pony around them was now chanting 'Applejack' in perfect unison. Hooves stomped in rhythm with every 'apple' and 'jack'. The noise was overwhelming. Anypony still in the castle knew they were coming.

Silky Smooth whipped her long mane back, free from her usual tightly wound bun. Her hat had fallen off at some point during the excitement. Fancy Pants took out his notebook and wrote something down. Silky Smooth stepped over to Applejack and gave her a knowing smile.

"A beautiful sight isn't it? Ponies do love a shared cause. Now they'll have your back, no matter what happens next."

Applejack tried to ignore the unscripted rebellion she had suddenly found herself leading. She had to focus on what was important, getting the staff back. She gathered everyone up and went over the game plan.

"Now, ya'll be sure the crowd won't rush after us? We don't need a goshdarn stampede. Ponies'll get hurt."
"All taken care of, our new guard friends will do crowd control."
"Alright then, in that case, the plan's simple. We go in, kick anypony who gets in our way, and get the staff. Everyone got it? The staff's what's important."

Everyone nodded, some more enthusiastically than others. Applejack took off running inside the castle grounds, her friends following close behind her. Inside she looked around. There were no guards around the main entryway. Strange. Over on the other side of the courtyard, she saw a dozen or so guards running out of the barracks, no doubt on their way to try and stop them. Good luck boys, she thought.

Applejack pulled her lasso out of her saddlebag and held it between her teeth as she charged toward the advancing guards. They met in the middle of the green grass yard. Easy as roping calves, she thought, as she flung her lasso forwards and roped the first guard's front legs. She pulled. The legs of the poor guard snapped together and he landed snout first in the grass, skidding to an embarrassing stop. First one down, keep moving, keep them in your sights. Just like dancing with a bull. She whipped the lasso and pulled it free with a twist of her neck.

The next guard came at her intending to tackle her. He lounged at her. She jumped just a bit higher and let the guard fly straight into her loose lasso. She yanked it tight in mid-air. The rope tightened around the guard's neck, and he somersaulted as her body weight met with his neck. The guard hit the ground hard, gasping for air. Applejack twisted her body mid-flight and landed on all fours. Out of nowhere she saw a flash of light and heard a sound of a boot getting pulled out of mud coming from behind her.

A third guard she hadn't even noticed landed right in front of her, his legs bound in green slime. He struggled to get up but to no avail. Applejack looked to her right. On the other side of the courtyard, Black Creek was sitting on the grass, furiously cranking a box with a large glass tube stuck on top of it. The glass was slowly filling up with more of the green slime. Applejack waved at him. He nervously waved back and got back to cranking his apparatus.

A howl like a wild Bugbear bellowed on the other side of the courtyard. Street Sweeper had managed to grab one of the guards by her back legs and was now swinging her around like a sack of potatoes, trying to hit the other guards. All she could do was scream as he tossed her around like a farmer threshing grain. Thankfully for her he missed most of his swings.

Silky Smooth was not far behind him. She was standing on her back legs, keeping her balance with grace and poise, as she boxed her way through the guards. A jab to the throat. One guard down. An elbow to a nose. Another guard down. An uppercut to the jaw. Applejack cringed as the hit connected. The pummeled guard staggered around comically, his eyes spinning wildly in his head, before flopping down on the ground. Her ranting and cussing, with her mane a mess with a couple of strands stuck to her mouth, made even Applejack take a step back. Her usually calm demeanor had been replaced with an attitude more befitting a Manehattan street brawler.

"Any of youse shmucks want some more? Get back here ya bunch of ninnies!"

The rest of the guards fled as she kept slinging profanities and insults at them. Ahead of her Street Sweeper finally let go of the guard in his hooves and sent her flying. She crashed into the fleeing guards like a bowling ball. The final guard made a last-ditch effort at a heroic charge at Black Creek, attempting to avenge his slimed friends. His charge was interrupted by Dull Pauldron picking him from behind up by the elbows and holding him up in the air like a ragdoll. He snorted his massive nostrils at the guard's neck and asked him a question.

"You sure you're making the right call, brother?"

The dangling guard lowered his head. Dull Pauldron set him back on the ground. The guard sat down and didn't move.

Fancy Pants had stayed out of the brawl and was instead standing back at the gateway, engaging a couple of fleeing guards in a conversation about the sustainability of their current employment situation and their future endeavors. One guard was crying against his shoulder. Fancy Pants empathetically patted him on his back.

Applejack tied up the last guard who had tried to attack her. The resistance had been dealt with. Most of the guards lay on the grass, either unconscious or too embarrassed to continue. Applejack jumped over one of them and rushed towards the barracks. Black Creek, Silky Smooth, Street Sweeper, and Dull Pauldron followed close behind. They rushed through the open front doors and into the barracks.

The way up to Stern was more than familiar to Applejack. She galloped over to the tower door and prepared to buck the heavy oak door off its hinges. Once again to her surprise, the door was inexplicably ajar. What the hay is going on here? All the doors they had encountered while had been left open. Too easy, she thought, it had to be a trap.

Applejack carefully opened the door. It creaked on its hinges but otherwise opened without a fuss. Her compatriots followed close behind as she started to ascend the tower, step by step, listening hard for signs of an ambush. She heard nothing. The way up the spiral staircase was empty. Even the floor right before the captain's office was empty. Even that door had been left open. This is insane! Applejack hushed the other ponies behind her and crept over to the door. She peeked through the gap in the doorway. Inside Stern was pacing around the room, his chest wrapped in bandages. He flinched with every step. Guess Bucky and Kicks had got him good. The sunstaff was sitting on his desk, just behind him. He kept talking to himself, clearly in distress.

"It is all going to be okay. Celestia will understand. I did it to save Equestria. Those ponies, they didn't understand. There is no Equestria without the Princess. The Princess is Equestria. Got to take control, and get those saboteurs in jail. Can't let them stay out there, giving ponies ideas. Oh merciful Celestia, what evil took you from us. I'll find you, your highness. It's all going to be okay. Celestia will understand. I did it to save Equestria..."

Applejack had had enough. She bucked the unlocked door open and jumped in.

"Stern, you good-fer-nuthing backstabbing snake squeezer! Give me back the staff!"

Stern screamed and almost fell over. There was no sign of the stoic Captain she had first seen at the Gathering. It all felt like a lifetime ago.

"You! Agent of Chaos! Pawn of the Eternal Enemy! Slave of Discord! Stay away!"

Stern grabbed the Sunstaff off the desk and rushed towards the open balcony doors. Applejack dashed after him. Stern ran through and onto the balcony. He spit the staff out of his mouth and held it over the railing.

"Stay away, or you can say goodbye to your mockery of Celestia!"

"Stern! What the hay are you doing? That staff's not mocking nopony. Heck! It was Celestia's! She might have even made it! We don't know! But what we do know is that it's probably the only thing in the entire world that can bring the sun back to us!"

"No! Only Celestia can raise the sun!"

"You dummy! Twilight has raised the sun! Luna has raised the sun! How do ya think ponies raised the sun before Celestia!"

Stern was getting visibly upset. Tears were running down his cheeks. He was trembling.

"No! I'm not listening! Celestia will come back! She'll stop this nightmare. She'll make everything good again."

Stern looked at Applejack with bloodshot eyes. He tried talking through the sobs. Applejack took another cautious step forwards.

"I'm scared. I haven't slept for weeks. Everything is falling apart and I don't know what to do. Please, Celestia. Please come back. I need you."

Applejack took another cautious step forwards.

"Pardner, ya don't know how much I can sympathize, but ya have ta calm down. We can make it through this. Please, just believe me."

Stern didn't move. His eyes had glazed over. The large stallion took a few unsteady steps, and then, without warning, fell over. The staff hit the railing with a clunk as it fell over. All Applejack could do was watch in horror as the last hope of Equestria plummeted down towards the hard cobblestones far below. Time stood still.

Applejack felt a breeze go past her. From out of nowhere a guard, an earth pony, her deep blue mane flowing beautifully under her helmet, rushed at breakneck speed towards the railing and dived down towards the staff. Applejack gasped and rushed over to the balcony. She looked down to watch as the self-destructive mare dove down the highest tower in Canterlot, already too far for her lasso to reach. All Applejack could do was stare.

But then the mare started glowing, the green light reflecting off the white plaster of the tower face, and with a zap, she zipped towards the staff, grabbed it in mid-fall, and using her insectoid wings did a daring pull-up just inches from solid stone. Applejack had never seen an aerial move like that outside of a Wonderbolt show. The deep blue carapace of the changeling glimmered even in the weak glow of the twilight as she soared through the air and down back towards Applejack. She stopped in front of her, hovering just out of hoof's reach.

Applejack was left gobsmacked. Stern lying down and snoring right next to her. The rest of her mismatched gang of compatriots, who were now jammed in between the balcony doors, were all equally shocked. The deep blue changeling spoke.

"Mistress Applejack, it is a pleasure to finally be able to speak with you. I'm Chelicera."

Words were getting stuck in Applejack's throat as she tried to reply.

"Puh-puh-pleased ta meetcha."

"Likewise."

The changeling buzzed towards her, holding the ancient staff in front of her, and offering it to her. Applejack reached out and took it from her, her eyes still wide as saucer plates, unable to comprehend what had just happened. A changeling

"Thu-thanks there pardner."

"My pleasure."

Applejack looked at the changeling, and then back at her fellow rabble-rousers. They were all just as surprised, except for Dull Pauldron. Instead of being confused, puzzled, or mortified by her appearance, he instead pulled his wing up into a salute, almost knocking Black Creek's hat off. He addressed the changeling.

"Good evening, Special Lieutenant Chelicera"

"Good evening to you as well Lieutenant Pauldron."

"Wachawada— Huh?"

"Ma'am Applejack, may I introduce Special Lieutenant Chelicera from The Princess' Peculiar Company. Team Leader for the Eavesdropping Squad."

The changeling's blue face turned deep green, which Applejack assumed meant she was blushing. She rubbed the back of her neck and landed on the balcony.

"It sounds so much fancier when he says it."

"So wait, Dull, you know her?"

"I was her drill sergeant when she and the first batch of changelings arrived here, ain't that right sister?"

The changeling was not comfortable with the sudden exposure of her military career. She fidgeted under the sudden wave of attention.

"And you're some kind of spy?"

The changeling raised her head at Applejack's inquiry.

"The Peculiar Company does participate in intelligence gathering, among many other tasks, so technically the answer is yes."

"And it's you who's been following me around all this time? The shadow, the nurse, the mare at the gathering, that rooftop chase, it was all you?"

Having her attempts at subterfuge be laid out so clearly made her blush green once again.

"I seem to have misjudged your powers of observation, Mistress Applejack."

"Darn tootin'! What was all that!"

"I do not believe this is the time or place for a detailed debriefing, but I believe deep down you already know why."

Applejack looked at Chelicera, then back at Canterlot. Pillars of smoke were rising here and there, mixing with the endless red glow of the twilight to form great crimson towers. It was a living nightmare. Applejack turned back. She looked tired.

"Yup, guess ah do."

"We could not lose you too. It was not an option."

"I guess."

Fancy Pants interjected.

"Applejack, I'm sorry to disturb you, but is the staff in your hooves what we came here for?"

"Yup, this here's it. Here Blacks, see if cap'n cuckoo here did something to it."

Black Creek walked over, trying his best not to look down, and took the staff from Applejack. He gave it a quick turnover and smiled, his fear of heights completely evaporating at the sight of the legendary artifact.

"It's in perfect condition, not that it comes as a surprise, this era woodworking is marked by incredible tolerance to both physical damage and—"

Applejack grabbed it back, interrupting his extempore lecture.

"Great, so let's fire it up."

She took the staff in both hooves and turned around. She stood up and started raising the staff towards the sky. Out of nowhere Silky Smooth appeared next to her and stopped her, holding her hoof in place with hers.

"Silky, what the hay are ya doing?"

"Applejack, listen. Opportunities like this come once in a lifetime. There are thousands of ponies down there waiting for you. You need to show them it was you who fixed it, they need to see you raising the sun."

"That's crazy talk. Ain't nopony out there who cares who raises it, as long as it gets done."

"No, Silky Smooth is right."

Fancy Pants walked up to them, his face uncommonly solemn.

"Equestria needs a leader. Somepony who the ponies out there trust, somepony who they believe in, somepony who can carry the crushing weight of responsibility."

He shot a look at the unconscious captain.

"Somepony who will not crack under the terrible pressure of challenges yet to come."

Silky Smooth looked Applejack directly into her emerald eyes.

"That pony is you, and you know it."

"No, I don't, this is crazy talk!"

Applejack stood back on four legs and turned away from them.

"How many times do I have ta say it? I ain't cut out to be a leader. I ain't got a clue about anything Twilight or the rest of the princesses do. I didn't even know Celestia had a queer company on mah tail all this time."

"Uh-hum! Peculiar!"

"Whatever. Just goes to show. I ain't got what it takes. I'm useless."

Applejack started walking back inside, carrying the staff on her shoulders. It felt like a griffon had its claws around her heart. She wanted to run away. That same feeling of helplessness that she had felt on that evening on the mountaintop wormed it's way back into her head. She was useless. Why couldn't anypony else see it?

Her walk was interrupted by Black Creek. He stood in her way, in all stringy, basement-bleached glory. He was visibly shaking but continued to block her way. Applejack tried to go around him, but he didn't let her pass.

"Applejack. I've only known you a couple of days, but those last few days are more than I need to know that you are the exact opposite of useless. You're the bravest, kindest, strongest, and most loyal pony I've ever met. If anypony is going to take charge I would not want anypony else on the job. And you don't have to do it alone."

Dull Pauldron took a step forward.

"Ma'am, I agree with mister wizard here. You're exactly what we need."

Black Creek continued.

"I'm not the best magic user in Canterlot, but if you need help with anything arcane I'd love nothing more than to help you in any way I can."

"And if you need help with military matters I'm ready to advise."

Silky Smooth and Fancy Pants joined in.

"As the mayor of the largest pony city in the world, I dare say I know a thing or two about efficient administration."

"And once Miss Smooth here has scared everyone off, be it old Canterlot money or foreign dignitaries, I'd be more than happy to 'round em back up' for you."

Street Sweeper pushed Black Creek and Dull out of the way and grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it.

"And Uncle Sweeps here to make sure the trains run on time, crates get shipped, and those lazy sons of guns at the teamsters guild don't get too greedy with their coffee breaks!"

Once again Applejack was left speechless. All these ponies did want her to take charge. Something that she would not have even dreamt about in a million years. Street Sweeper let go of her. The wind howled around her, atop the tallest tower in Canterlot. She looked deep into the brilliant gemstone set in the staff she had fought so hard to first obtain and then to get back. All through the trials and tribulations she had been met with disappointment after disappointment. Ponies refusing to do their jobs, procrastinating out of selfishness, cracking under pressure, paralyzed by fear and tiny meaningless wants.

But also, with every uncovered secret she had also learned more about her friend Twilight and the Princesses, and what they had done behind everypony's back. Twilight had trusted her friends, but she had not left the security of those artifacts to fate. Neither had Celestia. She had prepared and then hidden a way for ponies to survive without her. She even had an entire company of changeling spies nopony knew about. Neither of them had left things to pure chance. So maybe it was time for Applejack to do the same thing. She could no longer leave the future of Equestria and her friends to other ponies, or worse yet, to random chance.

Applejack turned her eyes away from the gemstone. Everyone quieted down as she did. They could all see it. A flame that had not been there before, deep in her eyes. They waited in silence.

"Ah'll do it."

Those three simple words, spoken out loud, would shake the very world they lived in.

The journey down the steps of the tower and across the caste courtyard felt like a dream. Applejack met the roaring crowds with her entourage in tow. She held the staff high, and the crowds parted in front of her. She walked through, everypony following her in silent reverence.

The journey was short, and in just a few minutes the procession arrived at the public square overlooking Equestria. Applejack marched to the very edge of the forum, where a simple marble wall separated her from a drop deep into the valley below. The entire square was filled to the brim with ponies, eagerly waiting for whatever was going to happen next.

Applejack raised the staff, and with all her strength willed the sun to rise from behind the mountains. Her head emptied of all other thoughts except the wish to put an end to this cursed twilight once and for all. She held her breath and waited.

For a moment the world stood still, but then a miracle happened. Slowly but surely the western mountains began to glow brighter and brighter before a beam of pure sunlight edged from behind them and hit Canterlot with all its glory. Ponies were blinded, shadows appeared, and the sky turned from blood red into a beautiful mixture of azure blue and vibrant orange. A roar rose from the crowds, powerful enough to drown out any other sounds. Ponies were jumping and dancing out of joy, hugging and crying with their eyes still sore to the long-gone sunlight.

Dull had picked Black Creek up and was swinging the poor wizard around, while Street Sweeper whistled and cheered. Fancy Pants stomped his feet and shouted 'Marvelous!'. Even Silky Smooth had an uncharacteristic smile on her face as she bathed in the sunlight. Applejack let go of the staff, which remained suspended upright in the air. According to Black Creek, it would come down once the sun had enough momentum to move on its own. In the back of her mind, she did ponder if raising the sun from the west had been the best choice, but she filed that under first-timer mistakes. Doubt even Celestia had got it right her first time.

Applejack turned her back to the rising sun and looked at the city square filled with celebrating ponies. Guards without helmets danced and jumped around with ponies who just a few hours ago had thrown rotten tomatoes at them. If she listened closely she could have sworn she heard the wind carry shouts of joy from other towns and cities across Equestria. She had done it. She had solved one threat to Equestria, but more remained. Challenges that couldn't be solved with just a single magic staff. Challenges she was going to have to meet head first if she ever wanted to see her friends again. But at least she wasn't alone anymore.

Chapter 8: A New Order

Applejack watched as the sun rose from the east, beyond the mountains. The window in her room at the Sparkle's house pointed north, so she had to lean out precariously to see the first rays of pristine sunlight emerge. The feeling of sunlight on her face made the entire ordeal worth it. She could hear cheers of joy from the buildings around her. She closed the window and headed downstairs to see how the others were recovering from the party.

Downstairs she was greeted by an entire dining room full of groggy faces. The spontaneous party that had erupted after the sun rose involved a lot of cider barrels being rolled out into the streets and cracked open. The entirety of Canterlot had joined the celebration, which lasted well into the night. All Applejack could remember from those fleeting moments was the first natural twilight getting booed at by the revelers. She was very glad that she wasn't responsible for cleaning up the mess left by the riots and the party.

Applejack and her new comrades had been welcomed to Twilight's parents' house after the party. The Sparkles thankfully had enough couches and guest rooms for all participants. Some of them, mainly Street Sweeper, would not have been able to make it back to their lodgings after everything that happened. Applejack sat down in a chair at the dining table. Street Sweeper, Silky Smooth, Dull Pauldron, Chelicera and Black Creek were all already sitting at the big table, eating a hearty breakfast prepared for them by Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Applejack tried to refuse, but the pair insisted that they'd be more than happy to make them breakfast. After all, she did once again save Equestria by raising the sun.

Applejack gave in to their hospitality and dug into a traditional full Canterlot breakfast. Steaming hot oatmeal, freshly pressed carrot juice, sweet and savory carrot cake, red beans in tomato sauce, fried eggs, and a cup of coffee. A solid adventure made a pony hungry, and before she knew she was stuffed full of the Sparkles' delicious home cooking. She leaned back and took a sip of the coffee. The bitterness chased out any leftover feelings of fatigue. She was ready to face the world once again.

"So ya'll. What's next?"

The other ponies and one changeling around the table looked up from their plates. Twilight Velvet and Night Light took this as a cue to slip out silently. Black Creek had managed to dip his entire beard into his saucer of beans. Silky Smooth had barely touched hers and was instead on her third mug of coffee. Chelicera had left the oatmeal and the carrot cake alone and instead devoured a bowl of boiled eggs, her sharp tongue flickering in between the crunchy sounds of eggshells being bitten into. Fancy Pants was finishing up, elegantly patting his lips with a hoofkerchief. It took skill to eat a full Canterlot breakfast without making a mess. The two massive ponies, Dull and Street, had asked for seconds.

"I do believe it is time to get to the awkward part of any big change in leadership."

"And what's that Fancy Pants?"

"The part where we declare you the leader and decide exactly how Equestria will be governed from now on."

"Wait a bronco bucking second there. What do you mean we decide that? What about the gathering?"

"Considering the extraordinary circumstances we are operating under and the fact that most of the gathering members have already fled from Canterlot, I would be bold enough to say that the Gathering has been de facto disbanded."

"But what about all that bull something and such? Doesn't it still apply?"

"Quite frankly we are in a situation in which nothing else but what you say applies."

Fancy Pants reached under the table and threw down a pile of newspapers. The Daily Horseshoe, Canterlot Chronicle, Equestria News, Manehattan Post, and many other smaller publications. All had the same picture plastered on their front cover. It was Applejack, in black and white, standing before the rising sun with the staff held high in her hooves, surrounded by a sea of cheering ponies. Even someone like Applejack, who didn't think much of any form of art, could appreciate that it was a very good photograph.

"That's a nice picture an all, but what's it got to do with anything?"

"It means that from here on out anything you say goes." Fancy Pants smiled.

"It means you get to decide the rules, and nopony can say otherwise." Silky Smooth interjected.

"It means you're the boss, the chief, the head honcho!" Street Sweeper sounded off.

Applejack leaned back on her chair and scratched her head.

"Alright if you say so. I already agreed to taking the lead in all this. But what exactly am I supposed to do?"

Everypony at the table looked at one another, eyebrows raised. Silky Smooth looked like she was going to faint any second. Fancy Pants was the only one still smiling. He had known it all along. Applejack had always been the right choice for this job. There wasn't an ounce of lust for glory or power in her entire orange body. All of this was just a necessary evil to get her friends back to Applejack.

"Well, it is this humble advisor's opinion that we should start with the most pressing topic, which is deciding how Equestria will be governed from now on."

"Well, that's simple as apple pie. It's us until Celestia and the rest get back."

"Yes, but my dear, you must understand. We are treading upon untrodden ground. The rule of Celestia is all Equestrians have ever known. There simply is no precedence for such a shift. That is why I believe we must make an honest attempt to do due justice to such a momentous occasion."

"Oh boy, I guess that is true. Ain't no one else ever been a leader except Celestia."

"Which is why to preserve legitimacy we must try to maintain as much royal decorum as we can, but at the same time set ourselves apart." Silky Smooth added.

"Now ya'll are just making me confused on purpose."

"Leave the details to us Applejack, me and Miss Smooth had the entire night to iron out the details of your coming rule."

Applejack grit her teeth at the words 'your', 'coming' and 'rule'.

"Sounds like a barrel of fun. Keep doing... That there, whatever it is you're doing."

"Splendid. We do insist on going through it with you briefly after breakfast."

A great breakfast followed by a political game plan by the two most knowledgeable ponies in Equestria, all done with just
a bunch of napkins and a saltshaker, might have been someponies' idea of a great morning. It was not for Applejack, but she made an effort to listen, even though it all felt like dragging your rump over a field of cacti.

Silky and Fancy explained their plan to Applejack and the rest step by step. She would be officially sworn in as a pro tempore (temporary) regent (not a princess) representing the thrones of the alicorn tetrarchy (Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight), with the title of 'Regent-General'. Silky and Fancy explained that as of right now the last surviving guardian of harmony, Applejack, was arguably the highest office in Equestria, both in the Equestrian military, as well as in executive administration. After Silky Smooth, as the official stand-in for the now vanished chair pony, would call for the dissolution of the gathering via a unanimous vote, of course. It was extremely convenient that all remaining members sat in this very dining room with her.

Applejack sat silently as the three ponies went through the motions with precise wording and ritual, not missing a single official beat. It was all hogwash to her. Silky Smooth banged the saltshaker and called the Gathering to convene, and asked Fancy Pants and Street Sweeper if they were present. Both replied with a hearty 'Ay!'. She then called for an 'expedited' meeting with only one topic on the agenda list, the dissolution of the gathering.

The vote lasted for a second as both stallions shouted 'Ay!'. Silky Smooth banged the saltshaker again. It had been a unanimous vote. all done according to the rule of law. The Gathering would be officially dissolved once the current meeting ended. Black Creek, who had been forcefully recruited as the scribe of the event, dutifully took down the minutes of the meeting. With a final bang of the saltshaker on the dining room table, the first and last attempt at pony democracy died. The gathering was no more.

Applejack sat stone-faced. What a bunch of horsefeathers. She had never seen a farce like that. Although every fiber of her being wanted to start kicking tables over, she remained calm. At least it was over and done with.

Except the politicking wasn't done. Next came the installation of the advising council to the regent-general.

Applejack took a deep breath as the socialite duo excitedly continued, as if they were enjoying all the bureaucracy. Applejack would be in charge, but she could freely delegate work to any one of them. The bylaws and office descriptions had already been decided last night over more than one cup of cider, but what they needed was a name. Applejack had her hoof on the heartbeat of the average pony, so they threw a few suggestions at her.

"Committee of General Security?

"Nope, too stuffy."

"State Council of the Ponies Republic of Equestria?"

"What the hay’s a republic? No."

"Grand Council of Friendship?"

"What is this, a story for foals? Too silly."

Applejack stood up from her chair and walked to the window behind them. The sun she had worked so hard to bring back was shining high above them. It was almost noon. Seeing the happy faces of ponies down on the street and fillies and colts running and playing in the sun gave Applejack a jolt. That's it. That's what made it all worthwhile.

Applejack turned around. "How about the Sunrise Council?"

The ponies around the table nodded in agreement.

"Sunrise Council. That's good. Very good." A rare smile crawled over Silky Smooth's face. "Play on the good press. Remind everypony who saved Equestria. Make it all about hope and sunshine."

"Hoo-boy, Silky. But glad ya agree. Everypony else in favor?"

No pony or changeling at the table was against the idea. The regent-general had her advising council.

"The second pressing matter is deciding the fate of the Royal Guard." Fancy Pants said.

"What's the problem? We took down Stern. He's locked up in the dungeons." Applejack replied.

"Yes, but the fact remains that the Royal Guard participated in the coup. It was treason, and the shadow of disobedience still lingers amongst the ranks."

Silky slammed the table. "Get rid of 'em! Equestria no longer has royalty. There's no need for a 'royal' guard."

"Miss Smooth, please be reasonable. We're already breaking more than enough thousand-year traditions to my liking. Getting rid of the guard would be a step too far."

"Fancy's right. It ain't that easy. Besides, we need'em for searching Twilight and the rest. But on the other hoof, there still might be some bad apples mixed in with the bunch. N' I ain't royalty. That ain't even up for debate. Even being a regent sounds a bit too monarchy for mah liking. This here's all temporary. Soon as the girls are back I'm gone faster than a double-dealing card shark from a Buckaloosa barbershop."

Applejack looked straight at Dull Pauldron and Chelicera.

"So here's what Ah think. How bout we mothball the royal part of the guard for a spell and just run it as the guard? Ya'll vet the officers and those you don't trust stay on vacation until the Princess is back. You think this Broncos got legs?"

Chelicera stomped to attention. Dull Pauldron was caught off guard and clumsily clambered on his hooves too, hitting his head on the chandelier over the dining room table on his way up.

"Consider it done, General Applejack. However, I do request that the Peculiar Company stays untouched. Our ability depends on it." Chelicera said and saluted.

"Just like Special Lieutenant Chelicera said, ma'am general. And I'm sure the rank and file don't mind a bit of spring cleaning." Dull followed up.

"Good. Dull, ya get to be the Captain of this 'new' guard. Chelicera, work with him and keep us on the level on what your funny company finds."

Chelicera bit her whipping tongue as she fought the need to correct her, but she was too much of a professional to start correcting a general. "Yes ma'am."

A hoof sprung up from behind Dull's gargantuan body. Black Creek had raised his hoof. The only thing Applejack could see was the brim of his hat.

"Ya don't hafta raise your hoof ta speak Blacks, this ain't the magic school."

"Sorry Applejack, I mean Regent-General Applejack, I mean..."

"Just Applejack is fine. So what's on your mind?"

"Umm. I do feel that now would be a good time to discuss the Sunstaff."

What little Applejack saw of the brim of his hat shifted awkwardly and nervously.

"Sure thing. Fancy, make some space for him."

"Thank you, sir. Ummm. How should I say this? I have some good news, some bad news, and some news that's not good or bad but more of a statement of neutral facts which depending on—"

"Alright, alright. Let’s hear it then, start with the good news. I reckon we all need some right about now."

"The good news is that the sunstaff is functioning perfectly. Even better than I’d hoped. It's amazing how well made it is considering it's one of Princess Celestia's earlier works."

"And the bad?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest... It will keep working this well for about a month. Then it will stop working. Because things don't work without... Power."

"WHAT!?" Applejack almost jumped on the table.

Everypony else in the room stood perfectly still, all eyes on Black Creek. He slowly shrank down until he was almost under the table. Applejack jumped out of her chair and went over to him. Put one hoof on the table and looked the cowering Black Creek in the eyes.

"No. No, no, no, no. That can't be. Yer just pulling my tail. Please tell me yer just pulling my tail."

Black Creek clambered out from under the table.

"I am not, unfortunately. Without natural magic permeating the world the staff just cannot replenish fast enough to move celestial objects every single day. It’s a miracle it has enough power to function that long."

Applejack slumped on the floor and hid her face behind her hooves.

"Oh, dear Celestia..."

"Ummm. Do you want to hear the rest? I mean, I would personally want to explain the rest, but if you prefer continuing at a later date I'm more than happ—"

Applejack shot him a look. Her expression made it crystal clear he'd be tarred and feathered and thrown to the cockatrices if he didn't get to the point immediately.

"Magic is not completely gone from the world! There's still magic stored in artifacts, and it is possible to redirect it to the staff."

The tension in her body eased and Applejack let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh thank goodness. I should kick you across the block for scaring me like that."

"Well, in that case I hate to continue, but the process is not exaclty that simple."

"Blacks..."

"Woah. Please Applejack, no need for violence. Even with all the artifacts in the school and Princess Twilight’s vault, I would still only be able to get four, maybe five months of sunrises out of the staff."

"Oh, horseapples."

"Umm- Yes. Horseapples."

Applejack dragged herself back to her seat and buried her face into her hooves. Four to five months of sunshine. That was not enough time to had to find her friends, much less save Equestria. Was saving the world always this complicated? Applejack grit her teeth and pulled herself together. No use crying about it. Even that much time was a miracle. A miracle they had made happen. Now they had to make the best of those precious months.

"If we got five months, then that's how much we've got. We'll think of something to extend it, we have to. Now, what's next? I haven't been a regent for even half an hour and already I'm starting to regret this."

"Then I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that there's only one pressing matter left on the agenda for this morning."

"Happy as a field mouse in an unguarded wheat cart. Hit me, Fancy."

"Agriculture, which is a near and dear topic to you, I assume. No pegasi means no rain. No rain means no farming. No farming means we all perish from hunger. Did I get all that, regent-general?"

"Them's the breaks. So what do we do about it? The heavy rain ordered right before Twilight and the rest vanished has kept most of the plantations and farms going, but we've got about a week 'fore we start losing crops."

Applejack stood up on the chair and smacked her hooves on the table.

"This here ain't just personal to me. This here's personal to everypony who doesn't want to starve. Almost half of all food in Equestria comes from the southern hay fields next to the badland, and another good quarter from the oat farms between Manehattan and Broncston. Even with rationing, we'll be in more trouble than a bootless lizard in a cactusfield if we can't get water to those two areas. So, 'council', whaddya got?"

Street Sweeper stood up. He had been quiet for most of the meeting. He wiped the tomato sauce off his face and gave her a cheeky smile.

"Don't rip the stitches on your hat, doll, but I took a bit of initiative on this topic, seeing as starving's the last way I want to go up to the pearly alicorn gates. I've got an old friend here in Canterlot who's helped me and my boys in Fillydelphia more than once. A real genius type, but not the most sociable if ya know what I mean. Still, he gets the job done. Freakishly punctual, so he should be arriving in... Two seconds."

There was a knock on the door.

"Never off even by a second, can you believe it? Get in here, Centrifuge. You old clockwork stallion you!"

A tall, lanky pony walked in through the open door. The light browny yellow pony, almost a shade of sandalwood, stopped in front of the newly named Sunrise Council. Two unblinking eyes stared at them from behind a pair of round eyeglasses. A shiver went down Applejack’s spine. Like looking in the eyes of a snake, she thought. Completely emotionless. The pony kept his light blue mane tied back in a ponytail. He was dressed in a white long coat lined with pockets full of little tools and instruments.

"May I present, Centrifuge! The premier of the sadly misjudged and grossly misunderstood Tinkerer’s Guild."

"Greetings."

"I was having my third personal afterparty at the salt-tavern down the street, and lo and behold! I ran into the old bolthead himself! A couple of greasy tinkerers all having a blast, spending their newly earned wealth on salt-licks and cardgames! Ha! With magic gone business is booming for the boys! Ain't no way to tell time with magic no more so watches are worth ten times their weight in bits. So I says to him I says, 'Fuge, ya wily rascal, ain't no more pegasi to bless the rains down in Equestria. We're all dogmeat if we don't find a way to move water by the boatload on land. Don'tcha got something up that white coat of yours we could use?' That's what I remember at least. Told him to pop by here at noon if he got something to show us."

"That was an accurate summary of our meeting. You did leave out the part where you slipped and fell in your own—"

"Ahhaa, details details, no need to worry about them."

"I like him already." Silky Smooth said.

"No wonder. Boy’s stiffer than you Silky, both got rebar stuck up their— Ouch!"

Street Sweeper pulled his bruised leg up from under the table. Silky Smooth's expression did not even flinch as she continued. "Pleased to meet you, Centrifuge. Did this oaf explain the details of our predicament?"

"He did not, but it was not necessary. Based on the general specifications and records of water tables and levels in the two specified areas it was trivial to design an efficient system of irrigation channels. I have the plans right here."

"Oh, how wonderful."

Centrifuge pulled the large pieces of paper from the tube he was carrying on his back and spread them on the table. The detail was astounding. Applejack knew a thing or two about irrigation and building, so she immediately recognized that the plans were legitimate. Where were these crazy ponies when she needed a new barn?

"Jumping June bugs. This is exactly what we needed. Can we use these, Centrifuge? If we start the building now we'll be finished with time to spare."

"Please do, that's what they are for."

Another miracle dropped from the sky into her lap. And she didn't even have to break into a vault and overthrow a government to get them. Ever the pragmatist, Applejack suspected there was going to be a catch to all this. With breakfast finished and the first meeting of the Sunrise Council over, the members shuffled out one by one. They all had their duties and responsibilities to execute.

Dull and Chelicera had the mammoth task of reorganizing the Royal Guard into something new. Fancy Pants and Silky Smooth left to arrange their new workspaces. They couldn't run Equestria from the Sparkle's dining room forever. Street Sweeper left with the irrigation channel plans to gather up companies and workers to start the project. Black Creek scurried off, eager to continue studying the Sunstaff. Only Applejack and Centrifuge remained. She had asked him to stay behind.

"Centrifuge, I cannot thank you enough for your help. You might have just saved Equestria single-hoofed."

"As I said, it was a trivial task."

"Either way, I do feel you deserve some kind of compensation. A medal maybe?"

"I do not require a medal. Ten bits for two hours of my time is the standard rate."

"I'll see you'll get them. But are you sure you don't want a reward of some kind?"

"To be perfectly honest with you, Regent-General Applejack, I would ask something from you."

The cold, dead snake eyes of the pony did not show a drop of emotion as he explained his wish to Applejack.

"The disappearance of magic has given the guild a new purpose and new life. We are no longer just clock fixers and toymakers. Ponies are finally seeing the true power of mechanisms. This is our chance to bring tinkering to a level never before seen. I wish for a challenge. That is my request to you, regent-general. As the premier of the Tinkerers guild, I wish for a chance to create something never before seen. Something I can call a masterpiece."

Centrifuge turned around to his belongings. He snapped the tube he had brought the plans in shut and threw it on his back. The white coat fluttered around him. He turned back to Applejack.

"Street Sweeper mentioned in passing that a war was coming. Equestria has never faced an invasion without magic. In the face of such danger, I offer my services and those of my guild to you, with your permission. If my masterpiece will be a weapon, then it will be."

Applejack did not move from her chair. It was true, they would need new ways to defend themselves. The alicorns and the magic which had protected them for thousands of years were gone. Anypony could kick hard, but against a horde like the one waiting across the ocean they would need to prepare for all out war. They needed something new, something that the centaurs would never see coming. They needed new ways to hurt others. It was an ugly truth, but a truth nonetheless.

"You have my permission, and all the support and resources you need."

Applejack offered her hoof to the emotionless pony in front of her. He took it, and they shook hooves. Equestria would never be the same again.

Chapter 9: Heights of Power

It was a clear and dewy early fall morning in Manehattan. A couple of weeks had passed since the sun had returned, and with it a new era in Equestria. Applejack stared in the mirror of a washroom, her eyes blurry from yet another night in an unfamiliar bed. The hotel or inn she was in was somewhere in the southern district of the bustling city of Manehattan, the latest stop in her new life as the de jure leader of Equestria. Attendants outside the door kept knocking on the door, trying to hurry her up. The true impact of her actions was only now starting to sink in, and doubt gnawed at the frayed edges of her mind.

There was no denying that she and the Sunrise Council's rise into power had shaken the very core of Equestrian life. That is why she and her new advisors were now roaming the realm, going city to city, town to town, trying to ease the fear and shock caused by their coup d'etat. To Applejack's surprise, most ponies were more upset about her not being a princess rather than Applejack just declaring herself the temporary ruler of Equestria. The very idea of a regular pony, much less an earth pony, ruling Equestria was a completely alien concept to the average pony of Equestria. Applejack could not have been more grateful that Silky Smooth and Fancy Pants had joined her on her travels.

The two ponies waded through endless meetings and speeches like two sharks in a coral reef. They had somehow managed to not only downplay the suddenness and borderline illegality of Applejack's ascendancy but spin it positively. Applejack had not just saved Equestria from a mad military dictator but also, as the last Guardian of Harmony, brought with her the sun and the will of the Princesses.

Everywhere they went Applejack saw the same story being repeated over and over again everywhere she went. She was all that remained of the rightful Princess-led order. Not only was she the one who brought the sun back, but also saved Equestria from chaos and anarchy. Silky Smooth's calculated planning and Fancy Pants' undeniable charisma made it so that no one questioned her legitimacy. The fact that she had at first worked with Captain Sentinel to retrieve the Sunstaff was silently swept aside.

Applejack left the hotel trailed by her new army of helpers, and got into a carriage. The irony that as the new ruler of Equestria she did not even know for sure where she was going next was not lost on her. Silky and Fancy were fully responsible for planning her schedule after all, with Applejack being dragged from one event to the next. Before coming to Manehattan she had already met with all the old families of Canterlot with Fancy Pants. Then she had been brought a sit-down with the new money of Canterlot, not that she could tell the difference between them. One stuffy unicorn aristocrat didn't much differ from another.

After pacifying all the big players in Canterlot Silky and Fancy had put her on a private blimp headed for the largest cities in Equestria, with Manehattan being the latest. Days stretched into weeks. Her days were spent in endless meetings, lunches, speeches, dinners, and conferences, while the nights were spent either in the cabin of her blimp or the ever-changing hotel rooms.

This morning was different, however. Today was the last day on the proverbial road. She was to return to Canterlot by morning. Silky Smooth came over to congratulate her on yet another great speech on pony unity and harmony. She did not praise Applejack more so than she praised her own speechwriting talents. Afterward, Applejack was once again swept up by her attendants. She found herself on the large blimp commandeered for her use, which was now heading towards Canterlot for her 'triumphant return', as Silky had described it.

Applejack sat in her cabin, which also functioned as her office, as the blimp traveled slowly towards Canterlot, leafing through the schedule for tomorrow. While she had been gone Chelicera and Dull had been busy working on replacing the royal guard with something completely new. In fact, the new guard would be called 'The New Guard', as Dull Pauldron had imaginatively named them. The day would start with the initiation of the new 'New' guard. Applejack's inauguration ceremony would immediately follow that. The old Royal Guard was to be officially retired until the return of the Princesses, and the members of the New Guard would swear allegiance to the new Regent-general after her inauguration.

Chelicera had flown from Canterlot to the flying ship to help prepare Applejack for her inauguration. The initiation would be held in the inner courtyard in the late morning, with only a minimal attending audience. Originally she had planned for Applejack to stand on the royal balcony, not out of a sense of presentation or pathos, but due to safety concerns. The argument spilled over as they sat in Applejack's quarters. Chelicera was enjoying a meal after her long flight.

"No way, no how. I ain't standing on the princess balcony." Applejack said.

"Why not, Regent-general Applejack?" Chelicera sat opposite her at the small table standing right under one of the portholes of the flying ship. She stirred the grey swill in front of her with her tongue until it hit an eyeball. Her barbed tongue slid back into her mouth and shot back out, piercing the eyeball and dragging it back into her mouth in one swift move. Applejack looked away, trying not to offend her new friend by gagging at the sight of changeling feeding habits. She poured herself a glass of apple cider, raised it to her lips, took a deep sip, and firmly placed it back on the table.

"Cause I ain't no princess!" She crossed her arms and pouted.

"Yes, I know. You have repeatedly informed me that you are indeed not a Princess."

"And I'll keep repeating it till you stop treating me like one! I'm addressing the new guards down on the ground, eye to eye."

"As you wish, Regent-general. I shall arrange it."

Applejack took her empty glass before one of the new servant ponies had the chance to take it away, and put them on the serving cart herself. The stress of parading around as the new figurehead of Equestria was just something she had to deal with, but by golly, she was not going to let them treat her like royalty. If she didn't put her hoof down now these silly ponies would probably try chewing her food for her next.

"I for one think it's a great idea." Silky Smooth appeared like a shadow through the door to Applejack's cabin. Applejack wondered how long she had been listening before she entered.

"I thought you'd reckon so."

"It plays well with your image as a real 'mare of the common pony'."

"Almost sounds like you think I'm putting on an act."

"Never in a million years, Regent Applejack. I only came to check up on you. Have you memorized the speech? We'll be arriving just in time for the event so you will not have time to prepare in the morning."

"Yup, but I ain't gonna say all of it. Just what's important. Then I'll say my piece."

Silky was taken slightly aback. "Are you quite sure? I did write a very good speech. Did you have the time to properly read it? I think it would hit well with the changes we're propo–"

"Thank ya kindly, but no. I was never one for long-winded speeches. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll try to get to bed early. All this traveling show pony business has got me dead tired."

Chelicera and Silky Smooth wished her a pleasant night and left Applejack alone in her cabin.

One of the quirks of becoming the new ruler of Equestria was that Applejack had found a completely new appreciation for late nights. It was one of the few times in her day when she could be alone without somepony hovering around her. It gave her a chance to review the agenda for the coming days, as well as to read letters from her friends and family. One of those was sitting in front of her on the desk. She immediately recognized the shaky writing on the cover as Granny Smith's. She cut the envelope open and lay down on the bed with it. She read the letter in the glow of the candle.

The news from Granny was the same mix of worry and optimism as they always were. The lack of weather was taking a toll on the orchards, as she had expected, but the irrigation pipes her father had built a long time ago had thankfully shielded the trees from the worst of the draught. The same couldn't be said of all the other farms in Ponyville. Equestria was going to have a lean harvest this year, no matter how many ditches they dug or how many barrels of water ponies carried. All they could do was save enough to survive the winter and hope magic would return by then.

Applebloom had also written a short message, saying how proud she was of all Applejack was doing and begging for her big sister to come visit them as soon as she could. Applejack put the letter gently back into the envelope and put it under her pillow. The moon shone brightly through the round window of her room, shining a light into the dark candlelit cabin. She promised herself that she'd go back to Ponyville as soon as she could.

Applejack's eyelids were starting to feel heavy as lead, but she still had to go through one more report before falling asleep. Not that she enjoyed sleeping these days. The return of the day and night had also meant the return of nightmares, and with Princess Luna gone, nothing was stopping her from being woken up by nightmares. No wonder she and everypony else felt so tired all the time these days.

The next morning the preparations for the double event were already underway as Applejack arrived at the caste grounds of the royal palace. The crowds of invited ponies were slowly making their way to the hastily cobbled-together stands, while the newly dressed guards were conducting their final dress rehearsal. Applejack could hardly recognize them as guards without their traditional golden armor. Silky Smooth had insisted on new designs for guard armor, emphasizing functional form over ceremonial pomp.

"It is a message to all of Equestria." She said as she trotted alongside Applejack. "We are serious about the incoming threats and are preparing for them. Gilded pomp will be replaced with tasteful and pragmatic metal plating, and the crested helmets with closed ones."

"They... Look pretty intimidating if ya ask me."

"They do?"

"Very."

"Well, we'll take that into consideration if we ever do a second iteration."

"Wait, these are the final design? They look like they got buckets on their heads!"

"Don't worry Applejack, they're perfect. They elicit a sense of power and purpose. Half of governance is optics, after all."

The new armor did look functional, which Applejack appreciated, but it didn't leave a very warm impression. In more ways than one, the new designs reminded her of the farming tools back on the farm. Cold and functional metal, meant to get the job done, no fancy-schmancy designs or feathers. Yeah, that's how she should think about this. The new look is just a tool to get the job done. If this is what they needed, then by golly that's what they'd get.

The dress rehearsal started. The first company of the New Guard marched across the castle grounds and lined up in front of the palace doors. The dark iron armor shone dull in the midday sun. As regent and general of the guard, it was Applejack's job to attend events like these, at least according to the newly promoted captain, Dull Pauldron. For some reason parading around in a fresh set of clothes or armor was a very important part of military life. As Applejack stood in the hot baking sun and looked at all the sweating stallions and mares in front of her, she had a very hard time understanding what the point of all of this was. But that was her duty, so that's what she did.

Applejack walked up and down the first row and inspected all the uncomfortable guards in their new uniforms. She turned around when she reached the end, and did another lap. And then another. And another. She looked behind her towards Dull, who was standing next to Silky on the palace steps, and shrugged. Was this enough? Did she have to do another lap? Dull just waved his hoof at her and spun it around. Yes, another lap. Applejack rolled her eyes and started walking. Some of the guards were starting to sway from the heat. Applejack peeked at Dull. He smiled and nodded. That was enough. It was time for the big speech.

A simple wooden platform had been set up in front of the palace, on top of the stairs itself. Someone had found an old tablecloth to cover the front of the rickety stand. The deep red piece of cloth covered the entire stand. Applejack walked up the steps and onto the makeshift podium. She was met by thunderous applause. The crowds in the stands and the company of guards all cheered. On both of her sides were the ponies who had helped her retrieve the Sunstaff and help take down Stern. Black Creek, Chelicera, Dull Pauldron, Shining Armor, Silky Smooth, and Street Sweeper. Together they managed to bring the sunshine back to Equestria. Fancy Pants approached her with a sash, purely symbolic, but still. He raised it high for the crowd to see, the golden sash sparkling in the sun. Applejack lowered her head. Fancy Pants lowered the

The platform creaked under her hooves as she walked to the edge with the mounted megaphone. My own personal Canterlot voice, huh, she thought. Ponies were hooting and hollering, and stomping their hooves. Applejack stood in front of the megaphone, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"Two weeks ago, from out of nowhere, Equestria was savagely attacked. I witnessed that attack with my own eyes. A group bent on evil attempted, and partially succeeded, at striking at the core of Equestria. At the ones who have kept us safe, and who I've fought alongside more times than I dare to count. Now we know that the attack was only the start, an attempt to make Equestria vulnerable and defenseless. An army across the great sea is mustering as I make this speech. They intend to attack, to harm us and our land, to pillage and blunder until nothing but ash and dust remain. That is why I and a council of trusted volunteers have taken up the fight. It is why I take the title of regent-general with a heavy heart. We cannot stop the evil from coming here, but we can stop them. We have the power. You are living proof of that. Even without the Princesses, even without magic, even without the Elements of Harmony, Equestria will not bow. Those who thought we were weak alone forgot that the greatest strength ponies possess is not magic or alicorns. It is friendship. Friendship will build what we need to defend ourselves. Friendship is what will get us through the coming winter. Friendship will be what will cast the centaur hordes back into the sea they came from. Friendship is forever! The Princesses will return! Long live Equestria!"

The crowds roared as Applejack let all her fear, hate, and aggression flood through her and into the megaphone. She found herself pounding the podium, raising her hoof, and making the crowd feel what she felt. In a lot of ways, it felt right. She telling the truth, after all. Only by sticking together would they stand a fighting chance at what was coming. She continued as the crowd calmed down. The anger in her voice was gone.

"That's the part Silky over there wrote. T'was a good speech, but I still have something to say off-script. Ah never thought there'd be a day I'd have to step up and lead ya'll. I ain't a captain, or a mayor, or a socialite. I'm just Applejack. I run a farm back in Ponyville. But I guess I'm also the Element of Honesty, so I'll be honest with cha. The last thing Princess Twilight asked me was to protect Equestria. That night I lost all my best friends. So I swear, with everything this little pony has to offer, that I will do everything in my power to do just that until they return. Thanks ya'll for listening."

A solemn silence descended on the castle grounds. The roaring of the crowd had stopped. The silence was broken by a stomp, then another. Applejack looked over her shoulder. It was her compatriots who were stomping and clapping their hooves. More ponies joined in, encouraged by their stomping. Soon the crowds and the guards were all stomping and clapping their hooves together. Applejack turned the megaphone off and jumped off the platform. Silky looked furious enough to rip her mane out. Black Creek was wailing like a newborn. Dull hid his face, tears streaming down his eyes. Fancy Pants didn't seem much bothered and was instead scanning the crowds, probably for someone specific.

Applejack trotted to the front of the company. Dull walked up next to her, furiously drying his eyes. It was time for the pledge of loyalty, officially initiating the New Guard and confirming Applejack as their commander. The pledge was short, almost word for word what the royal guard said when they swore loyalty to the Princesses. The company saluted. Applejack saluted them back.

"COMPANY INSPECTED! DISMISSED" Dull bellowed.

A wave of relief made its way through the formation. A guard with a white line running across his helmet at the very end of the formation shouted something. The company turned around in unison and marched off the field. Watching all the round helmets bop in unison to the sound of the heavy stomps did have its appeal, she thought.

And just like that, it was over. Applejack was now officially the regent of Equestria and the general of the New Guard.

"Whew, glad that's over with." Applejack crashed on a chair in the middle of their new headquarters.

While Applejack and Silky had been off on their Equestrian tour of appeasement, the rest of the council had taken the opportunity to move into the royal quarters. She could see through the great balcony how the late afternoon light bathed the steeples and towers of the castle in a golden glow. The décor and style of the twenty or so rooms weren't to her tastes, but it did give all six of them a place to work and sleep. The servants had come with the quarters, much to Applejack's irritation.

It wasn't her first time visiting the royal quarters, but it was only after she had gotten lost for the fifth time that she understood that for being such humble royarchs, Celestia and Luna's humility didn't extend to their tastes in living space. Shunning the many guest rooms with their opulent beds, Applejack had instead made her bed on the couch in the main living room, right next to the balcony door. She liked the feeling of sunshine on her face as she woke up.

The rest of the rooms had been taken over by the councilors and their assistants. The personal bedrooms of the two sisters she had locked up and barred. Letting other ponies wander in and out of them had felt disrespectful to Applejack. Not that sleeping on their couch was any better, but she had not been given a choice. Not that the royal couch wasn't comfier than her bed in Ponyville.

The coffee table in front of her, right smack dab in the middle of the living room, had become the center of political power in Equestria while they had been gone. The large cherrywood table was covered in parchments, letters, and recites. Assistant ponies came in and out in droves, carrying paperwork, food, or both. In the eye of the hurricane lay Applejack. Paperwork was nothing new to her. Running a farm meant doing inventory and she had been selling bulk goods ever since she was a filly. But an entire country's worth of paperwork was quite a few magnitudes different from running an apple farm. Thank goodness for the evergrowing army of literal paper pushers.

The Sunrise Council had grown. In addition to Fancy Pants, Dull Pauldron, Black Creek, Chelicera, Silky Smooth, and Street Sweeper, they had been joined by Centrifuge, the premier of the Tinkerers Guild. The council members joined Applejack at the strategy table. Two guards from the New Guard shooed the assistants away and closed the door behind them as they left. Applejack straightened herself on the chair. It was time to get to work.

"Now that we're all here, let's go through this one last time." Applejack pointed at four different parchments on the table. Everything else had been swept aside to make way for them. The parchments had a stamp on them, each a different color; Yellow, blue, red, and white. Applejack had gotten the idea from remembering how Twilight used to talk about compartmentalization. Fancy word, but a great way to corral big messes into smaller, more manageable problems. Another word she used was delegation.

"These here are the four main things we have to deal with. Big thanks to Miss Inkwell for preparing 'em."

She took the first parchment and rolled it open. It was filled with notes and lists of everything related to the Sunstaff. They had a limited number of days, so they had to make them count. Their 'strategic reserve' of magical artifacts, as Street Sweeper had put it, was enough to feed the staff for five months.

"According to this, we ain't got enough to get through the current growing season with just five months. What's the plan, Professor Creek? Congrats on the promotion by the way."

"Thank you regent-general. The current plan is to keep looking for more artifacts. I will update you if we have any breakthroughs."

"Good. Keep us posted. Nothing gets done on an empty stomach after all."

Applejack gave the yellow parchment to Black Creek and took the next one.

"Now, the blue parchment. Without Princess Celestia, we ain't got a future, much less without all the rest, as well as my friends. That's what this here's for."

Applejack unrolled the parchment with the blue stamp. It contained everything Applejack and her council knew about the disappearance of the Princesses and her friends. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. Their final moments had never really stopped repeating over and over inside her head. Guilt and sorrow flared up painfully every time she thought of them being drawn into that maelstrom.

"I made a promise to Twilight. And come hay or high water I'm going to keep it. Protecting Equestria means getting them back as soon as possible. This here paper contains everything I saw on Flat Top Mountain. The wizards keep saying no one could have survived what they went through, but I don't believe them. None of them can explain the streams of light I saw drag my friends away. This here's your job, Chelciera. We need answers. Eavesdrop as much as you like. Enlist as many wizards as you need. Send soldiers to the centaur lands to eavesdrop on them. This might be the most important task of them all."

Applejack gave the blue parchment to Special Captain Chelicera and reached for the third one. The red parchment was the one she feared the most. It was the war parchment. She took a deep breath and unrolled it.

"An invasion's coming. That's as much as we know, thanks to a 'friend'. The Centaur army ships will be here next spring."

Applejack threw the parchment on the table. It unrolled to reveal the pictures Discord had left her with. Everyone craned their necks to take a look.

"The centaur lands used to be green and alive. Now they're a blasted wasteland of brown weeds and dust. What we know of them, the centaurs never learned to live in harmony with their land. They scalped it dry like shallow mill creek in July."

"And now those six appendaged creeps are coming for Equestria. Ain't happening." Street Sweeper punched his hooves together.

Silky Smooth cleared her throat and spoke. "The only viable place to disembark from will be the western shore north of Las Pegasus. Captain Pauldron, based on the pictures you and the other officers estimated six banners of two thousand centaurs each. The current size of the New Guard is barely six hundred guard ponies, with an equal division between unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. We are not even close to matching hoof count with them. Something needs to be done about this."

"T'aint the size of the pony that wins the tussle, it's what she brings to the scrap," Applejack said. "We ain't got magic, we ain't got the elements of harmony, so what do we have?"

"Well, we do have the high ground, Pegasi can still technically fly without magic. It's not as effortless as it was with magic still around, but they can fly for a short time if they are boosted into the air."

"So that's the first thing we do, play to our strengths and get the pegasi some air support. What else?"

"No unicorn magic. Equestria has always relied on magic for protection. Now our horns are useless." Black Creek pointed at his own horn.

"So we make some magic. How does a potion that shrinks a pony three inches tall sound to ya'll?"

"Sounds like an amazing way to defend yourself. But I don't have any artifact that could do something like that at the scale we need."

"Not artifacts. Potions. I'll need to pay a visit to Ponyville to see an old friend. I'm sure she's got a few tricks up her sleeve."

Applejack rolled the parchment back up and threw it to Dull. He grabbed it between his teeth and saluted.

"Fancy Pants." Applejack pointed at the preening unicorn. "Now that the locals have been placated and the other cities are cooperating it's time to start rounding up all those friends Twilight has made for Equestria over all these years. Griffons, yaks, hippogriffs, and any creature who wants to help is more than welcome to come help us, but they might need some sweet talking. That's where you come in. Hop on an airship and go get them."

"Naturally, I have my yacht ready to go right away. I'll send you a postcard from Griffonstone." Fancy Pants smiled.

Applejack nodded to him and then shifted her eyes to look at the final parchment. Funny she'd mentioned airships. They were a part of the plan she and Centrifuge had discussed before she left. Applejack took the parchment and unrolled it fully on the table. A gasp around her told her all she needed to know.

"Centrifuge. I ain't good with technical details, so I'll leave explaining this one to you."

"Understood. I have designated the project 'Will of Celestia.' The current timeline is four months for the finished prototype and three supplementary laid hulls. Two weeks for tests, and two months to apply the results as we finish all four."

The parchment was a blueprint for an airship five times larger than the biggest luxury liner Equestria had ever seen. Ten decks tall and five airships long. As Centrifuge explained, the machine required three flight fins on each side to attain enough speed to be viable in combat.

"The front area of the ship is reserved for a staging area for limited flight pegasi. The planned three catapults will be big enough to launch a full-sized pony into the air, while at the same time providing enough speed for them to fly for a limited time. The ship will fit an estimated five hundred pegasi. The target time is fifteen launches per minute."

Centrifuge continued. "The tubes incorporated into the hull are meant for dropping glass orbs filled with whatever the regent-general feels is appropriate for pacifying enemy forces. The tinkerers guild has a few patented concoctions if you are interested. The prior practice of adding 'friendly' curves and smiling fishheads to the ship has been discontinued. They added no tactical value. Do you have any questions?"

Applejack raised her hoof.

"Yes, regent-general?"

"Ummm... Are you sure we'll be able to build something like this? In just six months? All four of them?"

"By my calculations, yes. If we start today."

"Well then, Street Sweeper? This hot potato sounds like your area of expertise."

"If it ain't the craziest plan I ever did done see. Almost makes me think we might pull it off." Street Sweeper slammed his meaty hoof on the table. "Let's get to it!"

"Yes. Let us."

The meeting was over. Applejack was dead tired. As the rest of her council retreated to their rooms or left to do business in Canterlot, she shuffled over to her makeshift couch bed. All she wanted to do was lie down and be swept into a dreamless sleep. Of course, with Princess Luna gone, she rarely saw anything but nightmares, especially now that the so-called 'eternal twilight' was gone. She never did figure out why that cursed thing kept the nightmares away.

Her plans of slumber were cut short by a package placed right on top of her pillow. An object the size of her hat was wrapped in brown paper and tied together with crude string. She sat down next to it and took it. The package had a small note shoved under the string. It was from Silky Smooth.

'
To the newly inaugurated Regent-general Applejack.
If you ever feel like updating your image.
-Silky
'

Applejack ripped the paper off. Wrapped inside was a large peaked military cap. The crown was black and made from hard leather. The cockade was an imitation tiara Princess Celestia had worn as the Princess of Equestria. The purple gemstone inlaid into the white-golden metalwork shined bright. Applejack sat, looking into the gemstone. Morbid curiosity implored her to try it on. She took off her trusty old hat and placed the ghastly dark thing on her head. Silky must have secretly measured her hat size behind her back. It fit perfectly.

Applejack felt sick to her stomach.

Chapter 4: Push and Pull

It was morning, if only by name. The glow of the never-ending sunset leaked through the windows of the magic school. Applejack kicked open the front door and stormed through the halls, weaving past young unicorns crowding the halls. They were lounging around in a stupor, wasting time gossiping and napping between magic theory classes. There was no point in practical casting lessons after all since all magic was gone from the world.

The bored students were startled as the Applejack stampeded past them. She skidded to a halt in front of one of them. She was sitting on the floor outside a classroom, playing with what looked like a golden spinning orb within a silver cage. A magical artifact. "Missy, where do ya'll keep those!" Applejack pointed at the magical object. The young unicorn almost jumped out of her robes and fumbled with the artifact. "T-the artifact room Ma'am." She squeaked and pointed towards the nearest staircase. Applejack tipped her hat. "Thanks a bunch, sugar cube."

Applejack rushed off once again, leaving behind a trail of gawking and whispering colts and fillies. She rounded a corner and came face to face with a sign reading "Artifact preservation". The sign pointed down a flight of stairs. Applejack almost jumped the entire flight of stairs as she headed down to the basement of the magic school.

The wizard pony, she thought. One of the experts at the meeting, a stallion with a short black beard, what was his name. He had stood in front of the Gathering and tried to explain his research on if there was any way to raise the sun and end this cursed twilight. He had mentioned something about a lead between his jabbering. It had been cut short by the panic caused by the professor who went before him. The potential end of the world shocked everypony. His explanations had gone to deaf ears, except for one pair. Applejack had listened. It might be just a lead, but it was the best she had. And like Granny always said, no smoke without fire and a couple of naughty fillies playing with matchsticks waiting to get their bee-hinds tanned.

Raising the sun. That was the key to her problems. Celestia's dusty old rules were clear about that. '...The gathering is only disbanded by consensus, or if the princess, or other, returns to once again raise the sun.' She was going to be that other. She had to be if she wanted to get rid of those self-serving good-for-nothings standing in her way.

Applejack knew that Twilight had once possessed a talisman that could raise the sun without Celestia. That one had been destroyed or lost, but it wasn't too out there to assume there might be another one somewhere in Equestria. Besides, neither her friends nor her farm could wait. If there was a chance to raise the sun, no matter how minuscule or farfetched, then she had to try. With that, the Gathering would be out of their hair once and for all, and Stern Sentinel could focus on what mattered; they needed to put all their effort into saving her friends and the princesses.

The three flights down the stairs came to a stop in a dank old cellar, the walls made of heavy stone and abandoned dusty office furniture cluttering the hallway. A few measly oil lamps lit the passageway. She made her way past the doors, squinting at the dimly lit names and plaques along the passageway. The fifth door on the left read 'Artifact Restoration', with flaky gold letters. 'Research Assistant Black Creek' was screwed below it on a small tarnished plaque. This had to be it.

Applejack knocked on the door. There was no reply. She let herself in. The room resembled her cider cellar. The majority of the space was taken by rows and rows of long shelves, full of strange-looking contraptions and objects. Some of them glowed. To the right of the doorway was a small alcove with a workbench, a writing desk, and a depressed-looking couch. A black-bearded pony was quietly sleeping on it, his wizard robes turned into a makeshift blanket. Dirty plates and empty glasses besieged the couch.

Applejack walked over to the sleeping pony and tapped his shoulder.

"Mister Black Creek? I need to talk with you."

The bearded unicorn turned over without even looking at her.

"G'away."

Applejack didn't have time for this. She grabbed his robe with her teeth and pulled it off. The young wizard scrambled up indignantly.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"You're Black Creek right?" Applejack pointed her hoof straight in his face. "The pony those highfalutin jerks dragged out to jaw about raising the sun yesterday? The one no pony listened to?"

The young wizard looked frazzled and slightly taken aback by the sudden calling out.

"Well, if you want to put it like that, then yes, that was me."

"You know something about raising the sun?"

The annoyance on his face faded once Applejack mentioned his research topic. Black Creek sat down on the couch and pulled his wizard robe over his haunches. He fastened the buckle under his chin with a silver brooch depicting a turtle nestled in the fire of a lit torch.

"I might. Is that the reason you so abruptly woke me up, Miss...?"

"Applejack. And you hit the bullseye pardner. You said yesterday that you had some kind of a lead. I need to know what you know right now."

Black Creek was taken aback by her enthusiasm. No mare, or stallion for that matter, had ever burst into his office-slash-bedroom and showed so much enthusiasm about his research. And now a friend of Princess Twilight herself was demanding to know what he knew.

"Yes, oh my, Miss Applejack. Of course, right this way."

Realizing the importance of his guest, the last guardian of harmony, he climbed off the sofa and stumbled over to his writing desk. His cutie mark was a dark stream reflecting a shining silver star. The desk was piled high with parchments. One long list sat half-opened in a reclaimed area of free space. Black Creek rolled the scroll fully open and fixed it open with heavy paperweights.

"Indeed, I did try to report my findings at the Gathering meeting, but you saw how well that went."

He traced the list with his hoof and adjusted his glasses.

"My area of expertise is artifacts. Rituals are Toadleg's department, not that those will be of any use. Rituals without magic? A waste of time."

Applejack trotted over to the table and looked over his shoulder. The parchment was barely held together and was covered in a script so tiny she had to squint her eyes to read it. Not that she could make heads or tails of it. Black Creek's eyes lit up.

"Which brings us to artifacts, which, for reasons still unknown, are unaffected by the nullification. I suspect it's because they're just that great, but I digress. The lead I was talking about is here. Let me explain."

He pulled out a notebook and flipped to a page. The page had an illustration of a bunch of squiggly symbols on it. It was complete hogwash to Applejack.

"During my work, I often have had to consult old inventory lists. Mostly to find out when an artifact I am working on restoring originally arrived at the school. It allows me to extrapolate how, why, and where it was created, making it easier for me to mend it. The inventory lists go back to the event before the founding of the school, over a thousand years ago."

Black Creek pointed down to the open scroll.

"This is one of the oldest inventory lists we have in our possession. It's so old clerks still wrote in ancient ponish, as was the style at the time. For the most part, it's fairly mundane. The items listed are either kept in vaults for safekeeping or have been lost to time, or even to other worlds."

"It's all fascinating n' all, but what does the paperwork have to do with anything?"

"All those ancient and mythical artifacts, even the lost ones, were well documented in our bookkeeping. Except for one."

Black Creek pointed at one specific row on the list. It was small, almost hidden, and at the very bottom of the parchment.

"This entry describes an item that was. Other than that there is not a single mention of it in any of our archives. The function, the exact time of creation, the maker, none of those details are listed in this entry. It is as if it was mistakenly listed. Only the fact that it was recorded with red ink tells us that it was an extremely important item, an item too important to mistakenly write down."

"What exactly makes it so important then?"

"Red ink means it was delivered for safekeeping by none other than Princess Celestia herself."

"And ya'll don't know nothing else about it?"

"We do know the name. The artifact was recorded as 'Lightstaff'. This list was compiled hundreds of years ago and kept in our archives from generation to generation. The name did not raise any eyebrows for almost a thousand years, since it sounds like a simple illumination binding, but I got curious."

"You think there's something fishy about it?"

"Yes. After the Princesses disappeared and the twilight began, I started to suspect what the true nature of this mystery artifact might be. Six months ago I received confirmation that the name was a translation error."

He pointed at the squiggles in his notebook.

"Ancient ponish is a very creative, and often obtuse, symbol-based language. In this case, the word we thought meant 'light' was a combination of two words, which together resemble the symbol for 'light'. The first part means 'star' or 'sun', while the second part is the verb for 'rise', but also the verbal noun 'to raise' and agent noun 'raiser'.

"Now wait just a goshdarn second. It's been a while since grade school. My grammar's a bit rusty. So it's something you do, the act of doing it, and the one doing it. To farm, farming, farmer. Which means... It might not be just a light staff, it's a sun raiser staff!"

"Exactly, Miss Applejack. Add to this the mystery surrounding the cataloging of this staff and I think we're onto something big. No mention of it in our storage manifestos. No mention of the staff being sent away from the school vaults. And all this with an artifact gifted by Princess Celestia herself. I have spent the last week and a half furiously combing through our artifact collections. It is not here."

Black Creek fumbled with his glasses, still unused to not using magic for mundane tasks. He placed them on the desk and looked at Applejack. He looked almost relieved to finally share his findings with somepony else.

"A pattern emerges once you start following the paper trail, Or in this case the lack thereof. This has all led me to believe that there exists an artifact powerful enough to raise the sun without the unique magical power of the alicorn princesses. And since it's an artifact, it should work even after the nullification of magic."

Applejack contemplated everything that Black Creek had laid out in front of her. She turned around and paced up and down the first row of shelves, deep in thought. She absentmindedly eyed the defunct and broken artifacts sitting on the rough wooden shelves.

A kooky conspiracy to hide a magical artifact powerful enough to move the sun without the princesses? All found by some egghead in a basement? It sounded just crazy enough to be true. It made sense. Celestia was wise. She probably guessed long ago there might come a time when neither she nor the other alicorns were around. Regular ponies would need to keep the sun moving by themselves.

Cynical thoughts suddenly clouded her mind. But then why keep it a secret? What point was there to hide the lifejackets if you knew the boat was heading into a storm? Was it her pride? Did she think ponies would think less of her if they had the option to raise the sun themselves? In that case, hiding it probably felt like the right call. With the little guys thinking she was the only thing keeping the stars dancing, life must have been good.

No, it couldn't be. She had to keep her faith. It's good to play your cards close to the chest. It made perfect horse sense. Equestria had a lot of enemies who would have loved to take the power of raising the sun for themselves. But you also had to be prepared for the worst. She had learned that lesson the hard way. If all your best workers are out of commission during applebucking season, then you got to have an ace up your sleeve. Take fate into your hooves. Make sure you were the one holding all the cards. That's what Applejack was going to do.

"Twilight kept all the magical do-hickeys us girls gathered on our adventures here in Canterlot. Down in the catacombs. There's a room there where she stashed all the really bad stuff." AppIejack turned back to Black Creek, still standing over his desk. "If this here sunstaff does exist, then that's where it has to be. You can bet your boots on it."

Black Creeks looked surprised. "P-princess Twilight collected artifacts? Here in Canterlot?"

"Sure as shootin'. Couldn't let them stay out there causing a mess."

"But I- all the artifacts in Canterlot have to go through here for the vetting process. It was ordered by Princess Celestia after the incident with the Alicorn Amulet. How is this possible." Black Creek was getting visibly distressed. "You can't just throw artifacts in a room and forget about them! Powerful artifacts need curation! Restoration! Constant vigilance!"

Applejack turned back to the row of broken artifacts. She poked one of them with her hoof. The strange object shook and then crumpled into a small pile of hoops, metal plates, and screws. Black Creek winced. Applejack stared at the broken artifact. "I reckon being a Princess means you ain't always gotta worry about getting permission from other ponies."

Or worry about the consequences, she added, just to herself.

The clock chimed ten. Her meeting with Black Creek could not have gone any better. It took very little for Applejack to convince the wizard to join her in finding the staff. She already knew where it was, but having someone who was an expert on magical doodads would not hurt, and as a researcher, Black Creek was more than enthusiastic enough to join her.

Getting into the Castle was going to require approval from the Royal Guard though, seeing as the palace had been closed and locked down ever since the disappearance of the princesses. That meant getting permission from Stern. Shouldn't be much of a problem, Applejack thought as she climbed back up and out of the school basement. He wanted to save Equestria, or at least Princess Celestia, as much as she did, after all. Applejack left Black Creek behind in his workspace to prepare. He needed to gather some choice equipment for the search.

Applejack ran into Shining Armor not long after she climbed out of the basement. He had just finished his early morning committee meetings and was happy to see her since she had rushed off after breakfast without so much as a word. They started walking together down the hallway towards the grand foyer. His eye grew large as Applejack explained her plan as they walked. Get the Sunstaff, raise the sun, dismantle the Emergency Gathering, and get back to searching for her friends. Shining Armor didn't object to the plan, but he had reservations.

"Are you sure this is what you should be doing?"

"Darn tootin I'm sure. We don't have time to muck around. Not with the list of bad things happening to Equestria growing by the day."

"I know it's taken much longer than I'd hoped, but the gathering is finally starting to get things under control. We might be able to start sending out search parties again."

"Shining, you know that's a load of ponyberries. Shining please, I need your help. This thing ain't going to find itself."

"Yes, Applejack but—"

"Your sister and wife are still out there. This is how we're going to find them!"

"I would love nothing more than to find my family, but things are never that simple."

Applejack and Shining Armor entered the large room between the front doors and the lecture hall. Members of the gathering were mulling around the room in between sessions. Shining Armor walked over opposite them to the left side of the foyer. On the wall hung four large oil paintings, arranged side by side. The paintings grandly depicted the four Princesses. In the middle were Luna and Celestia, with Twilight and Cadence to their right. Shining Armor stopped in front of the one depicting Twilight.

It was a great portrait of her. Even Applejack, who didn't have much interest in fancy art, could appreciate it. Twilight was portrayed in a beautiful golden dress with her crown on her head. Her head held high, eyes closed and her wings opened wide. She looked like she was contemplating in silence. Piles of books, scrolls, and astronomical instruments surrounded her. The background depicted, ironically enough, a view through a balcony of Canterlot in the twilight, with the moon and the sun placed next to her wings on her left and right side. The painting's beautiful depiction of the twilight sky was nothing like the nightmare waiting for them outside.

Shining Armor stopped in front of the painting depicting Twilight. He looked at it with sorrow in his eyes.

"There isn't a single moment I don't think about them. They and Flurry Heart are my entire world. I'd want nothing more than for them to come back safely. "

He turned back to Applejack.

"But Equestria needs me, and so does my daughter. That is why I can't join you."

Shining Armor put his hoof on Applejack's shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you know earlier, but I'm going back to the Crystal Empire today."

Applejack looked dejected. This was going to make things a lot more difficult. She didn't have many friends in Canterlot, and with Shining leaving that number just went down further.

"But I'm not abandoning you. I have an old friend from the guard who owes me big time. I've asked him to watch your back while I'm gone. I'd trust my life in his hooves any day of the week."

Shining Armor lowered his hoof.

"I'll send for him. When you meet him just tell him you're a friend of sparky sparkles."

She couldn't help but chortle.

"Sparky sparkles?"

"Hey now, other ponies got a lot worse nicknames than that in basic training."

"Sorry, sorry, my bad. Can't say I'm jumpin' with joy over you leaving, but thanks for thinking about me."

"Any time AJ. Sounds like the Gathering is... Gathering again. I'll see you back at my parent's house in about an hour. I'll tell you more then."

The gathering was about to continue. Ponies started shuffling back inside the lecture hall. Shining Armor went with them. Applejack was left alone in the foyer. It gave her a moment to consider what to do next. She needed help, that much was clear. You couldn't plant an orchard all on your own, and also she knew zip about artifacts. It was good Black Creek was coming with her. His knowledge of artifacts made him a valuable ally. On the other hoof, Shining's friend was a wild card, but if he vouched for him, then she had no reason not to take him along. Another pair of hooves would only be a good thing. She also needed approval from Stern if she wanted to get inside the catacombs. The Guard had locked down the entire fortification after Celestia disappeared. That's where she'd go first then.

Applejack trotted out the front door of the Magic School for Gifted Unicorns and trotted down the empty streets of Canterlot. She was starting to get used to the permanent twilight. The permanent velvet glow seemed almost bearable as it settled on the spires and walls of Canterlot. She didn't know if getting used to the end of the world was a very good thing.

Stern Sentinel had to take over again. Applejack was dead set on it. The captain of the Royal Guard had been in charge for the first few days after the disappearance and before the Gathering. That's the only time any progress had been made toward finding Twilight and everypony else. The deteriorating situation had forced the guard to call back the search parties to keep the peace around Equestria and in Canterlot, but that didn't help with the root of the problem. It was just a small bandage on a broken leg.

However, Applejack knew the Gathering would probably not go down easy, even if she did everything by the book. Ponies like Silky Smooth were tough. Stare down a charging minotaur tough. Applejack had seen those types of ponies before as near as Ponyville's town halls. Some ponies would never let go of even an ounce of power. Even if that power was just deciding what color to paint the picket fences. She was going to need help from somepony with their hooves deep in Canterlot high society and a knack for politics. Somepony like Rarity. Oh, how she wished Rarity was here with her.

The sadness was followed by an intense feeling of hunger. Her breakfast had been exceptionally light and noon was fast approaching. A quick pass by the marketplace didn't seem like such a bad idea. She was hankering for an apple or two.

The market of Canterlot had been one of the most crowded places in all of the city before the disappearance, but now only a few scattered ponies wandered around. Guards on the streets stopped everypony trying to get in. They stopped Applejack and asked her to open her saddlebags. What the hay is going on, she thought. The guards at the entrances were acting standoffish and almost angry. Well, I guess everyone's a bit on edge these days.

Ponies were queuing up for bread and vegetables. All other stalls were closed. Applejack joined them at the back of the fruit line. A few heads turned towards her. Ponies whispered around her. She didn't mind.

The queue moved slowly. After fifteen minutes the old mare in front of Applejack started looking pale. She managed to buy a bag of goods and then walked away. It was Applejack's turn. For twenty bits she bought half a dozen apples, a tomato sandwich, and a jar of applesauce. The prices had gone up in the past week and a half.

Applejack looked for a place to enjoy her lunch and spotted an empty bench right next to the fountain in the center of the marketplace. The old mare who had waited in front of her sat on the opposite bench. Applejack set her things down and dug into the apples and sandwich. The applesauce she was going to save for later.

As Applejack munched on the sandwich she couldn't help watching the ponies around her do their business at the market. Every single one of them seemed tense and jumpy. No pony greeted anypony else. Some even hid themselves in cloaks, as if afraid to be exposed to the red twilight. She wondered if all of Equestria was as scared and confused as the ponies in Canterlot.

The old mare sitting opposite her across the fountain was preparing to leave. As she rose from the bench her knees gave out and she fell on her side with a thud. Applejack dropped her sandwich on the bench and rushed over to her. The mare's groceries had fallen on the ground. Other ponies at the marketplace looked in their direction but backed off after they noticed Applejack was already helping her.

Applejack reached her hoof out to help. "You alright Ma'am?"

"Oh, oh. Good heavens. How did that happen." She took Applejack's hoof.

Applejack carefully helped her back on the bench. Then she helped gather her groceries. They were all intact, if a bit dusty. Nothing that couldn't be washed off. Applejack put them into her bag and hoofed it over.

"Oh, bless you, sweetheart. How embarrassing, I was heading back home but found myself on the ground."

"No worries Ma'am. Accidents happen." She sat down next to her on the bench after fetching her lunch. The old mare looked just like Granny Smith, except for the mane style. She was a pumpkin orange unicorn, and her mane was a garish blue beehive. The idea of Granny ever getting a mane like that made Applejack smile. The shawl around her shoulders was dirty and stained, and she looked tired.

"Ma'am, is everything alright?"

"Aren't you the sweetest thing ever? Oh, don't worry about old Proud Pumpkin. Having no magic is tough, but I'll manage. Except for the clothes washing, I just can't get the hang of it without the ol' horn. Having to do everything by hoof and mouth is such a chore."

Applejack kept a straight face.

"Yup, it probably has been."

She took out the last apple she had left and bit into it. Sitting next to a rambling old pony while eating apples and watching the sun setting was oddly comforting. It was a feeling she didn't realize she had missed dearly.

"It was! All of this has been! When Princess Celestia disappeared, bless her soul, and that captain character was in charge they closed the city off. Had to, you know, all the guards went looking for the Princesses. My friend's daughter's coltfriend is a guard, he told her who told Pecan Pie who told me all about it. Everypony panicked and hoarded food and such. I'm much too old. Don't have family, I'm all alone except for the nice girl next door who looks after me, but she has three foals, I foalsit them once in a while, the youngest is sweet but the older colts can be a real hoof-full."

Applejack just sat next to her silently, nodding, and eating her apple. Once an old girl like her got going it was pointless to try and stop them.

"Anyway, the day I was going to go shopping was when it happened. Before I knew it everything was gone and there wasn't anything coming. The guards started pushing ponies around. Four days without food. Had to go ask my neighbors for scraps. Never been more humiliated in my life. But then those Gathering ponies arrived and started straightening things up. The first thing they did was open the doors again and let the produce sellers back. It's still rough for me queueing with my bad back and all, but at least I didn't have to beg my neighbors for food. They even started giving me my pension again. That Captain would have us locked up like bunny rabbits."

The mention of the Gathering made Applejack respond with a tinge of annoyance.

"Hold on there Missus, so you're saying you actually like having those ponies in charge?"

Those no-good time-wasting charlatans got someponies fooled, she thought to herself.

"Oh yes, they're quite lovely folk. I've had a chance to speak with some of them. They come for lunch here at the marketplace. They even let ponies come watch their meetings, you know. Can you believe it! Anypony can go watch them work if they want to. Couldn't do that when Princess Celestia was in charge. The Princess did listen to us, but you couldn't talk with her or go watch her work, you know? Not that many do cause they've got other things to do in the middle of the day, but not me. My calendar is as clear as my complexion."

The old mare giggled at her joke. Applejack couldn't help but again be reminded of Granny Smith. She was starting to like the old mare.

"Sure they bicker and go on and on for hours about who gets to say what and who sits next to who and it takes time to get anything sorted because everypony needs to agree, but they do make good decisions. Like opening the city again."

"So you're doing better now? What if they have to close the gates again?"

"Not so bad this time, I got my friend Swan Song to sell me some of her self-made preservatives. Should last me a month or so. I don't eat that much, to be honest. It does make me afraid of what will happen when winter comes and there's no snow or rain or sunlight. Won't have much to eat next year and that won't be good, I should know. When I was a filly there was terrible sickness in Cloudsdale. All the cloud wranglers were out of work for months, some never even flew again. The snow lasted months longer than it was supposed to. The hunger year they called it. Ponies fighting for scraps. Entire towns full of ponies fleeing to other cities. That's how my parents and I ended up here in Canterlot."

"Granny Smith never talked about ponies going hungry in her time."

"Granny Smith? You're related to Granola Smith? Ponyville Apples?"

"Yup, she's mah grandmare".

"Oh, what luck! She's the one that saved my family during the hunger year. Her specialty, that zesty rainbow apple jam, saved hundreds of ponies. One spoonful could keep a pony walking for seven days straight!"

The old unicorn shifted herself closer to Applejack and pulled her into a hug. Applejack didn't fight back.

"When you see her, say thanks for me. I was just a young filly, a face in a hungry crowd for her, but she saved me and mine. I never forgot about her kindness."

Proud Pumpkin let go of Applejack and slowly climbed off the bench. She grabbed her groceries and gave Applejack a final serious look.

"I know you lost your friends, sweetheart. I know how much it can hurt. But if it's any help, then know that me and all the rest of the little ponies believe in you, Applejack. You'll find them."

Applejack was left sitting on the bench. So she knew her friends disappeared along with the princesses. I guess everypony did by now. Proud Pumpkin might even have been in the audience at the Gathering when Applejack lost her cool.

Applejack opened her saddlebag and pulled out the jar of applesauce she had stashed. The golden contents of the glass jar stayed motionless as she turned the jar around and around. Zap apple jam, huh... Of course, she knew she wasn't the only pony suffering. All kinds of bad things had happened. Ponies across Equestria were scared and worried because the world was broken. And there would be much larger consequences to deal with, even if she managed to save her friends. It was all so much bigger than her. Hopelessly big.

Protect Equestria while I'm gone...

Was she doing that? Was taking down the gathering and setting Stern Sentinel as regent really what Twilight would have wanted? Applejack was forced to confront the one thought she had tried to repress all this time. There was an infinitely small chance that her friends were gone forever. The slimmest of chances, but it did still exist. Twilight could have made a miscalculation. She wasn't perfect, none of them were.

But she was her friend, and Applejack believed in her. If Twilight said she'd come back with everypony, then she would. It was that belief in her friends that kept her going, but it did not mean Equestria couldn't or shouldn't prepare for the worst. Once Stern was in charge they would continue the search for her friends, but they would not forget about the everypony else, all the ponies who just wanted to live their lives in peace. She was going to protect Equestria. Twilight had asked her to do it, so she was going to do it. No ifs or buts.

It didn't take long for her to gallop to the castle now that she was recharged with apple power. Running up to the main gate, Applejack expected to be stopped and questioned at the door. Instead, the guards let her through without saying a word. Stern Sentinel must have been expecting her.

Applejack crossed the inner courtyard of the Castle and headed towards the guard barracks. Entering through the main door, the tower of the captain was just up the stairs to the left. She was finally stopped on the highest floor of the castle by a pair of guards. One of them went inside to inform Captain Sentinel that Guardian Apple had arrived. A call from inside the room asked her to come in.

Sitting in the spacious tower room was Stern. Curved bookshelves lined the office. The only doors in and out were the one she had just stepped in and the glass door to the balcony. This was the first time she'd seen Stern out of armor. His cutie mark was a metal helmet surrounded by a yellow sun. His auburn brown coat looked steeped in blood, as the red light of the twilight flooded in through the open balcony door.

"Guardian Apple. I am pleased to see you. Corporal Axe, please close the door. I will call you if I need you."

He stood up and looked at the clock on the wall. It was five minutes past one. He walked over to the balcony door.

"Care to join me outside Guardian Apple? I would very much like some fresh air."

"Sure, no problem Cap'n."

She walked over. The pair stood on the balcony overlooking Canterlot. Applejack could see the entire city from up here. The walls, the main plaza, the magic school, even the hospital she had stayed in. Further away were the great walls, embracing the city as it clung to the side of the mountain. It always surprised her how big Canterlot truly was.

"The monotony of this cursed twilight has started getting on my nerves. I imagine being forced to endure such profanity for prolonged periods cannot be good for anypony. Not that I ever much enjoyed sunsets. Sunrises on the other hoof, do you not agree that those truly are the greatest moment of every day? Now, was there a specific reason for your visit?"

"You can bet your britches there is. I've figured out how to get rid of the gathering and get you back in charge."

Stern's stoic façade broke for a second. His eyebrows rose.

"Really?"

"Real as real is. No hanky-panky, just one special surprise, and the whole show is all history again."

Stern Sentinel didn't seem entirely convinced, but he did seem interested.

"The rules are very clear that only the Princess can disband the Gathering."

His eye twitched.

"Don't tell me you're planning on becoming a princess, are you?"

Applejack let out a hearty laugh.

"Hoo boy, not on your life pardner. I'm just doing what you said we should do; take fate into our hooves. That's why I'm here. I need access to the palace."

Stern was surprised by her demand, but he nodded with a grunt.

"You'll have what you came for, but I trust you know what you are doing, Guardian Applejack."

"As much as a prairie dog with a spinning wheel."

Stern was not amused.

He went back inside to retrieve the master key to the palace. He placed it on his desk. Applejack took it and tied it around her neck. She gave him a hurried thank you and rushed out. All she needed now was to fetch Mr. Artifact and Shining Armor's pal, and everything was set for them to fetch the Sunstaff. She rushed down the stairs of the tower, out the barracks, and through the main gate.

As Applejack was galloping through Canterlot along one of the many small backstreets, the sound of breaking ceramic made her stop. Applejack looked back. A roof tile had dropped down and broken on the cobblestone. She looked up. A glimpse of a figure leaping out of sight. Dark blue...

"What in hollering hound dogs."

She was being watched. Not the first time she had had the feeling, but now she knew for sure. Applejack wasn't used to all the scheming and skullduggery Canterlot had to offer, but apparently, it came with the territory. She shrugged and galloped off. No time to worry about that, she had a world to save.