Spiked Apple Cider

Chapters

Nothing Else Matters
Working for the Weekend
Thunderstruck
Kickstart My Heart
Nightmare

Nothing Else Matters

With the rising of Celestia’s glorious sun and the obnoxious crowing of a nearby rooster, a cream-colored filly with a red mane awoke in her bed on a warm midsummer morning. She pulled off her nightcap and groggily arose to start her day. After she combed her mane, brushed her teeth, and straightened her tail, she stared in the mirror for a moment, thinking about what she had to do at school today. As a thought crossed her mind, her eyes widened, as did her smile.

Friday! Today was the day!

She squealed in delight and raced down the hall, where she accidentally crashed into her older sister Applejack.

“Uh-oh,” she moaned, “Ah’m sorry, sis! Didn’t see ya there.”

“It’s alright, Apple Bloom,” the orange mare replied, wincing in slight pain. “Just be careful next time. Where’s tha fire, sugarcube?” she asked, her tone switching from calm to curious.

“Ah forgot ‘bout today! Miss Cheerilee said we were having a guest speaker in class today!”

“Well, ya better git goin’ then,” she replied. “Grab an apple or two on yer way out!”

“Will do!” she called as she raced into the kitchen and dropped three apples into her saddlebag, along with her lunch. An elderly green mare was seated at the dining room table.

“Well, somepony’s in a rush this mornin’!” she said.

“Sorry, Granny Smith, but I don’t wanna be late for school today! Ah gotta go!” she admitted hurriedly as she slung her bag over her back. “Ah love ya!” She gave her grandmother a hug.

“Love ya too, Applejack,” she said back.

“Granny!” the filly protested sweetly, “I’m Apple Bloom! Applejack is still upstairs.”

“Oh…right. Well, off with ya!”

“Bye!” she said as she raced out the door, shouting another farewell to Big Macintosh, who was busy bucking apples.

“Eeyup,” he replied unsteadily.

As the filly raced off to school, she never saw her big brother’s face turn a revolting shade of green.

“Good morning, class!” a fuchsia mare greeted.

“Good morning, Miss Cheerilee!” they called back.

“Well, class, as you know, we’ve been working on our times tables up to 8x8, and the time has come for you to take a test…”

The class groaned at the idea.

“But if everypony does well,” Cheerilee continued, “I’ll have a very special surprise for all of you after lunch!”

“YAY!” they cheered.

“But before that, we have to get through this,” She passed out the test sheets to the class, who groaned once more. “Everypony grab a pencil and begin. Set your worksheets on my desk when you’re finished.”

The test was an innocent set of multiplication problems. Just figure out the problems and write down the answers. As usual, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara finished first, both looking as snooty and stuck up as ever. Apple Bloom eyed her paper nervously at first, but then she remembered all the time that she, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had spent studying with Impact Hammer down at the Broken Wing Workshop, and the answers began to flow from her head like water. 5 x 3…15, 4 x 7…28, 7 x 8…56. She was done in about twenty minutes and finished at the same time as her fellow Crusaders did.

As she passed in her test and returned to her desk, Apple Bloom breathed a sigh of relief. The worst part of her day was behind her. Now she could look forward to the rest of it…

That afternoon…

“Follow me, everypony!” Cheerilee called to her class, leading them out into the meadow behind the schoolhouse. She led them to a large clearing in the center of the grassy field. Once everypony was seated, a burst of white magic brought forth a silver pony with crimson eyes and a blue-and-black striped mane. Her left wing and left foreleg shimmered in the afternoon sun, reflecting much more light than normal wings and legs were meant to.

Impact Hammer, the alicorn who ran the Broken Wing Workshop, the new repair center in the heart of Ponyville, was standing before them wearing a lab coat and safety glasses.

“Hi, everypony!” she said with a smile.

“Hi, Miss Impact!” the class replied.

“Impact has prepared a science demonstration for us,” Cheerilee explained, turning their attention to Impact as she sat down beside her students. “They're all yours.”

“Before we begin, I need each of you to put one of these on.” She picked up a box with her magical aura and passed it around to the class. It was filled with foal-sized pairs of safety glasses, and each pony took a pair and placed it over their eyes. “Safety first, everypony!” she said with a smile as she levitated an adult-size pair toward the schoolmare. “You too, Cheerilee.” The teacher nodded gratefully and Impact gently guided the protective eyewear onto her face.

“Today, we’re going to talk about the science of matter,” Impact said as she began her lesson. “Does anypony know what matter is?” she asked.

Silver Spoon raised her hoof apprehensively.

“Isn’t matter just…stuff?” she asked.

“Actually, yes!” Impact explained, “Matter is the substance from which all physical objects consist. It’s in everything from the grass and the trees to you and me! Matter comes in three forms on our planet, known as states of matter. Can anypony name one?”

An orange hoof shot into the air.

“Gases!” Scootaloo cried.

“Exactly!” she said as she held up two balloons in her magical aura, one red and one blue, “Gases have neither definite shape nor definite volume.” She let the balloons go. The red one flew off into the sky, but the blue one sank to the earth like a rock. “Those balloons were the exact same size and shape, but behaved completely differently! Can anypony tell me why?”

It seemed like nopony would figure it out until Apple Bloom raised her hoof.

“Yes, Apple Bloom?”

She scratched her head for a moment. “Ah think tha balloons are filled with different gases.”

“That's absolutely correct!” Impact said with a smile, “The red balloon was filled with a gas called helium, which is lighter than air, so it rises. The blue balloon was filled with a gas known as xenon, which is heavier than air.”

“So that’s why tha blue one sank!” the yellow filly realized, her eyes alight with epiphany.

“Exactly! What’s another state of matter?”

Diamond Tiara’s hoof rose.

“Liquids.” she spoke with an elegant tone.

“Well done!” Impact replied as she turned the class’ attention to a jar of used cooking oil. “Liquids have a definite volume, but no definite shape. The shape of a liquid conforms to the container it’s placed in.” She raised it above her head and dumped it out, letting her magic condense it into a floating sphere. The oil began to flow, guided by her will into a hypnotizing show of shapes and waves, rippling and twisting in all directions, until it rose into the air and exploded, dispersing into a fine mist. With a flick of her horn, the droplets recombined into a single laminar stream and flowed back into the jar, much to the students' amazement.

“And the third state of matter?” she asked as she twisted the jar’s lid closed.

Sweetie Belle raised her hoof.

“Solids?” she asked.

“Very good, Sweetie Belle!” she praised, “All solids have a definite shape and a definite volume.” She paused for a moment as brought forth a wooden table with her magic. “I actually found this table in the basement of my house when I first moved in, and I just can’t stand to look at it anymore, so…I’ve decided to destroy it!” She looked toward the class, who were now thoroughly intrigued. “How do you think I should put this eyesore out of its misery? With a sledgehammer? With a hatchet?” She cast a devilish smile. “Or…with a chainsaw?”

Several colts sat bolt upright. They immediately recognized the name of the signature weapon from the Equestria-famous zompony apocalypse comic book saga The Trotting Dead.

“CHAINSAW! CHAINSAW! CHAINSAW!” roared the cheering crowd, mostly from the colts, Scootaloo, and most surprisingly, Miss Cheerilee!

“Well…can’t argue with that!” she said with a smile as her horn glowed and her bionic hoof transformed. The outer metal panels slid back to reveal the intimidating bladed weapon. She reared back and let out a loud battle cry as the chainsaw came to life with a powerful roar, then swung forward, letting the razor-sharp teeth bite into the ugly table and cleave it in two. As the pieces fell to the earth, the class roared with approval. Impact turned off her chainsaw and let it disappear underneath the outer shell of her mechanical hoof, which regained its default structure.

“Well!” she said, wiping the sweat from her brow, “That was fun…OH! That reminds me! Some substances can change from one state of matter to another. These are called phase changes, and one substance in particular on this planet can exist in all three states, depending on the temperature. Can anypony tell me what I’m talking about?”

“WATER!”

“Absolutely right.” She teleported an ice cube tray, a drinking glass, and a teapot before her. “Because of its low melting and boiling points, water can freeze into solid ice, melt back into liquid water, then boil into steam. As you can see, the three states of matter are everywhere, either as solids, liquids, or gases. From the foods you eat and drink, to the air you breathe, to the planet beneath your feet. Isn’t that fascinating?”

The foals nodded in agreement.

“But…I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She leaned in close to whisper to the class. “Did you know that a fourth state of matter exists?”

The class began to murmur anxiously.

“Miss Impact?” Apple Bloom said nervously, “Ah thought ya said there were only three states of matter.”

“Yes. On Earth. There are three states of matter found on Earth.” She cast a spell and her bionic hoof transformed again, exposing a dark grey open-ended cylinder. “While it isn’t found naturally on our planet, it can be created to a certain extent. It goes beyond our planet, beyond our solar system, beyond our galaxy. This fourth state of matter makes up 99% of our universe.” She closed her eyes and began to focus. Her mane and tail began to lightly crackle and spark with electricity. Eventually, a blue sphere of energy materialized in the end of the device. “This is the fourth state of matter, and it’s called plasma.” she explained as she opened her eyes.

The class sighed with astonishment at the sight of the swirling blue energy ball.

“Plasma is created when a gas is heated to point that it becomes ionized, where the atoms don’t same the same number of electrons as protons…”

“Remember, Impact!” Cheerilee warned. “These are foals you’re instructing.”

“Oh…yeah…right,” Impact said with a slight blush. “This is my Plasma Cannon,” she said to the class. “It allows me to channel my natural electricity into bursts of energy. When the gases inside get really, really hot, I can launch them like this. Glasses on, everypony!” she quickly warned.

She turned and eyed a large bulls-eye tacked to a tree, one of several temporary targets she’d set up all around the schoolyard. Striking a tripod stance, she lined up her target, aimed and fired. The blue energy ball shot outward and left a charred black hole in the paper…and the tree. She spun around, faced the jungle gym, and took out a row of targets tied to the bars with six rapid-fire blasts.

Over and over, she spun, flipped, and fired, blasting every target in the school yard, eliciting louder and louder cheers from the class with every target she hit, until she blasted her final target: a pinecone perched atop the schoolhouse roof. The schoolyard erupted with applause.

“Very impressive, Impact!” Cheerilee said, awestruck.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo cheered, “I’ve never seen Rainbow Dash do anything as cool as that before!”

“Where’d ya learn ta shoot like that?” Apple Bloom wondered.

“Practice, practice, practice. Every single day,” Impact said confidently. “I’m pretty sure I could hit just about anything with this thing.”

“Anything?” called a voice from behind.

Out of nowhere, a majestic white alicorn emerged from behind a tree. Everypony stopped in their tracks and knelt to the ground, praising their illustrious princess.

“Good afternoon, Princess Celestia!” everypony greeted in unison.

“Good afternoon, my little ponies!” the solar matriarch replied. “Such a wonderful day to be outside, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes it is,” Cheerilee agreed. “What brings you to Ponyville so...unexpectedly?”

“I suddenly need a reason to consort with my subjects?” Celestia replied with a strict tone, casting a fierce glare toward the fuchsia mare. As the schoolmare’s eyes widened in fear, the princess’ gaze softened and she erupted into a fit of giggles. “I jest, Cheerilee, I jest,” she assured with a smile, “My personal chef had a funeral to attend this afternoon, so I decided to go out for lunch today.” Using her magic, she produced an apple from her bag and took a big CHOMP out of it. “Mmm… delicious!” she cooed blissfully, which prompted a beaming grin from Apple Bloom. “It also gave me the perfect opportunity to visit my daughter.” She cast a wink and a smile at Impact, who blushed at the unexpected attention.

It had been six months since Celestia publically revealed Impact’s status as her adoptive daughter. Needless to say, most of Equestria was shocked and appalled by the news, but when the two explained the terrible accident and the subsequent events that brought them together, their hearts softened and their perspective soon shifted. Everypony began to see that Celestia was not only a kind and just ruler, but a loving, caring mother as well.

“How’d you know I was here?” Impact asked. As the question left her lips, the image of a certain purple unicorn popped into her brain. She smiled knowingly.

“Twilight…” the two alicorns said simultaneously, chuckling at their perfect timing.

“So, Impact…what are YOU doing here?” Celestia wondered.

“It’s a science experiment,” she explained. “I’m demonstrating the four states of matter: solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas.”

“Really?” The princess raised an eyebrow as she noticed the shredded table, singed targets, and general disarray. “You appear to be simply destroying things for sheer amusement.”

“Maaaaaaybe…” she replied nervously, “Why do you ask?”

Celestia’s horn began to glow with a pale yellow energy and she levitated over a large green oval-shaped object; an object which brought a smile to the face of every colt and filly in Cheerilee’s class.

“That depends,” she said with a sigh. “I just hope I didn’t haul this thing all the way from Canterlot for nothing…” Her lips curled into a devious smirk. “Care for one last demonstration?”

Over at Sugarcube Corner, Rarity emerged from the bakery, her brand-new white sundress sparkling in the sun. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle were following right behind her. The elegant unicorn had just made it out the door when Pinkie’s tail suddenly started twitching.

“Hold up, Twilight!” the earth pony said, using her body as a barricade between her best friend and the outside world.

“What is it this time, Pinkie?” Twilight wondered with a hint of sarcasm.

“Oh, nothing! Just an unexpected change in the weather!” she said with a cheer.

“But it’s a cloudless blue sky, darling!” Rarity protested, “And the weather reports don’t call for rain until this evening!”

Out of nowhere, Rarity was drenched with a deluge of an unknown substance which, from Twilight and Pinkie’s perspective, was wet, chunky, and pink.

“AAH!” she screamed, “MY NEW DRESS! IT’S RUINED!!!”

“What the hay was that?” Twilight wondered, silently grateful that she was still standing inside the building.

Pinkie stepped outside and sniffed the strange substance staining the unicorn’s dress. She took a careful lick and her eyes shot open at the sweet taste.

“MMM!” she groaned with delight, “Tastes like watermelon!”

“Well, that was certainly unexpected,” Twilight said with a giggle.

Pinkie Pie was about to go in for a second taste of Rarity’s now-delicious dress when various parts of her body began twitching, which escalated into violent trembling, then paroxysmal convulsing, and finally culminated in what appeared to be a full-blown epileptic seizure. Twilight and Rarity could only stare in horror as their best friend’s body twisted and contorted into the most unnatural of angles, even for a pony as flexible as Pinkie Pie.

“Uh-oh…” she shouted, her voice trembling as she vibrated, “This is gonna be a doozy!”

“What’s going to happen, darling?” Rarity wondered before going back to moaning and complaining about her fruit-splattered ensemble.

“I don’t know,” she explained after she stopped twitching and stood back up on her hooves.

“So somepony gets startled or something,” Twilight said skeptically, dismissing the thought with a wave of her hoof, “You can just warn them before it happens. You know.”

“That’s just it,” Pinkie said, her voice quaking with extreme worry, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“The who, the what, the where…IT’S JUST NOT THERE.” she stammered as she paced back and forth, visibly trembling with anxiety.

The two unicorns’ apprehension grew as their pink friend kept rambling.

“Now something very, very bad is gonna happen and I can’t stop it! What if somepony gets hurt…or worse? I couldn't bear the thought of somepony getting hurt because of me! My Pinkie Sense has never betrayed me like this before! Read my lips, Twilight! I. DON’T. KNOW.”

“Well, what do you know!?!?” Twilight and Rarity asked, now thoroughly unsettled.

“All I know is somepony in Ponyville is in for a really big shock tonight…” Pinkie admitted with a sigh.

Working for the Weekend

The deafening klaxon of the bell signaled the end of the school day and the start of the weekend.

“See you Monday, my little ponies!” Cheerilee called as her students left the schoolhouse.

Apple Bloom stood outside the schoolhouse, pacing back and forth anxiously. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo trotted over to her.

“What’s up, Bloom?” they asked.

“Applejack isn’t here ta walk me home,” she replied. “She’s always here before tha final bell on Friday!”

“It’s OK!” Sweetie Belle said cheerfully, “We’ll walk you home!”

“Ah’m not sure. Applejack might get worried if she shows up lookin’ fer me after Ah’m already gone.”

“Maybe something came up...” Scootaloo assured, “Besides, you’ve walked home with us dozens of times.”

“Well…” she pondered, “As long as Ah’m with you two, Ah don’t see tha harm.”

As the three passed through the farmer’s market and crossed a bridge, they struck up a conversation.

“What should we do today?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Try to earn our Cutie Marks like we always do!” Scootaloo said enthusiastically, “Log rolling? Corn shucking? Skydiving? What do you say?”

“Not today, Scootaloo,” Sweetie replied. “Not after we tried to earn our fire-walking Cutie Marks… My tail still hasn’t fully grown back!” She glanced back mournfully at her shortened tail.

“I said I was sorry!” Scootaloo retorted.

“Actually, girls, Ah was plannin’ on practicin’ mah apple-buckin’ some more…” Apple Bloom replied.

“Fine.” Scootaloo sighed, “Can we at least grab a snack at Sugarcube Corner first?”

They set a course for Sugarcube Corner when a voice suddenly rang out behind them.

“Apple Bloom!” Cheerilee called, racing up the path.

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee?” she asked as she trotted over to her.

“I’m terribly sorry,” she said between breaths as she panted, “It completely slipped my mind. Applejack told me to tell you why she wasn’t able to walk you home today.”

“What happened?” she asked nervously.

“Apparently, Big Macintosh has been out sick all day.”

The three fillies were flabbergasted.

“WHAT?” Apple Bloom gasped.

“It’s not too serious, but he’s definitely too sick to work.”

“Man. That sounds terrible,” Scootaloo said glumly.

“Ah’ve gotta get home and check on him!” Apple Bloom said, wishing a hasty goodbye to her friends before racing off toward Sweet Apple Acres with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo not too far behind.

“Tell him I said hello!” Cheerilee called after them.

After cleaning up the debris from her target practice at the schoolhouse, Impact decided to do a bit of grocery shopping at the market in the center of town. She meandered around the shops and stalls, stopping every now and again to buy something: milk, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, and other necessities to last her a week or two. As she made her way through the crowds of ponies with her purchases safe in her saddlebags, she passed the spot where she expected Applejack to be with her apple cart, selling everything from apple pies to apple dumplings to just plain apples. However, after doing a quick double-take, she realized that the space was empty, only to turn back around and get a faceful of orange and blonde.

“Watch where yer goin’, ya lousy…,” the startled pony started to berate before she noticed who crashed into her, “Oh! Howdy Impact!”

“Hey, Applejack! What’s new?”

“Just a sec, sugarcube.” She turned back to the vendor, who just happened to be Carrot Top.

“There you are! A dozen carrots. That’ll be fifteen bits, please.”

She pulled the bits out of her coin purse and set them on the counter, then slid the carrots into her bag. “Thanks, Carrot! Have a nice day!”

“You too, Applejack!” she replied.

Her transaction complete, she turned her attention back to her alicorn friend.

“Now what were ya sayin’, Impact?” she asked as they strode through the marketplace together.

“Just saying hi,” Impact replied. “Are you picking up some groceries, too?”

“Sure as shootin’!” the straw-hatted mare said as she gestured to the saddlebags draped over her back, “Just a few thangs for supper tonight.”

“Mind if I take a look?”

“Ah’d prefer if ya didn’t…”

Impact couldn’t resist taking a peek. She saw the aforementioned carrots, a bottle of milk, some herbs, a freshly cleaned chicken, and a bag of… Her eyes widened at the sight of them. No, they couldn’t be.

“AJ… You didn’t…” she said in a horrified whisper.

“Ah have no idea what yer talkin’ about,” she retorted, visibly shaken. She quickened her pace to a brisk trot and continued down the street. She passed the Broken Wing Workshop, Impact’s home and place of business, but the alicorn matched her tempo hoof for hoof.

“I’d expect Apple Bloom to do something like this, but you?” she said in a harsh whisper, “This is almost scandalous!”

“It’s not what ya think!” Applejack replied, now looking visibly shaken.

“Are those…oranges in your bag?” she said with a devious smile.

“SO WHAT IF THEY ARE?” the apple farmer boomed, now fuming.

She locked eyes with Applejack, cast a sinister glare for several seconds, and then burst out laughing.

“Easy!” she said defensively, “I don’t care what kind of fruit you have, Applejack! Oranges are awesome! They help prevent scurvy! From cherries to cherimoyas, fruit is fruit!”

“Ah guess yer right… Wait a second. What’s a cherry-moyer?”

“Cherimoya,” corrected a familiar voice, “the fruit of the Annona cherimola tree, whose soft, creamy texture and sweet taste provide its secondary name, the custard apple.”

“Oh, those thangs!” Applejack said as the idea lantern in her mind lit up. “Mah third cousin Custard Apple grows them cherry-moyers down in the tropics of southern Equestria.”

“Cherimoyas…” the voice corrected again.

Impact turned her head back to see none other than Twilight Sparkle trotting up the street, with her faithful assistant Spike walking beside her.

“Twilight! Spike! Hi!” the two mares greeted simultaneously.

“Good afternoon, Applejack!” Twilight replied with a smile.

“What’s up, Impact?” Spike said, presenting the alicorn with an extended fist, who brought her own hoof up to meet it.

“Did I just hear you use Applejack and oranges in the same sentence?” Twilight said incredulously.

Spike gasped audibly and clutched his chest with his hand, feigning a heart attack.

“Blasphemy! Blasphemy, I say!”

Applejack started to tense up again, but Impact quickly intervened.

“Lighten up, you two. It’s just fruit. Besides, judging by the other foodstuffs, I see fresh-squeezed orange juice and homemade chicken soup in somepony’s future.”

“Ya got that right.”

“Oh no!” Twilight moaned, “Is Granny Smith OK?”

“Actually, Twi’, it’s meant fer Big Macintosh. Ah think he’s got a cold.”

Impact suddenly jolted a foot into the air, as if a bolt of electricity had jolted up her spine.

“Whoa!” she huffed as she landed, shaking her mane furiously and laughing, “Talk about a shocking development!”

Spike groaned at the terrible joke, but he chuckled a bit at the slapstick delivery.

“Very funny,” Applejack replied smugly, “but Ah really gotta get home.”

“Would you mind if Spike and I came with you?” Twilight asked, “I’m sure Big Macintosh would enjoy our company.”

“Ah guess it would be alright, but don’t blame me if y’all end up getting’ sick.”

“I’ll come too!” Impact chimed in, “Just let me put my groceries away. I’ll be back in a minute.”

True to her word, fifty-nine seconds later, Impact was back.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

Thunderstruck

Apple Bloom raced up to the farmhouse, desperate for information about her brother. After running all the way home from school, she stopped for a few minutes to catch her breath. The primary adrenaline rush was long gone, leaving exhaustion in its place. She’d just made it into the living room when a loud noise pierced the stillness, scaring her out of her wits and knocking her to the floor. Suddenly, the whole house started to shake, and as the vibrations grew more and more intense, the farmhouse fell into greater and greater disarray. She saw picture frames fall from their hooks and shatter. She heard pots and pans clanging in the kitchen. She felt the floorboards shift beneath her hooves as they bowed and bent under the strain. Terrified by what was experiencing, she grabbed the doorframe and clung to it for dear life until the creaks and groans subsided. Avoiding the newly-broken glass on the floor, she cautiously ascended the stairs to the second floor. She slowly trotted up to her brother’s bedroom door and pressed it open just enough to see inside when another booming sound shook the house once more. As she peered inside, however, the little filly couldn’t resist cracking a smile. Now that she was closer to the source, all the pieces fell into place and she realized what was truly going on…

Lying in his bed was an out-of-commission Big Macintosh, who unleashed another powerful sneeze and groaned uncomfortably from the exertion.

“Hey, big brother. Miss Cheerilee told me ya ain’t feelin’ well,” Apple Bloom said.

“Eeyup,” he replied with a raspy wheeze after blowing his muzzle into a tissue.

“Miss Cheerilee also said hi.”

“Eeyup,” he repeated, smiling at the thought of the fuchsia schoolmare. The massive red stallion tried with trembling hooves to lift his muscular frame out of bed, but froze in his tracks as a voice called out from down the hall.

“Macintosh! Ya better not be trying ta git outta bed again!” Granny Smith scolded.

“But Gran-,” he groaned.

“No buts, mister!” the elderly mare retorted, cutting him off, “Yer in no condition ta buck apples today! Ah sent Applejack out to fetch some fixins fer a pot o’ chicken soup, and yer not gettin’ outta that bed until ya have a bowl! Do ya understand me, boy?”

“Yes, Granny,” he muttered futilely as he slowly lowered himself back onto the bed.

“But if yer sick in bed an’ AJ’s out shoppin’, who’s gonna buck the apples?” Apple Bloom asked with a whimper. Suddenly, her eyes lit up like tiny suns. “Ah can do it, big brother! I can buck the apples fer ya!”

“Nope.” Big Mac refused, shaking his head.

“But Maaaac!” she whined.

“No, Bloom,” he huffed, dismissing the thought with a wave of his hoof. “We both know yer not strong enough ta buck just yet.”

“But…” she whimpered.

“Tha apples ain’t goin’ anywhere, sis,” Big Mac said with a sigh. “One day off won’t kill me.”

“Granny’s got ya on lockdown,” the filly said somberly. “Trust me, Big Mac. If bein’ sick hasn’t driven ya bonkers yet, bein’ bored sure will.”

The crimson stallion smiled and choked out a wheezy, congested laugh.

“Ah’ll let ya get some rest, Mac. Get well soon, big brother!” she said with a cheerful grin.

“Eeyup…” he said in a hoarse rasp.

She slowly stepped out of her big brother’s room and into the hall, closing the door behind her. Despite being angry about his stubbornness, she smiled.

Even when he’s lying sick in bed with a head cold, Big Macintosh could still say a mouthful with a single word.

But as the door’s latch clicked, Apple Bloom’s eyes lit up again. This time, however, they carried a sinister gleam. Her red-orange pupils held the hypnotic allure of devilish deeds to come: the adventurous luster found only in the scheming eyes of a Cutie Mark Crusader. Apple Bloom slowly tip-hoofed to her room, rummaged under her bed, and pulled out a box. A box marked Crusaders Only.

“This is an emergency,” she muttered to herself as she slid the box open to reveal four yellow boots: Four wonderful, dangerous yellow boots. A set of boots, which she’d lovingly dubbed ‘Thumpers,’ that Impact Hammer built for her as a gift.

“Granny Smith’s takin’ care of Big Macintosh and Applejack’s not home yet,” Apple Bloom said to herself as she slipped her hooves into them, “so that means no apples are gettin’ bucked.” She looked out her window and saw the dark clouds on the horizon, heading her way. “There’s a storm blowin’ in tonight, and that puts tha apples in danger, too.”

She climbed onto her bed and leaned out of her window, casting her gaze over the massive orchard. Next, she tapped a button on her left forehoof and the soles of her boots began to glow bright red. Finally, she crouched into a pouncing stance and froze there, biding her time, waiting for the perfect moment…

And soon enough, it arrived.

“Ah-ah-ah-CHOO!” Big Macintosh sneezed and the house began to shake once more.

Seizing her opportunity, Apple Bloom sprang forward with all her might. She leapt out of the second-story window and hit the ground hooves-first. The kinetic energy of the fall and the subsequent impact was channeled into her Thumpers and distributed into the ground as powerful energy pulses. Pulses which, to Apple Bloom’s delight, were now indiscernible from the aftershock of Big Mac’s mighty sneeze.

“Ah might not be strong enough ta buck apples like mah big sis and mah big bro,” Apple Bloom said to herself, as the farmhouse settle and the evening winds began to whistle through the limbs and leaves of Sweet Apple Acres.

“But with these thangs on mah hooves, Ah don’t need ta be.”

As the four friends left the market, the skies over Ponyville began to turn dark. Lightning flashed across the sky with thunder booming close behind; two critical signs that a storm was brewing. Over time, the storm clouds rolled in closer, turning the afternoon sky from blue to gray. Finally, as the four came within sprinting distance of Sweet Apple Acres, Impact shivered as a cold chill ran down her spine. She turned her gaze skyward and noticed that the skies were black; not gray like stone or cement, but pitch black.

“This feels strangely familiar…” Impact asked, her eyes gazing heavenward as a smile spread across her face. Her three friends looked up and couldn’t resist cracking a smile as well.

“Eeyup,” Applejack said in a perfect mimic of her brother’s catchphrase. “It’s tha mud hole fiasco all over again…”

Spike nodded in agreement. It was the same shade of inky darkness as the storm clouds that changed everypony’s lives for the better.

“As disastrous as that storm was,” Twilight concurred, “it brought us one of the best things to ever wander into Ponyville.”

“And what was that?” Impact asked with a dribble of feigned sarcasm.

“Who tha hay do ya think it was, ya featherbrain?” Applejack said with a chuckle, gently jabbing the alicorn in the ribs with a hoof. Eventually, they started laughing out loud… just as another thunderclap echoed overhead and heavy rain began falling from the sky. Out of nowhere, they were caught in the middle of a torrential downpour.

“Alright, alright!” Impact said, “I’m enjoying this trip down memory lane as much as the next pony, but let’s get out of this rain before I start to rust.”

The foursome shared one more bout of laughter as they galloped through the gates toward the farmhouse.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was busily bucking away at a row of apple trees in the northeast corner of the orchard when she felt the first raindrops hit her nose. She ignored it and kept on working.

“A little rain never hurt anypony,” she reminded herself. “If Big Mac can weather tha storm, then Ah can do it, too!"

The four friends raced into the farmhouse and quickly tried to dry off.

“Whoo!” Impact said with a smile as she wrung the water from her tail. “Another drencher!”

“Yep! Applejack concurred, twisting her ponytail in a similar manner. “That’s just what tha trees needed! Let me set these in tha kitchen and Ah’ll go grab some towels fer everypony.” She strode off for the kitchen.

“That sounds ni- WHOA!” Twilight started to say before noticing the chaos in the Apple family living room. “What happened in here?” she asked in shock.

A response came in the form of a powerful shockwave that shook the house, knocking Impact off her hooves as Spike leapt onto Twilight’s back and clung to her mane for dear life.

“Like Ah said… Big Mac has a head cold,” Applejack reminded. “Granny Smith! Ah’m home!” she called out as she walked away.

“Welcome back, darlin'!” Granny Smith said with a smile as she hugged her granddaughter. “Did you get tha goods for tha soup?”

“Sure did, Granny! Let’s git started!”

Back in the living room, the dragon, unicorn, and alicorn were aghast at the destruction one sick stallion could cause without even leaving his bed. Suddenly, Applejack’s head popped back into the door frame.

“Y’all stayin’ fer dinner?” she asked with a smile.

The three shook their heads to break themselves from their trance.

“Sure! Thanks!” they said in unison.

“Don’t mention it!” she replied, disappearing back into the kitchen.

“Come on, Twilight.” Impact said with a polite wave of her hoof. “Let’s clean this mess up while we wait.” Her horn began to glow and she cast her aura on the broken picture frames, reassembling the shattered glass and hanging them back on their nails.

“Good call,” Twilight replied, igniting her horn and summoning a broom and dustpan. “Hey Spike! Why don’t you go play with Apple Bloom until dinner’s ready? We’ve got things handled down here.”

“She’s upstairs, sweetie!” Granny Smith said from the kitchen. “Can’t miss her!”

“Alright. I’ll see everypony at dinner. Later!” He toddled off up the stairs to Apple Bloom’s room.

Twilight and Impact spent several minutes tidying up the living room when

“Twilight! Apple Bloom isn’t up here…” Spike called from the top of the stairs.

“What?” she replied, puzzled by the response.

“She’s not here!” he repeated, panic growing in his voice, “Big Mac hasn’t seen her, either!”

“What?” Applejack cried nervously as she trotted into the living room to praise the clean-up work they’d done. “Where’s mah sister?” the earth pony ran through her home, checking every room for her little sister, but finding nopony. “WHERE IS SHE?!” she screamed in a panic.

“I don’t know,” Spike shouted, now thoroughly worried, “but I found this empty box on her bedroom floor!”

The three mares began to fret, but Impact spoke first.

“What empty box?” She asked with a dead-serious tone.

“This box!” He held it up for Impact to see and her stomach dropped. The wooden panel bore the words Crusaders Only, painted on it in fairly elegant hornwriting. HER OWN hornwriting.

“No,” she whispered as she bolted up the stairs, her barely audible moan rising to a scream, “no no NO NO NO NO!!!”

“Impact, what’s wrong?” Spike asked, completely puzzled.

“Her boots are gone. Her special boots. Her apple-bucking boots.”

Through Apple Bloom’s open window, Impact heard a loud “HYAH!” followed by an even louder BOOM. They were muffled by the shrieking winds, but she still heard it, and her ears shot up as the truth crashed down.

“She’s outside…” she gasped in disbelief.

“WHAT?!” Twilight shrieked in horror.

“IN THIS STORM?!” Applejack shouted furiously.

“I told her she could only wear them on two specific occasions: a supervised Crusader mission or an actual emergency.”

“So let’s go get her!” Spike hollered impatiently.

“Absolutely!” Impact said, without hesitation, racing to the door.

“Impact, wait! Your bionics!” Twilight interrupted. “You’ll get shocked, too!”

“Oh please, Twilight!” Impact replied with a wave of her hoof, “I hard-wired a lightning-proof charm into the circuits when I designed it! Now let’s go!”

“Alright… Ah’ll search tha northeast corner of tha orchard. Impact, take tha northwest. Spike, southeast, and Twilight, yer on tha southwest. Fan out! If ya find Bloom, get her ta safety, and fer tha love of Celestia, don’t get too close ta tha trees!”

“I’ll link our minds so we can stay in touch.” Twilight said, igniting her horn.

“Twilight…" Spike spluttered nervously, "this isn’t gonna make us switch bodies like last week, is it?”

“No.” she replied.

“Or the week before that?”

“Come on, Spike,” Twilight said with a frown. “Once is accidental, twice is coincidental, but three times? Don’t be ridiculous! Besides, I’ve been practicing!”

She closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Suddenly, three strings of pink magic began to flow out of her horn, each one making contact with one of her friend’s heads. Once she was sure the connection was secure, the magic disappeared and she opened her eyes.

“Is everypony linked up? Testing, testing, one, two, three?” she asked from within her mind.

“Ah’m here.” Applejack replied from inside her head.

“Me too.” Spike sounded off.

“Online.” Impact responded psychically.

“Alright, then,” Twilight said, opening the door to the brutal storm, “Let’s go find that filly!”

“Granny Smith?” Applejack called into the kitchen, “Ah’m going out fer a bit! Ah’ll be back in a jiffy!”

The four friends raced out the door into the storm.

“What was that, Applejack?” Granny Smith replied, “Ah didn’t quite hear ya, darlin'! Ya need ta speak up!”

As the four friends stepped out onto the porch, Twilight suddenly felt very uneasy.

“Applejack?” she asked, “This doesn’t seem very safe.”

“Of course it ain’t safe, Twilight!” Applejack replied, “It’s never safe ta be outside in a storm!”

“But are you really sure about this?” she added with a slight frown.

“All Ah’m sure of is gettin’ mah sis home safely!” she replied, slightly angry.

“Just stay low to the ground and you should be fine,” Impact assured Twilight, resting a hoof on her shoulder.

Spike stopped suddenly. A strange tingle bounced across his body.

“Twilight? My scales feel funny…”

“What do you-?” she started to ask. Her question was cut off by a flash of lightning striking a nearby apple tree, followed by the ear-splitting sound of a thunderclap. Everypony was startled, but Spike nearly jumped out of his skin and leapt onto Twilight’s back for comfort.

“I don’t think I can do this!” Spike shouted, scared out of his wits.

“You have to, Spike!” she replied over the rain, “Apple Bloom’s out there! She might be in danger! We need everypony we can get to bring her home safely!”

Spike was still cringing and cowering on her back. Twilight lifted him up in her aura and looked into his eyes with a warm, compassionate smile.

“Spike, everything is going to be fine.” She nuzzled his cheek to comfort him further. “I need you to be a big, strong, tough dragon for me right now; the chivalrous knight who fought to rescue Rarity from the Diamond Dogs.” She set him down on his feet. “Be brave, Spike. I know you can.”

Impact and Applejack looked into his face nodded in unison.

He mumbled and stammered and shuffled his clawed feet for a little bit, but as thoughts of Rarity crept into his mind, he steeled his resolve.

“Alright, Twilight,” he replied, “Let’s do this. For Apple Bloom.”

“That’s my dragon!” she cheered, giving him a hug.

“OK, y’all! Git ready!” Applejack warned.

“After tha next thunderclap, we move. Remember: stay low, stay alert, stay alive.”

“Right!” the three responded.

“Ball’s in our court, everypony,” Impact said with an excited grin. “Game on.”

Another thunderclap rang out overhead.

“MOVE!” she shouted. The four friends split off to find the missing filly. Racing through the trees as fast as their legs could take them, they began to call out to her.

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack hollered repeatedly from the northeastern sector as she ran between the rows of trees. She heard no response but the rain.

“Apple Bloom!” Twilight shouted over and over from the southwestern area. She tried using a locator spell to find the filly, but couldn’t cast it. There were too many external stimuli: the cold, stinging rain, the savage, biting winds, and the anxiety of the situation itself were interfering with her magic.

“Apple Bloom!” Impact yelled incessantly from the southeast corner, searching the immediate area for signs of life with an electronic scanner in her bionic hoof. She’d detected several small woodland animals, but no ponies. Suddenly, a rogue drop of water found its way into the circuitry and shorted out the scanner. She swore under her breath, initiated a hard reboot, and kept on running through the trees.

Spike was running through the southeastern section of the orchard when he started to run out of breath. He turned a corner and stopped for a moment. He needed to take a quick break and catch his breath… and then he looked up.

There she was...

Apple Bloom was hard at work, completely ignoring the rain. She was bucking apples and piling them into wooden buckets, leaving them beside the trees so Big Mac or Applejack could pick them up once the storm passed.

“OVER HERE!” he screamed out in his head as he ran toward her. He dropped to all fours to boost his speed as some long-dormant primal instinct took control. The others heard the call and raced to his position, but he knew they wouldn’t get there in time.

He didn’t scream her name. He didn’t have time to. He just ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Closer…closer…closer… He felt that scary tingle across his scales again and leapt into the air, hoping to push her out of danger before it was too late. Suddenly, a powerful lightning bolt descended from the sky.

In an instant that can only be described as some sort of cosmic skill shot, the lightning struck the tree Apple Bloom intended to buck, at the exact moment her hind legs made contact with the bark, which was also the exact moment Spike leapt into the air to push her out of danger. As his left side collided with her right shoulder, the momentum of the young dragon’s charge knocked her bow right out of her mane.

One million volts of electric fury coursed through her fragile frame, tripping the overload circuits in her boots and powering them down without further risk of malfunction. As the thunderclap echoed through the cold Ponyville night, her eyes widened in terror as she endured the most torturous, excruciating agony she’d ever felt in her life. A searing pain stabbed at her chest. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. The only sensation she could feel that wasn’t extreme pain was Spike’s tender, yet powerful embrace. His momentum had freed her from the electrical circuit, but he was still clinging tightly to her body, his scales pressing firmly, but gently, into her coat. As she lay sprawled in the dirt, her body began to shut down, and the final thoughts that popped into her brain were those of her loving friends and family, especially her big sister warning her about being outside during a lightning storm.

“Applejack… Big Macintosh…” she groaned in a hoarse whisper, “Ah’m… sorry…”

As her heart stopped beating, the little filly’s world faded to black and she collapsed to the ground with a wet thud.

“SPIKE!!!” Twilight shrieked.

“APPLE BLOOM!!!” cried a horrorstricken Applejack.

Less than fifteen yards away, the three mares could only stare helplessly as their friends… their family… dropped to the ground like dead weight, having just been struck by lightning.

Kickstart My Heart

Twilight and Applejack were by their sides in an instant, with Impact close behind.

“Spike!” Twilight begged, “Please wake up!”

“Hold on, sis!” Applejack sobbed, “Ah’ve gotcha!”

“Twilight! Do a spell!” Impact said desperately, “Check their vitals!”

“I-I can’t…” she moaned, still in shock from seeing them so severely hurt.

“NOW!”

“O-OK…” Twilight furrowed her brow in concentration as her horn began to glow. After several seconds, she breathed a slight sigh of relief. “Spike’s alright, just knocked out. But Apple Bloom…” Her breath caught in her throat and she started to panic even more. “I can’t find a pulse!”

“And she ain’t breathin’ neither!” Applejack cried after placing an ear to her sister’s chest.

Suddenly, Impact shunted the mare aside, rolled Apple Bloom onto her back, and began pressing her hooves hard into her chest.

“You know CPR?” Twilight said with astonishment, “But how…?”

“Took a course in Cloudsdale back in the spring,” Impact replied without looking back at her. After ten compressions, she took a deep breath, pressed her lips to hers, and exhaled into the unconscious filly’s mouth.

“What in tha hay do ya think yer doin’ ta mah sister?” Applejack shouted angrily.

“Saving her bucking life!” she shouted above the rain. “Now, when I say ‘breathe’, you breathe! Got it?”

The orange mare nodded, needing no further instruction.

“One…two…three...four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten… Breathe!” Impact shouted.

Applejack exhaled into her sister’s mouth.

“Twilight, can you flash us to the hospital?” Impact implored while counting the compressions in her head, “Breathe!”

“I…I think so…” she whimpered, her mind still reeling from the crisis at hoof.

“Whenever you’re ready. Breathe!”

“Alright.” Twilight replied as Applejack gave her sister one more breath of life. She steeled her resolve and summoned all the magic she could muster, surrounding the five of them with a pink energy bubble. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.

A white pony with a pink mane sat at her desk in the lobby of Ponyville Urgent Care, filing her hooves and whistling a happy tune. It was just another normal shift for her. Derpy was brought in this morning after she crashed into a wall. She had some bruises and a couple cuts and scrapes, but she was fine. Around lunchtime, a limping Lyra was escorted in by Bon-Bon. Apparently, Lyra’s awkward style of sitting caused her to pull a muscle in her leg. The doctor prescribed a warm compress, some pain relievers, and a day of bed rest.

She was expecting another slow evening of making her rounds and filing paperwork when a blinding pink flash knocked her out of her chair. Blinking the glare away, she emerged from behind her desk and saw three mares, soaked to the bone and dripping wet, huddled around an equally drenched dragon and filly, both of whom were unconscious. One mare appeared to be performing CPR upon the latter. Her silver horn glowed white and the spell she cast pulled away every drop of water the storm had poured upon them, leaving the five completely dry. Nurse Redheart blinked several times, vigorously lubricating her corneas to give the situation more clarity.

“What in Equestria!?!?” she shouted, “What’s going on here?”

“Struck…lightning…” Twilight gasped breathlessly, pointing a hoof at Apple Bloom.

“Dear Celestia…” she gasped as she got to her hooves and pressed the intercom button. “Code blue, main lobby!” she spoke into the microphone, “I repeat! Code blue, main lobby! Somepony get a crash cart in here!” She released the button and raced to their aid.

“We don’t have time to wait!” Impact said as she continued her compressions, “Twilight, think you can take over for me?”

“Yes.” she replied after catching her breath, “I’ll do what I can. Just say when.”

“Three, two, one, switch!”

Without skipping a beat, Impact rolled out of the way and Twilight took her place to keep the rhythm going. Impact's horn began to glow white and as a similar aura surrounded her left leg, the bionic appendage underwent a remarkable transformation.

“Nurse Redheart! Will this work?” Impact asked as she pushed the upper panel back. Nurse Redheart looked down…and did a double-take. Lying before her were two rectangular paddles, undersides glistening with a gel-like substance, connected by wires to a control box. The nurse couldn’t help but smirk slightly at the bionic pony’s sheer ingenuity; she had actually transformed her mechanical limb into a working defibrillator.

“It’ll have to.” she said with a sigh as she picked up the paddles with her hooves. Meanwhile, a small crowd of ponies began to gather in the lobby to watch the crisis unfold.

“120 volts,” the nurse called out.

“120 volts,” Impact repeated, adjusting the dial on the defibrillator’s control box.

“Charging…” she said as she rubbed the paddles together, followed by a loud, sharp “Clear!” as she pressed them to Apple Bloom’s chest. The young filly’s back arched violently as the electrical impulse coursed through her system. Twilight checked her vitals.

“Nothing,” she relayed before applying ten more compressions.

“Take it up to 160.”

“160,” Impact increased the voltage, her mane and tail crackling with electricity as the energy output grew higher.

“Charging… clear!”

Another shock and another violent contortion, but Twilight still felt no pulse.

“C’mon, Apple Bloom!” Applejack called out in anguish, tears now streaming down her face. “Don’t you quit on me!”

The crowd of ponies surrounding the scene had grown larger as the four mares struggled valiantly to resuscitate the filly.

“Bring it up to 220.”

“Are you sure?” Twilight wondered. “That sounds dangerously high.”

“It’s our last chance,” Redheart said with a hint of frustration, “220!”

“220,” Impact replied, twisting the dial a final time as her mane glowed brighter still.

“Charging…CLEAR!” she shouted, pressing the paddles to the filly’s chest one more time. Her body bent backwards once more. Twilight did ten more compressions and Applejack gave one last breath of life.

“Apple Bloom! Can ya hear me?” Applejack asked desperately, her voice quaking with fear. She grabbed her sister’s shoulders and tried to gently nudge her awake. “Anything, Twi’?”

Every passing second felt like an hour. Every heartbeat seemed to drone on for an eternity. Everypony in the room held their breath, hoping for good news, but Twilight didn’t need to answer. A series of short, quiet coughs pierced the air. Everypony looked down to see Apple Bloom open her eyes just a crack.

“Applejack?” she mumbled.

The orange mare’s tears of despair became tears of joy instantly.

“She’s back!” she shouted gratefully as she hugged her sister, almost squeezing out what little life was left, “Oh, praise Celestia! She’s back!”

The hospital lobby erupted with cheers of joy as the little filly returned to the land of the living.

“Wha…where am I?” Apple Bloom asked. Applejack pressed a hoof to her muzzle to silence her.

“No talkin’, sugarcube. You just rest up now, ya hear?”

Nurse Tenderheart raced into the room with a crash cart, followed by Dr. Flatline and two hospital orderlies wheeling in a stretcher, but all were surprised to see that it was no longer necessary.

Impact stood up slowly, the defibrillator paddles retracting back into her artificial leg. In an instant, they were gone and her leg had returned to its default mode. As a final gesture of kindness, Impact lifted the revived Apple Bloom and the still-unconscious Spike onto the stretcher.

“Wha…what happened?” the wounded filly asked, clearly in a daze.

“You were struck by lightning.” Twilight explained. “Spike tried to push you out of the way, but he got caught in the blast too.”

“Well, where is he?” she croaked fearfully.

“He’s right next to you.” Twilight said with a misty-eyed smile.

She turned her head to her left and saw Spike’s unconscious form still clutching her shoulder.

“Oh no…” she whimpered. “Is he gonna be alright?”

“I hope so…” she replied with an uneasy sigh.

As the hospital staff wheeled the two patients away, the three mares were left alone in the lobby.

“Grr… Ah don’t know what ta do now!” Applejack said with an anguished groan as she threw her hat to the floor, “Apple Bloom’s in tha hospital, Big Mac’s sick in bed…”

“Go to him.” Twilight said. “Big Macintosh needs at least one of his sisters by his side right now. Apple Bloom will be fine. I’ll stay here and look after her.”

“Thanks, Twi’. It really means a lot.” Applejack said as they hugged one another. “Are ya staying too, Impact?”

“Until they drag me out the door,” she replied with a reassuring nod.

“Ah can’t thank ya both enough fer savin’ mah sister,” Applejack said on the brink of tears. “Words can’t describe…”

She was suddenly interrupted by a warm group hug.

“So stop talking,” they said simultaneously.

“OK… Ah’ll be back in tha morning.” she said as she picked up her hat in her teeth and set it on Twilight’s head. “Give this ta Bloom when she wakes up.” With that, she turned around and galloped off toward home.

As the doors swung shut behind her, Applejack broke down crying, her tears now invisible in the pouring rain.

Twilight and Impact took a seat beside each other in the waiting room. Several agonizing seconds passed before even they couldn’t hold back. Twilight burst into tears and flung herself into Impact’s hooves, babbling incoherent questions about Spike and Apple Bloom while desperately seeking some form of solace and sanctuary from the excruciating pain in her heart. As her friend pressed harder and harder against her chest, Impact began to cry as well, not only because she was feeling sad, but also because Twilight was feeling sad. She wanted to take Twilight’s pain away, draw every last drop of it from her body, and cast it out into the night so she could see the unicorn smile again. Unfortunately, until Spike was safe in her hooves once again, there would be nothing for Twilight to smile about. Until he and Apple Bloom recovered, there was nothing the two could do but wait, pray, and cry. Their manes, coats, and tails began to fade from colorful vibrancy into despondent grayscale.

As the muted symphonies of the storm echoed all around them, everypony in the waiting room could only watch with misty eyes and heavy hearts as Impact lost her impact and Twilight lost her sparkle.

Nightmare

As the clock in the hospital lobby struck midnight, Impact woke up from a nap she never realized she was taking. As she blinked the sleep from her eyes, she realized two things: she was leaning something soft, and something soft was leaning against her. She lifted her head from the wall and something fell to the floor. She looked and saw a small, fluffy pillow, somehow placed between her head and the wall while she slept. She looked up toward the front desk and saw Nurse Tenderheart walking toward her.

“Oh… You’re awake,” she said, slightly startled.

“How did I…?” she began to ask, unsure of the situation.

“You cried yourself to sleep, dearie,” she elaborated, “as did she.”

She looked down at her chest and saw her close friend Twilight Sparkle sprawled across her lap. Her coat was still a dull, lifeless gray; a monochromatic tragedy born of hopelessness and misery. Her mane was equally gray, frizzy and unkempt from the rain and the stress of the ordeal. Her face held an aura of absolute sadness. The areas around her eyes were red and puffy from crying, her muzzle had been rubbed raw from wiping her nose constantly, and you could see the path where her tears ran down her cheeks. She was twitching and weeping and mumbling apologies in her sleep. Her appearance was nothing short of a train wreck, but considering the circumstances, it was understandable. Impact was pretty sure her own visage hadn’t fared much better. Lifting her friend’s body up with her magic, she slid out from underneath her, moved the pillow under her head, and set her down gently.

“What…happened?” she asked quietly.

“After you brought your little friend back to life, you two looked so exhausted,” Tenderheart explained, “Eventually, you fell asleep. Redheart brought out a pillow for you and a blanket for her so you both could get a nice, long rest. You must be really comfortable, considering how fast she fell asleep…” The medical mare laughed a little at the idea.

Impact looked down and smiled at her sleeping friend, now snoozing into the pillow.

“I still think you should have left it to the professionals," she continued, "but speaking as a professional, that was an incredible thing you did back there. That bionic leg of yours is quite resourceful.”

A pale pink blush spread across her silver cheeks.

“Well, it is designed to transform into any mechanical device I can imagine…” she admitted.

“So I’ve noticed…” Tenderheart replied with a smile and a nod.

As the haze of semi-consciousness lifted, the rush of memories came flooding back. The rainstorm, the lightning, Spike and Apple Bloom… Her eyes lit up with panic.

“Are they alright?” she wondered desperately, a lump forming in her throat.

“Spike is stable, but Apple Bloom’s injuries were a little more serious.”

She gulped nervously.

“How serious?”

“I’m afraid I can’t discuss the severity of their injuries until members of both patients' families are present. Are you one of the next of kin?”

“No. I’m not… I’m just a friend,” Impact said as she looked down. Part of her now regretted sending Applejack home, but the other part knew her big brother was sick and she really needed to be home with her family, or at least part of it. “I’m just… nopony,” she muttered, hanging her head.

“Nopony?!” Nurse Tenderheart asked with disbelief. “Missy, you are far from nopony. Not many ponies would think to conjure a defibrillator on the fly and I’m pretty sure even fewer could actually do it. You thought fast, you acted fast, and you helped save a life; two lives, actually. You did the right thing.”

“So why does it feel so wrong?” she asked, her ears drooping as she plopped into a nearby chair.

“It’s called survivor guilt.” Tenderheart responded, “You’re blaming yourself for something you couldn’t control.” She draped a comforting hoof over her shoulder. “What happened to them wasn’t your fault.” She explained with a soft, compassionate voice. “If you hadn’t been there, those two might not have made it. You’re a hero, Impact Hammer. Plain and simple.”

She sighed with relief.

“Thanks, Nurse Tenderheart. I needed that.” She paused as an ethereal wave suddenly overwhelmed her. She felt a burning desire. She panted as her body temperature began to rise. She crossed her legs to keep her condition hidden, but the fire burned on. An aching desire that only one thing could quench. Finally, she just couldn’t hold her feelings inside any longer. She stared deeply into the nurse’s eyes and let it all out.

“May I use the restroom, please?” she asked with a wince.

Nurse Tenderheart laughed for a second, then stood up and gestured to a set of doors.

“Follow me,” she said with a smile.

Impact followed the nurse through the double doors, and as she passed through, her nose curled with displeasure. The air was thick with various aromas; the pleasant scent of the freshly laundered sheets, the acrid smell of cleaning chemicals on the floor, and of course, the underlying stench of death that permeated every corner of the area. She couldn't help but shudder at the smell, for she'd danced this olfactory tango too many times before. Sure, the subtler scents varied from city to city, but the general blend of death and chemicals always stayed the same.

She tailed Nurse Redheart as she cantered down the hall at a brisk pace. After rounding a corner, she gestured to another door. “The little mare’s room is right over there. You can’t miss it!”

“Thanks!” she replied, trotting over to it.

“I have to do my rounds now, dear. Do you…?” she started to ask.

“Yes ma’am,” she replied with a smile, “I know the way back to the waiting room.”

“Wonderful! In the morning, you and all your friends will be allowed to see Spike and Apple Bloom, but I can’t permit anypony to visit them until then, OK?

Impact chuckled. “I understand.”

She slowly trotted into the restroom, closed the door behind her, and set about her business in silence.

“Such a nice mare.” Nurse Tenderheart said warmly as she stood outside the restroom, oblivious to the chaos inside. She smiled and trotted back to her post, ready to begin her rounds.

As the sun rose over the horizon to signal the start a new day, Twilight Sparkle awoke from her slumber in a panic, clutching her head with discomfort.

“Ohh, sweet Celestia…” she groaned, her eyes snapping shut as the sun drove invisible daggers into her retinae, “I had the most horrible nightmare. Spike and Apple Bloom were…”

“Struck by lightning?” A voice finished for her.

Twilight whipped her head around to see her silver friend sitting across from her, staring at the floor.

“Were… were we having the same nightmare?” she asked, a pained expression on her face.

“I wish it was a nightmare,” she said with a sigh, “Everypony does. I certainly do.”

Twilight stared at the mare in horror as the pieces of last night’s tragedy clicked into place in her head.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight.” Impact said with a wince as she hugged her friend. “I’m going to get us some breakfast… Do you want anything?”

Twilight responded with a firm shake of her head.

“I’ll at least grab you some water. Is that OK?” she asked.

A slow nod was her response.

“Alright. I’ll be right back,” she replied, flashing a friendly smile before trotting down the hall to the cafeteria.

As she watched her friend walk away, tears started to well up in her eyes. She jumped out of her seat in fright when the hospital lobby doors suddenly burst open so fast they were almost torn off their hinges.

“Where is she?!” cried a mare’s voice, “Where’s mah little sister?”

“And my Spikey-Wikey!” squealed another.

“Please let this be a bad dream… Please let this be a bad dream…” said a third as she bit her pink foreleg and yelped, then set it to the floor back with a heartbroken whimper.

“H-h-hi girls…” Twilight squeaked, gesturing with a hoof and staring at the floor.

Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash turned to see their despondent friend. In the blink of an eye, they rushed over and enveloped her in a group hug. Big Macintosh followed close behind, a gaze of true despair etched in his eyes, a disposable dust mask strung across his muzzle to keep his fellow ponies from getting sick, and a despondent Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo slung across his back.

“Thanks, girls,” Twilight said with a sniffle. The warm feelings of love and compassion from her friends restored her colors, but failed to heal the agony in her heart. “I didn’t expect you all to show up so soon. How did you-?” Rarity pressed a hoof to her muzzle to cut her off.

“You don’t need to say anything,” she interjected softly.

“Nope.” Big Mac added morosely, trying his best to keep the fillies on his back as calm as possible.

“Applejack told us everything,” Rarity continued. “Fluttershy personally flew to Canterlot to inform Princess Celestia.”

That last bit of information sent everypony reeling.

“Fluttershy flew to Canterlot?” Twilight asked with a dumbfounded stare as she passed Applejack her hat back, having forgotten she was wearing it all night long, “By herself?”

“Totally!” Rainbow Dash said with a cheer, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her zoom like that. She flew faster than she did while gathering water for Clousdale last year!”

“Yeah…” Fluttershy said with a blush, “I kinda lost my head a little… It was so late when Applejack broke the news that I was running on adrenaline and garbanzo beans. I was so terrified that I took off like a rocket.” She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Almost everything between the cottage and Celestia’s chambers is a blur.”

Suddenly a new voice rang out, soothing and melodic, yet stern in its delivery.

“You single-hoofedly blew two solid oak doors clean off their hinges, knocked out four Royal Guards, and scared Prince Blueblood to the point of him soiling his nightclothes.”

Everypony gasped and turned around to see the unexpected arrival of the Sun Princess herself, immediately bowing in her presence.

“It took a dozen guards to bring you down, Fluttershy. I was truly impressed.” Celestia said with an almost-elated smirk. Fluttershy’s blush darkened from pink to crimson, but then Celestia’s face fell into an expression of anxiety. “However, I'm willing to overlook your rampage through my palace because such desperate measures from the Element of Kindness can only spring from desperate times.” Fluttershy squeaked and hid her face behind her mane.

It was at this point that Twilight and Applejack burst into tears and rushed the princess, burying their sobbing faces into her chest; their attempts to explain now muffled by her pristine white coat.

“It’s Spike and Apple Bloom, Princess,” Pinkie Pie tried to say, blinking back tears, “Last night…they were… *sniff* they were…” She too started crying, hugging a weeping Rarity for support.

Applejack and Twilight, their eyes still wet with tears, raised their faces from her coat and spoke in unison.

“They were struck by lightning!”

Celestia gasped and raised a hoof to her mouth as her heart shattered from the sound of such terrible news.

“Oh no...” Celestia whimpered. She wrapped her wings around the two distraught ponies and nuzzled them sweetly, “I…I’m so sorry…”

“It all happened so fast…” Applejack moaned.

“Please, Princess Celestia, please!” Twilight begged, as tears streamed down her face, “Tell me this is all a bad dream! Tell me it’s all some kind of sick joke! Wake us from this cruel, cruel nightmare!”

“‘Tis not a nightmare, Twilight Sparkle,” said Princess Luna, who stood by the door, wiping away tears with a kerchief, “as badly as We wish it was.” She smiled weakly in an attempt to lighten the mood. “We would not permit such bad dreams to befall such good friends.”

All around them, several dozen ponies went about their business in the hospital, be they nurses, doctors, patients, or visitors. All were caught completely off-guard by an ear-splitting scream, one whose tone rested on some middle ground between panic and euphoria.

“TWIIIIILIIIIIGHT!”

Out of nowhere, a silver blur erupted through the double doors and skidded to a halt in the middle of the room.

Everypony turned around to see Impact standing there, gasping for breath. Her heart was racing, her coat was slick with sweat, and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

“It’s Spike…and…Apple Bloom!” she croaked between pants, “They’re…awake!”

The entire lobby ground to a halt as all eyes fell on the silver alicorn.

“WHAT?!” Twilight shrieked in disbelief as she wiped tears from her eyes, “I swear to Celestia, Impact. If you’re pulling my hoof-”

She yelped in surprise as her entire body was wrapped in a white aura and literally pulled across the lobby floor.

“Run now! Talk later! Let’s MOVE!” she shouted.

Twilight nodded and two mares took off down the hall at breakneck speed with their friends in hot pursuit.

Author's Note

P.S. The working title for this chapter was "Dream On." However, the chapter got a little too Impact-centered for my tastes, so I revised it, reworked it, and tweaked it in just the right ways to create "Nightmare."
Coming Soon: Chapter 6 - Bandages