Victory Apple

The moon cast a bright light across the barren plain, illuminating everything the group could see. The three of them traveled in silence, even though the frigid night air cut mercilessly through their fur and into their flesh. Winona stayed in the lead, sniffing the air for any oncoming scents, while Rainbow Dash covered the rear, wishing for nothing more than the ability to watch from the skies.

Winona halted without warning and growled. The others couldn't smell the sudden shift of magic in the air like she could, and were blindsided by the popping of three unicorns teleporting in.

“You shouldn't have come here,” one of the unfamiliar three scowled.

Rainbow Dash leapt at her nearest attacker, catching him off guard. Victory charged right for the the one nearest her, barely dodging her magic attack and headbutting her from the side. Winona barked loudly in the background, but was quickly silenced by a sleeping spell thrown in her direction.

Rainbow Dash was out next, thrown to the ground and held there by a paralysis charm. Victory managed to hit her attacker in the face, but was knocked aside by another. She felt the scrape of a horn against her torso right before a sharp blow to the head.

***

When Victory awoke, it took her a moment to figure out where she was. Opening her eyes, she was momentarily blinded by sunlight, and trying to shirk away only revealed that she was chained to something firm.

“So you're awake, huh?” Dashie noticed, “Good, for some reason they won't talk to me.”

She, Rainbow Dash, and Winona, the latter two already awake, were chained to an iron pole sticking out of the ground. They were in the middle of what appeared to be a large campsite, not too far away from a moderate bonfire. About a hundred yards away the ground ended in a drop-off exposing a large canyon.

“Exactly who is it that won't talk to ya, Rainbow Dash?” Victory demanded, looking around at the different ponies.

There were far more than just nine unicorns. Oh, she could see a few unicorns here and there, but the majority of these ponies had neither horns nor wings, and those that had wings looked too frail to fly. They were hungry, and many were bandaged. Many of the unicorns fared no better than the others. And occasionally Victory could see a small child sitting in the presence of its parent.

This was wrong. They needed help. They needed food. Children shouldn't be living like this. Why were they all here, and why did they not have food or equipment? What the hay had she gotten herself into?

She hadn't the time to ponder this question though. One of the unicorns had walked over, her familiar stetson resting just above her horn. Her eyes and her smirk gave off a sense of triumph. Victory could tell it was false.

“Well, well, well,” the leader cooed softly, “what have we here? You've found my home, sheriff, now what do you think?”

“I don't know what ya think yer doin' here, but when they find out I'm missing-”

“What we're doin', miss sheriff, is trying to survive!” she lashed out, momentarily losing her composure. Taking a second to calm down, she said, “That was pretty clever of you, getting our hopes up with that trap. It really broke their spirits when we came back empty-hooved and a stallion down.

“But I suppose it's our own fault, isn't it? From the way you fought us off before, we should have expected a trap, but we got complacent after taking the cart away from you the first time. Guess we thought that, this far out, we wouldn't need to exercise so much caution.”

“What are ya talkin' about?” Victory asked.

“What did you do to him, sheriff?” she asked, “How bad did you torture him?”

“I didn't torture nopony!”

“Of course not,” the leader spat, “you never do.”

Victory had no idea what she was going on about. But one thing was clear: despite her calm exterior, the mare had a lot of hatred brewing inside of her. For whom or over what was impossible to say, but she seemed frighteningly close to taking it out on Victory herself.

And what was that she had said about taking the cart away from Victory?

The leader of the camp wasn't done taunting her though. “If there's any food left at the end of the day, we'll consider sharing it with you,” she told them, “Until then, just watch. You might learn something. Oh, don't bother talking to them. They're under my orders not to interact with you.”

As she trotted away, Victory struggled to find the words to express her anger. “That no good...” she managed to stutter, before her rage collapsed. It just wasn't in her to stay mad. And she knew that it wouldn't help her in this situation to try.

***

Though it wasn't visible in the dirt, Twilight had no trouble finding the magical border when they came upon it. It was thin and feeble, but it was there, ready to alert its caster of their intrusion. And so far away from the canyon, it's radius must have been phenomenal. Twilight wondered exactly what these unicorns were doing out here stealing food if they could wield so much power.

“There's no way they could have detected it,” Twilight told the others, “They'd have been caught instantly. I can make it so that we won't trigger the alarm as we pass, but we'll have to be quick.”

She knew the proximity spell had to be maintained constantly and, as spread out as it was, deceiving it would be relatively simple.

“Okay...” she told them, preparing the spell, “Now!”

As soon as they were over, the group paused and collectively held their breaths. But there was no pop signaling the arrival of a unicorn, and they relaxed.

Fey nodded and said, “I'm guessing that's their only intruder warning?”

“I believe so,” Twilight said, “Just in case... Rarity, I need to conserve my magic. Can you handle that magic-detection spell?”

“Easy enough,” Rarity chimed, allowing her horn to glow softly as the magic stirred within her.

The deputy took the lead with Rarity, while the other three followed. They walked in near silence, ever worried that an attacker was hiding behind the nearest rock, or that Rarity's spell would fail and they'd trip an unseen alarm. Despite what she had said, Twilight occasionally allowed herself a small spell, just to ensure they weren't about to walk into any traps.

“Do you think she's okay?” Pinkie half-whispered, concern painted over her face.

“Oh, I hope so,” Fluttershy replied, “Poor Applejack. Oh, and Winona. Oh, and Rainbow Dash!”

“Girls,” Twilight interrupted, “I'm sure they're fine. Worrying about it isn't going to help matters.”

Pinkie retaliated, “But you saw what they did to Dashie and Fey, didn't you! Oh, poor Dashie, what have they done to you?”

Twilight put out a hoof to stop her and looked her straight in the eye. “I'm worried too,” she assured Pinkie, “But we have to keep our heads about us and hope for the best. We can't let our fears consume us, right?”

Pinkie nodded, but her eyes still burned with worry. Twilight nodded in return and the two kept on walking. Up ahead, Fey was asking Rarity a few questions.

“Is there any way to get the Apple Cider this far out? I mean, I like root beer and all just as much as the next mare, but it's expensive to carry across the desert. If we can find a way to get apple trees to grow and introduce cider as a replacement...”

“Sadly, deary, I don't know the first thing about... um, apple-based economics. Applejack really would be the pony to talk to.”

“I see...” Fey said, crestfallen, “We just really need the town to survive on its own. From the way things are looking, we won't have a very stable economy even once we're fully running. I'm worried that some ponies won't be able to keep their livelihood.”

“My, Applejack really couldn't have asked for a better partner than you, could she?”

“I'm sorry?” Fey asked.

“Why, you're smart, dedicated, and always willing to put the concerns of others above yourself. No wonder she likes you so much.” Rarity tried to put only a little bit of emphasis on these last two words, but they struck Fey like an axe.

The deputy chose not to say much after that. She just turned her eyes towards the horizon and stared out in that direction, hoping against hope that her dear companion was alright.

Across the barren plane, the campsite came into view long before they reached it. It amazed Fey how much endurance these unicorns must have had in order to make it across the desert and to their little town on the rumor of food. Even if they teleported most of the way there, it was still a tremendous amount of energy they spent, assuming she understood unicorn magic correctly. Twilight had tried to explain it to her that morning as she and Rarity practiced, and all it did was make Fey grateful that she was an earth pony.

“We'll stop here,” Fey finally decided, “Now that we know they're more likely than not being held hostage... and I don't think we can just run in and free them without consequence.”

“I'm picking up more than nine life signs,” Twilight said, scanning the camp with her magic, “A lot more. And they're not all unicorns. In fact,” she strained to make out the individual magic signatures, “Only six, maybe seven of them are, I think.”
She let the spell go and rubbed her head, “Can't be sure.” Some of the high-level spells she learned were practical, but they took a lot out of her.

“Twilight, can you cast an invisibility spell?” Fey asked.

“Oh dear Celestia!” Twilight cried, causing them all to jump, “You're asking for the moon with some of these spells, Fey... but I think so.”

“Can you extend it to other ponies?” she asked. This, however, was where Twilight drew the line on her magical abilities, and she shook her head.

“I was going to have you sneak in, free them, and sneak them out invisible with you.”

“That's not a bad plan,” Twilight admitted, “But it would take a higher-level unicorn than me.”

Fluttershy tried to say something, but was interrupted by Pinkie Pie shouting out, “How about we just ask them to let our friends go!?”

They ignored Pinkie Pie, as any sane mare would at a time like this, and again Fluttershy tried offering a suggestion. But she was drowned out when Rarity said, “If it comes to a fight, we're horribly outnumbered. And I do not want to be running around next to a cliff like that.”

“We need a distraction,” Fey decided, “But what's something we can do that's not too dangerous?”

Fluttershy butt in, “Why don't we ask them why they've been stealing from the town?”

Fey was confused by this. “They're thieves,” she tried to explain, “What more explanation do you need?” But that got her thinking. In all the stories she'd read, the hero had never bothered to find a reason why the villains behaved the way they did. She'd modeled her life after those stories...

Rarity asked, “So you don't even know why these ponies are stealing from you?”

“It doesn't matter,” Fey insisted quickly, almost immediately regretting it, “besides, it's not like they've ever stopped to talk. You of all ponies should remember how hard it was to get just one of them to talk!”

“Be that as it may,” Rarity replied, “It seems as though you could have put more effort into learning about your enemy.”
Twilight interrupted them, “Rarity has a point, Fey, but right now we all have to focus on freeing Applejack and Rainbow Dash.”

“And Winona,” Fluttershy added.

“And Winona,” Twilight agreed.

“How about we do both?!” Pinkie chimed in again.

“Explain.”

“Well, Deputy Lawless can go in to try and talk to them like I said, and while they're distracted, Twilight can sneak in and save the others.”

“That'll never work,” Fey insisted, “They won't listen to me.”

“Yes they will,” Twilight told her, “You have to believe me Fey- you're so very good with words. It's so clear that everypony trusts you, you just have to trust in yourself. Remember how you convinced the farmer to lend us his crop?”

“That was different.”

“Was it really?” Twilight asked.

Fey looked from Twilight to each of the others. They were dead set on sending her in as a distraction.

“What would I say?” she whimpered, feeling hopeless.

Rarity told her, “Find out why they're here, and why they're trying to steal so much from your town.”

Fey nodded, saying, “Alright. But you come with me.” Rarity looked alarmed. The deputy explained, “I can't go in alone or they'll eat me alive. Twilight has to be the one to turn herself invisible, but she taught you some kind of protection spell, right?”

“Well, yeah... but I'm afraid it's not quite as good as hers.”

Twilight reminded her, “You have to be confident, or they'll be able to sense your insecurity.”

Turning to Fey, she concluded, “Make sure you have all their attention. We can't risk them spotting us running away.”

“Got it.”

Pinkie asked excitedly, “What can me and Fluttershy do?”

Fey thought about it for a moment. Then she said, “You two go back. Alert the mayor that we're out here and tell the town to prepare for an assault. If we fail, I fear it will only be a matter of time. Have them send somepony right away for assistance from the royal army. If we succeed, we can send a messenger after the first to intercept and call her off.” She looked the pony very sternly in the eye and said, “Pinkie, I'm counting on you.”

“Okey dokey loki!” Pinkie chimed, grabbing Fluttershy and running off with her in the direction they came from. Nopony had the chance to warn her about the proximity alarm, but knowing Pinkie it wouldn't make a difference.

Twilight watched them go and a touch of uneasiness stirred in her heart. “It's not right,” she said, “letting them go. I don't know if we can fight without all six bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Well hopefully it won't come to that,” Rarity told her, but her tone said that she knew exactly what Twilight meant.