“Sisters of the Heavens, I leave you with this warning: The laws of the universe demand a reaction to every action, and with your actions, with your war against my blood, retribution will come. My descendants shall break free from the chains you have trapped them in, and with the power granted to us by Sirius, Prince of the Earth and Guardian of Knowledge, we will toss your civilization into the deepest pit of Tartarus! Be wary, Sisters, for the Stars demand your damnation!”

-Starburst Quartz, informally known as Sombra the Conqueror, after his defeat at the Battle of the Crystal Heart.

Drip.

…

Drip.

…

Drip.

Applejack finds herself once again staring at Nebulous in the same room she has been in nearly every day since she got here. Nothing has changed. The medical equipment is still the same, the posters on the wall are all about medical jargon hardly anybody knows about, the furniture is still neatly organized with its supplies, and the sink is still dripping that one drop every two seconds.

Drip.

…

Drip.

…

Drip.

Every drip is like a poke to Applejack's ear, and in most cases, she would not hear it because Nebulous would be talking to her, but now? Now he is uncharacteristically quiet and ignoring her completely, leaving her ears at the mercy of the completely annoying drips.

Drip.

…

Drip.

…

Drip.

Applejack really wants to get out of her seat, find a wrench and fix that darn leak, but she is chained to her spot, same cuffs, same gems, same hopelessness. Only now this hopelessness has an imp in the form of a sink that is taunting her.

Drip.

…

Drip.

…

Drip.

Applejack looks at Meriaclock and sees him reading a newspaper with the front page picture of a school being surrounded by caution tape, exclaiming about a school shooting. Normally she would feel something, such as sorrow and remorse and take a moment of silence to honor the victims, but she is currently numb. She has lost track of time regarding how long she has been in here. She knows it has been weeks, but for the most part, time has blurred to nothingness, and all of her emotions have left her with only defeat as her company. She barely had the will to fight the guards the past couple of days, but she still tried to escape, even though her mind knew it was hopeless.

Applejack turns her attention to Nebulous and watches him scan his notes, using his magic to glide his pen over his parchment as he looks back and forth between his books and paper. He is still quiet as the dead and his writing appears to be made of graceful strokes instead of normally rushed scribbles.

Applejack huffs and looks at the chains holding her down, wishing for once that Nebulous would do something to alleviate the boredom claiming the three today. Anything will do, at this point.

“You are awfully quiet, today, Jackie,” says Nebulous randomly.

Applejack almost forgets how to speak, for she did not expect him to speak at all today if the past three hours have been any indication. That, and she had not been expecting her birth name to be used. Heck, she hardly refers to herself as Jackie, anymore, and the last time anyone has used that name, they were condemning her to this frozen Hell.

“I can say the same 'bout you,” says Applejack.

Nebulous forces a smirk. “Words elude me, today, my dear.” Though, his smirk quickly devolves into a frown and he reclines in his seat, looking directly at Applejack. “I am curious about something, though.”

“Oh?”

“How old were you when you entered the Void?”

Applejack furrows her brows, not at all pleased with the question. Even her stomach feels like it is being shrunken down like a shirt with its loose thread being pulled.

“I was a filly,” says the Element, her tone as cross as her expression.

Nebulous snorts obnoxiously. “A filly? A filly can mean any age. A filly can be small in age, be a teenager or an adult, it really does not matter. You wouldn't believe how many times I've been called a colt for my behavior. So, how old?”

Applejack rolls her eyes to the ceiling, muttering to herself. “Went to Uncle's house at five, stayed for a year, came back at six, ma and pa...”

Applejack looks at Nebulous, and he stares back. The heart-ripping memory of Granny Smith getting the letter from a pair of Royal Guards informing her of Orin and Honeycrisp's bodies being found in a basement in Miner's Country. She wasn't supposed to hear that. She wasn't supposed to see her grandma break down in tears and be held by the guards lest she fell into the dirt. She was supposed to see her parents again after their trip. It all went wrong that day, and from that day on, she knew she had to get her parents back. They were not supposed to die!

Applejack does not want to remember it. She wants to forget about how she spent the next year figuring out that her grandma never destroyed the book her Uncle gave her, and how she used it to figure out the ritual. Using a year's worth of allowance and money earned from odd jobs around town, she gathered all the chemicals, all the powders, all the materials to complete the ritual.

Applejack's face twitches slightly from thinking about the knife digging into her hoof to slice open the bowl for her blood sacrifice. She still feels the metal cutting into her skin and the blood flowing out to splatter on the center of the eye that was drawn into the trunk of the tree that had an alicorn curving its top. She remembers following the directions down to the last letter and period. She remembers seeing the flash and feeling herself shredded by magical tendrils that felt like vines covered in thorns.

The pain of having her skin and muscles torn into pieces and broken apart in front of her eyes returns to torture Applejack, and she finds herself leaning forward, clutching her stomach and gasping for air. Blood rushes up to her throat, but she swallows it down. She will not be puking blood in here, no matter how much it scratches or burns her throat.

“Jackie?” says Nebulous.

Applejack swallows again, loathing the copper taste on her tongue, and she looks at Nebulous as she straightens herself out, shaking terribly along the way. “Seven. I was seven years old when I went in the Void.”

“Seven? Oh, wow. That-” Nebulous chuckles. “That is truly remarkable, Jackie.”

“Not really. I just followed the directions, and even then...” Applejack lowers her moistening eyes and swallows and blinks away the tears. “Even then I failed.”

“Is that what you see it as? A failure?” Nebulous gets out of his seat, approaches Applejack with brisk steps and sits directly in front of her, tilting his head so he can look at her lowered gaze. “No, no, my dear, that is not even close to a failure! I absolutely meant it when I said that getting in at such a young age was remarkable!”

Applejack looks at Nebulous, her emerald eyes now stained in red and tears flowing down her cheeks. “But I went in t' get my parents back, and I couldn't. I had a piece of me ripped out for nothing and now I'm here. I lost the farm and my family because of what I did as a kid. A stupid kid who thought she could undo death.”

Nebulous nods. “I understand, believe me.”

“How can ya possibly understand? You ain't been in my horseshoes.”

“I may not have been in your horseshoes, but traveled a similar road, for I too lost my parents. I lost my parents and my sister shortly after my twenty seventh birthday, and my final memory of them was an argument.” Nebulous' shoulders sulk and he looks down at the floor, using his hoof to adjust his glasses. “I still remember the looks they gave me and I can still hear their final words. I know if I had the power to, I would bring them back and make amends so we can all be happy again, but death is absolute. You being a small child did not realize this and you thought you found a way to bring back what you lost. How anypony can condemn you for trying to get your parents back is something I will never understand.”

Applejack looks at the floor, swallowing a wet lump in her throat. She is grateful for some sympathy, even if it is from one of the ponies that put her in this forsaken prison. His brief story is also tugging at her heartstrings, but with the way Equestria has been for the past decade, she knows his sad tale will be deluded by swarm of similar stories, much like hers. The events may be different, but the outcome is still the same.

A pair of hooves suddenly grip Applejack's and they lift it up so it is level with her chest. The sudden grip makes her flinch in her seat and her heart leaps over a beat as her head snaps to Nebulous. Indeed, the unicorn has his hold on Applejack's hoof, and he smiles thinly as he gently runs his hoof up and down hers. Powder purple and orange mesh, and a tingle runs up Applejack's spine as he continues rubbing her hoof and looking into her eyes.

“Jackie, I know you said that you never used your gift after what happened, but do you even realize how much power you are denying because of your fear?” asks Nebulous, his voice low and intimate.

Applejack tenses and tries to pull away, but she is locked in place by his hooves, and her orange fur stands on her back and neck as the invisible tendrils return to wrap around her waist and clutch her flanks. Her heart starts racing and she tries to pull her hoof away, but Nebulous tightens his hold on her and another magical tentacle wraps around the hoof he is holding and tugs it closer to him. The pull nearly makes her fall, but Nebulous presses his hoof against her chest, just barely stopping her in time from falling on him.

With Applejack now nose to nose with Nebulous, she is looking directly into his glasses and she sees the skin around them seems to be getting sucked into the sockets, and his glasses seem to be really thick and his eyes strangely flat. No matter how much she wants to look away from them, she cannot pull her eyes away from Nebulous' glasses, though. She can see her terror in her reflection, and her eyes manage to flick away from him for just a second when his hidden appendages grip her flanks, waist and hoof tighter and pull her closer to him so she can feel his breath brushing against her muzzle.

“Do you realize what amazing genetics you are blessed with?” continues Nebulous, his voice still low, but his smile now toothy and viciously eager for an answer.

Mosley sits in the center of his cell, eyes closed, breathing even and hooves planted firmly on the cold concrete floor. His muscles and eyebrows twitch with the prickling pain as he feels pieces of his body and soul being pulled out of his world and into the next.

“You must know, for when I first laid my eyes on you, I saw in your eyes how afraid you were, and I still see that fear, but I promise you, you have nothing to be afraid of.”

The bottom of Mosley's hooves flash bright blue and a thin carpet of ice sprouts from underneath him. A shiver runs along his body from the cold, and when he opens his eyes, they glow bright blue for a moment before fading.

“The power you have should not be feared.”

“But embraced.”

Nebulous pulls away slightly, still smiling his unnerving smile and rubbing Applejack's hoof and body in slow strokes, testing her pelt and the toned muscles underneath. Applejack knows he can feel her shaking, and despite the fear and feeling of disgust from her molestation, she still narrows her eyes and folds her ears against her skull, making a low growl in the process. She hears Meriaclock snort a laugh, but she ignores him and keeps her eyes on the Professor.

“Will you free yourself from your fear, Jackie?” asks Nebulous.

“How's 'bout this. You touch me like this again and I'll be poppin' your grapes, ya hear?” says Applejack, struggling to force the dangerous tone in her voice to hide the fear. “And stop calling me Jackie. That name ain't hold a bit of value to me, anymore.”

Nebouls smirks and pats her hoof in a friendly manner before releasing her, tendrils and all. “Whatever you say, my dear.”

He stands up, groans loudly and then he cracks his back and walks towards the fridge.

“I really had no extensive tests for you, today, Applejack,” says Nebulous, now rummaging through the fridge using his magic, lifting up various containers and shaking his head in disappointment with each unwanted vial. “To be honest, I figured you wanted to get out of that cell for a bit. I hear stories of your unruly behavior whenever you are being put back in. I think one compared it to trying to put a pony sized cat inside a toilet.”

Applejack grimaces and Meriaclock chuckles again and stretches out his hooves.

“Yeah,” says the pegasus with a sigh. “I think it was Riposte.”

Nebulous nods. “Probably. I really don't like him, though. He's kind of a jerk.”

Meriaclock scoffs a forced laugh. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Applejack rolls her eyes, but remains quiet. She has nothing but only unkind things about the guard that slugged her when she was subdued, and Granny Smith made it absolutely clear that if one must gossip about another, it better be good gossip.

“But unruly mares and rude guards aside, I have a gift for our little Thaumaturgist!” says Nebulous.

He spins on his hooves and nearly skips towards Applejack's spot with a wide, toothy grin meant for ax wielding psychopaths and levitating a small, clear container of purple liquid. His rapid approach, coupled with the insane smile and potion is enough to make Applejack strain her chains as she tries to backpedal from the lunatic.

“I got some grape flavored medication that I want you try!” says Nebulous.

“After the way you felt me up? No,” says Applejack bluntly. “'Sides, ya probably slipped roofies in there or somethin'.”

Nebulous' eyes grow and his lips tighten to a thin line as his ears droop, and all the while Meriaclock snickers.

“Oh no, Doc, she figured out your grape flavored roofies scheme. No tail for you, tonight!” says the pegasus.

The line that is Nebulous' lips change into a very aggravated scowl directed at the pegasus. “I am only going to tell you once to keep your mouth shut for the rest of the session.”

Meriaclock's amused expression shifts into a look of angry, reluctant obedience, and with a loud sniff, he turns away from the Professor and sits in the corner on the other side of the room. Applejack, meanwhile, is surprised at how stern the cooky Professor suddenly became with Meriaclock.

“As for you,” says Nebulous, his attention back on Applejack and the medication and water now close to her muzzle and his easygoing smile still not replacing his deep frown, “take the medication or I'll force it down your throat.”

Minutes later, Applejack leaves the medical room in a trance like state with Staff and Picket's team of a dozen escorting her.

She is glad that Riposte is not part of the detail, but she has a feeling that he might be waiting for her at her place of holding. Not that he hasn't done anything to her over the past few weeks after they exchanged hooves, aside from some snide remarks and empty threats. But guards aside, Applejack has a confused brain and a strange taste on her tongue.

The medication given was, in fact, grape flavored, but it was thick and gooey and made her spasm in her seat like a child who mistook cough syrup for candy. Not even water could save her tongue, and the reassuring smile that Nebulous gave her did not alleviate the confusion she got from his sudden mood swing. Though, as much as a part of her wants to ponder his behavior since she has nothing better to do, another part of her is telling her to leave it be. Nebulous is a creep, and creeps act strangely. Always have, always will. However, all of her attention is brought to the front when Staff orders his guards and Applejack up against the wall.

They obey the command immediately, with Applejack stumbling over herself and making a ruckus of clanking chains because of her garb, but she does peek past the shoulders of the guards. What she sees sucks the air out of her, and her watering eyes grow and her ears droop as a group of medical ponies rush past them pushing a gurney that has a white sheet stained with red. Underneath the white sheet is Derpy, covered in scratches all over her face and hooves with her ear crooked and covered in a patch that is dripping blood, just like another patch that is wrapped around her front right hoof and another covering her right cutie mark.

“No, I'm fine, really. They're just scratches,” says Derpy, smiling weakly and managing to barely lift her hoof for a wave directed at Applejack without saying anything.

Applejack calls after Derpy and tries to go after her, she is tugged by a combined might of four unicorns pulling on the chain attached to her collar in the opposite direction.

“Prisoner, move it!” barks Staff, giving the leash another tug.

Applejack chokes on the collar, but she still takes slow, heavy steps, grunting with the unicorns in her mission to get to Derpy. She gets in a couple of paces before the medics and Derpy disappear around the corner, and it is at that time that Nebulous pokes his head out of the medical room with a curious look on his face.

“Derpy!” cries Applejack.

She suddenly screams in pain and buckles as a club hits the back of her leg, and the unicorn guards yank her off of her hooves, knocking her vision out of focus when the back of her head hits the floor. Applejack groans and rolls on her side, only to be roughly hoisted up by Picket and he forces her to march. Along the way, Staff walks next to her while keeping the leash tight on her.

“You got it easy, prisoner,” says Staff, his voice as vicious as his gaze. “All these other prisoners, they work twelve hours a day, mining and sorting and cleaning, and what do you do? You sit in your cell and get checkups in an air conditioned room. So, you better cut this shit out or I swear I will go to the Warden and make your life here something worth complaining about, got it?”

Applejack wordlessly stares at Staff, swallowing a lump in her throat and trying to keep her eyes from watering because of the ring of pain around her neck. Due to her silence, Staff gets closer to her face so her entire line of sight is of him and his annoyed look.

“I'm not playing around,” snarls Staff. “Straighten up your act or I'll see to it that you're stuck with the others.”

“Hey, lay off, Staff. She's just concerned for her friend,” says Picket.

Staff growls at Picket, and the guard shrinks back slightly with his ears splayed back, and for the rest of the trip, the group remains silent.

When the elevator doors slide open to reveal the hall where Applejack's cell is, the disgraced Element tenses. She knows what is going to happen next and it is twisting her gut and throat. A small whimper leaves her lips when they start walking, but none pay any mind to her. Instead, what gets their attention is a banging coming from the cell where Riposte and Ruthenia guard, and from the looks of it, both of them are on their wits end about it.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“How long has he been doing that?” asks Staff as he walks past them.

“Hours, sir,” replies Ruthenia.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Applejack's steps slow and she tries to back up, but the combined magical tugs on her leash keep her going.

“Just when we think he's done, he starts up again,” adds Riposte, casting a hateful glare at that door.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Staff walks over to the door and slams his hoof against it to create a louder bang that leaves Applejack's ears ringing, and he slides open the slot and glares inside at the occupant.

“Knock it off! I'm not in the mood for this shit!” yells Staff. He slams the slot shut and waves Ruthenia forward. “You, help me get this troublemaker back in her cell.”

Applejack tries to break off again, but is stopped just like last time, only with a harder tug and a baton floating in front of her face, daring her to try it again.

Staff leads the group down the hall, and when they are halfway to Applejack's cell, the banging starts up again and Riposte yells in aggravation. When they are in front of Applejack's cell, she finds herself getting annoyed by the banging, too. Her ears fold against her skull and she frowns at the general direction of the banging, feeling sort of bad for Riposte and Ruthenia for having to deal with a constant banging for hours on end. Though, when she hears the keys rattling on the chain, she snaps her focus back to her holders and sees Staff unlocking her cell.

Her pupils shrink to dots and her heart jumps in her throat as she watches the back of the cell shrink like someone pulling a cloth through a tube. Staff and Ruthenia start pulling and a pair of guards get behind her and start pushing, but Applejack slams her rump on the ground and digs her hooves in the concrete again. A collection of annoyed grunts, groans and swears immediately erupt around her.

“You have got to be kidding me!” says a guard behind her.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“You! Are! Done!” says Staff with each tug that barely gets Applejack moving.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Oh my Goddess! Stop it!” cries Riposte, his voice bouncing down the hall.

There is another bang that is not quite as loud as Staff's, but still pretty strong, and there is a silence that comes after, save for the struggles vocalized by Applejack and the prison guards. However, that silence does not last because-

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Riposte screams furiously and stomps the ground as hard as he can. “Okay, you know what? You're getting your ass kicked!”

Immediately, and both Staff and Ruthenia stop pulling on Applejack and snap to Riposte. It only takes them a second to realize what he is doing, and both pale and scream at him to stop, but they are ignored. Right as Riposte opens the door, a pillar of steaming water surges forward, carrying with it jabbed pieces of the sink and chunks of the wall. As soon as the water hits the guard, he barely gets a chance to scream before he is pushed off of his hooves and slammed into the steel door across the hall.

Applejack takes a step back and watches, completely horrified as Riposte screams and sobs and thrashes in the boiling water that burns through his coat and gnaws at his skin and eyes with his open cuts from the debris being cooked in seconds. The whole hall becomes filled with steam as the scorching water continues gushing out, and Applejack's coat pales when Riposte's silhouette stops moving and his cries go silent with thin smoke rising from him. No one comes out of the cell, though, and Staff cocks his weapon and Picket calls in the security breach while half of the guards in Applejack's group move up.

Staff gallops down the hall. “Get her in the cell!”

“Yes, sir,” says Ruthenia, her voice shaking and her grip tightens on Applejack's chain.

Though, as soon as those words leave his lips, an electric crackle echoes down the hall from the cell, and following close behind is a razor thin line of bright blue energy that slices through the ceiling. Portions of the ceiling collapse, showering the entire hall and all its occupants in broken concrete and hundreds of gallons of water water that quickly goes into the thousands.

Staff, Picket and the guards they brought are swept off of their hooves and their screams are cut off from the roaring waves. As Staff tries to get up, the stallion occupying the cell marches out and slams his hoof into the water, creating a flash of blue light and a splash that freezes around him. Staff, Picket and their guards are pushed into what's left of the ceiling and the water freezes as pillars, with them frozen in place. Some groan, others swear, and those that can wiggle their bodies in an attempt to free themselves.

“Take him out!” orders Staff.

His mouth is quickly shut when the escapee slams his glowing hoof on the ground and shoots a thin stream of water up to his muzzle and freezes it over. The escaped pony starts moving forward again, after that, and Applejack's eyes widen as she watches him move closer with his steps heavy as a stone giant's. She almost does not recognize the stallion because of the ice cold lust for vengeance in his eyes and the toll age has taken on him. His colors are not as bright, his eyes nowhere near as kind as they used to be, and his wrinkled face and even the very splashes he makes from his steps are intimidating in every way. It is undeniable that he wants blood.

The guards next to her aim their weapons at the pony, and Applejack yells and punches the nearest guard in the jaw, then turns to ram the next one into the ground. Both guards curse from pain and shock and miss the escaped pony, and the escapee slams his hooves in the ground again to create an ice wall to protect himself when the other guards open fire.

The bullets chip away at the thick ice, and the guard Applejack knocked to the ground scrambles to his hooves. She cannot react fast enough to block the punch to her chest that knocks the air out of her, then, as she stumbles back, he slams his hoof on the top of her head, making her crash face first on the floor with a splash. The water is tainted in red, and painful mix of burning and freezing pain bite at Applejack's bleeding maw. Applejack tries to get up, but the guard gets on top of her and wraps his hoof around her neck until she can't breathe, then he tightens his grip some more.

Applejack's hooves splash in the frigid water, and her whole body trembles and goes numb from its cold, but she still keeps on fighting. She still trashes and tries to buck him off, but he only squeezes tighter and very soon her eyes roll to the back of her head, her vision bleeds to darkness and her body feels its strength getting sucked out at a terrifying rate.

“Stop moving!” snarls the guard over her gasps and chokes for air.

She barely hears him over her thumping heart and ragged gasps for air, but his grip suddenly disappears and he swears as a frozen spike rockets towards him. There is a distinct slice in the air, and the other guards scramble and duck and weave in a futile attempt to find cover as more deadly icicles fly past them.

Applejack slumps in the water, gulping in the precious air with a liberal amount of the near freezing bloody water flowing into her mouth and down her throat. She chokes and coughs up the water and pushes herself to her hooves, shivering and watching with a hazy vision as the wall gets smaller and thinner with each frozen projectile. Though, with the constant barrage, there is no way the guards can get a shot, and half of them are lying in the water, moaning and bleeding from wounds with the one that choked Applejack screaming for backup over his radio.

As this happens, behind the ice wall something metallic is sliced and the screams and screeches of a plummeting elevator fade and end with a faint thump. After the thump, the ice wall dissolves into a wave and rushes forward as a mini-tsunami. The water hits everyone like a stampede of rogue wagons, pushing Applejack and the guards along the rough concrete floor and crushing them against the wall on the other end of the hall.

Applejack's head cracks against the wall, bringing a flash of white to her vision and a burning, throbbing pain to the back of her noggin. Warmth trickles down the back of her neck, sticking her already wet mane to her body and staining her padded suit, and even with the suit on, the cold bites all over her body like a raving swarm of starving ice-wolves. As quickly as she hits the wall, though, the water solidifies and traps everyone.

Ice takes up all but the center of the hallway, engulfing the steel doors, concrete walls and ceiling and the destroyed pipe alike in a frozen shell. Despite the collective grunts and pained groans of the guards, Applejack still hears the hoof-steps of the escaped pony. He is wasting no time in making his trip over to the trapped ponies, and when he reaches Applejack, he stops and stares down at her, eyes narrowed and jaw set.

Applejack stares back, freezing, unable to move and staring deep into the eyes of the grim pony she once knew was a kind soul, but is now just a shell of who he used to be. She feels her heart banging in her chest and her throat goes dry as her lips tremble and eyes water from more than just the biting cold. Then she notices how he is able to use his power even with the cuffs on him. From the looks of it, the gems lining his cuffs are cracking, with a couple falling off in pieces.

“U-Uncle?” stammers Applejack in disbelief.

Mosley presses his hoof against the ice near Applejack. The bottom of his hoof glows, illuminating everyone around him in a blue hue, and the ice melts off of Applejack in seconds. She drops to the floor, shuddering and teeth chattering with her soaked mane hanging past her eyes and her suit heavy with water. Mosley takes care of that, though, by pressing his hoof on her shoulder and evaporating the water burdening her attire, covering both in steam for a moment. It is a bit painful, but being dry -or mostly dry- is outweighs the pain.

Applejack is still on the ground, though, and now her teeth are grinding in greater pain as the ripping feeling in her insides return. She squeezes her eyes shut, covers her mouth with her hoof and coughs violently, staining her enchanted cuffs in blood.

“No, not now,” mutters Applejack painfully.

Applejack feels Mosley's hooves gently wrap around her body, and she feels nauseous when he hoists her up. He could have been more gentle, but she knows the situation they are in, being gentle is something that needs to be ignored for the time being. But when she opens her eyes, she sees the same kind eyes and smile that made a simple farm girl like her feel welcomed in his upscale, Manehatten condo. That softness quickly disappears when Ruthenia suddenly pipes up.

“Mosley, stop this!” yells Ruthenia. Mosley looks at her, frowning deeply, and the guard struggles for only a few seconds before looking him square in the eyes. “Stop this right now and we'll go easy on you! You've been a good prisoner for so long, don't spoil it more than you already have, please!”

Mosley snorts, slams his hoof of the ground and slices chain-links holding Applejack's limbs together and the one on her collar, then he does a mock salute aimed at the guards, bangs the door open with his shoulder and gallops out. Applejack looks at her broken chains, dumbstruck and lifting her legs slowly just to make sure she is mostly free. Then she looks at the guards, then down the stairwell where Mosley's steps are quickly fading, then back at the guards. Specifically at Ruthenia, who is glaring at her.

“Don't even think about it,” she says.

Applejack does just that. Without further thinking about it, she bolts down the stairs.

Warden Frost sits in her office, staring at the reports regarding Jackie Susan Apple, the nominated Pain in the Ass Prisoner of the Year. She has only been in the Snowflake Penitentiary for a few weeks, going on month two to be precise, and yet she is still resisting her cell and making attempts escapes every chance she gets. However, if the reports are any indication, she seems to be getting it through her thick skull that she cannot escape.

With the said reports of her behavior are the documents Professor Nebulous Dust filed on his research regarding the Element and her medical condition and abilities. After careful studying and constantly fighting to keep the numbers and graphs from blurring into a big blob of complete gibberish, she has come to a conclusion.

It is all bullshit.

All the numbers look the same with tiniest variations, and she swears one of the dot graphs makes a Hearths Warming Eve tree. The bar graphs and line graphs are completely random with no correlation between the markings and the data on the spreadsheets, and his so called written reports are college grade nonsense that students scribble down the night before their paper is due. She even spots some grammar errors, such as the wrongs use of two, too, or to, incorrect punctuation, run on sentences, and the misspelling of “deoxyribonucleic acid”. What kind of professional, top tier scientist misspells deoxyribonucleic acid? Twice!

Knowing that she has been played, and probably a tail target for the obviously lonely pony, Warden Frost growls and slams her hooves against her desk, which, in turn, makes Limestone flinch in her spot.

“Is everything all right, ma'am?” asks Limestone.

“No! It is just as I thought! Nebulous has been pulling my tail this whole time! I want samples of the medication Nebulous is using on our prisoner, this instant!” says Warden Frost furiously. “I want copies of all of his real research notes, down to the last note card and notebook. I don't care if you have to raid his office in Canterlot, I want everything!”

“We'll need warrants for those, ma'am,” says Limestone sheepishly.

Frost digs her hooves in the table and narrows her eyes like sniper scopes on the officer, saying through her gritted teeth: “The Solar Doctrine has been suspended until further notice, remember? I don't need warrants for anything. Now get me those files and samples!”

Limestone eeps and is about to gallop out of the room when the main lights dim and red lights start swirling above the doorway and halls with a horrible alarm that sounds like scratchy car horn going off. Seconds later, a stallion's voice comes over the intercom. He tries to sound controlled, but Frost can hear the fear in his voice, and with what he is saying, she cannot blame him.

“Code Five Emergency! This is not a drill! I repeat, we are at a Code Five Emergency!” says the stallion.

Frost yells and bangs her hooves on her desk. “Shit!”

She then hops up fast and hard enough to knock her chair out of her seat and runs over to a cabinet and pulls it open to reveal an armored vest with a revolver and boxes of ammo next to it.

As she slips on the vest, she speaks. “Change of plans! Get Lieutenant Club and help contain this mess before it gets more out of hoof than it already is!”

Limestone's hoof snaps up into a salute. “Yes, ma'am!”

She gallops out of the room, and the Warden mutters a colorful stream of profanity as she finishes putting on her vest. Once that is done, she checks her revolver, and seeing it filled, she snaps its chamber in place, puts on her winter coat and stuffs a spare box of ammo in her pocket. Then she follows a small army of guards down the hallway. Not even the stampede of dozens upon dozens of sets of hooves can drown out the alarm or the call over the intercom, and despite the brave face Warden Frost is sporting, there is a growing fear inside her. A fear that is telling her that her prison has just become a battleground with one of the deadliest forces in Equestria.

In his makeshift office, Nebulous casually studies his notes while Meriaclock glares at the swirling light above the door with his ears folded against his skull. Sure, the alarm and the announcer is a little bit aggravating, but Nebulous is too pleased with his results on the many tests on Applejack to care about simple things like alarms. His happiness makes itself known when a broad smile cracks on his muzzle, and he glances up when he hears Meriaclock groan.

“Why won't that guy shut up!” complains the pegasus.

Nebulous chuckles quietly to himself and looks back at his open notes, which rest next to a pile of books containing mostly blank covers, save for two. The first has a tree with an eye in its leaves and an alicorn on top, and the second is titled: 'The Magic of Life', written by Doctor Good Strongwind.

One of his sheets of notes has a series of scientific equations that will short circuit the minds of those who are unfamiliar with it, and even then, there is a possibility that it will stump most that know it. With the equations are jumbled blocks of words that have only one sentence eligible, but only because it is written in big, scratchy letters and is circled.

'ELEMENT INCREASES INNER MANA OF BEARER EXPONENTIALLY' reads the note.

The second sheet does not have a blatant statement on it, but instead, it has a drawing that will either be dismissed as a doodle or -once again- greatly confuse anyone who looks closely at it. There is a symbol in the middle of the sheet made up of a circle with a triangle inside. In the center of the triangle is a square that has an eye with its pupil containing Applejack's symbol. The eight points where the shapes connect are covered by circles, but only six of them contains archaic symbols, with one being the symbol on Mosley's hoof and another being the inverted omegas of infamous Roar Shock. Surrounding the intricate symbol is a tree with the basic outline of an alicorn curving around its top.

Nebulous' grin grows and his body trembles and his shoulders buckle as he tries to hold back the giggle that wants to explode into a full on, cliche ridden, villainous laughing fit.

At long last, after all these years of research and secrecy and playing by the rules set in place, everything is almost in place. When he is finished with his grand experiment, he will have achieved the greatest feat in scientific history. His place in history is so close that he can taste the glorious snacks of the award ceremony, hear all the cheers and camera flashes and feel the hoof shake and the weight of the plaque that marks him as one of the greatest scientists to ever live. All that he needs to do now is find a couple of more pieces to his puzzle and survive the test of time.

Applejack and Mosley gallop down the muddy street of the work camp. Alarms echo over the compound and a zeppelin glides overhead, blocking what little sunlight the gray clouds allowed through. Behind the two prisoners, the covered walkway leading to the prison in the mountain has been gutted like a burst water pipe with chunks of debris, wrecked vehicles and unconscious guards littering the ground. Around the devastation are large spike or blocks of ice that either pop out of or impale the ground, nailing vehicles or trapping guards in their resting spot.

As Applejack nears the medical compound, her legs suddenly give out and she falls against a brick wall caked with snow and ice, coughing violently in her hoof. Her whole body shakes and buckles, and she collapses in the snow, whimpering and wheezing with one hoof over her stomach and the other covering her mouth. The hoof over her mouth is covered in blood, frozen and warm, and the fur around her shut eyes are crusted with tears.

She can barely think or hear, but one little voice in her head tells her to keep moving. She needs to escape. She needs to find her brother and sister and then get out of Equestria as fast as possible.

Applejack's eyes open, and she grabs the ground and pulls herself forward. She extends her other hoof and drags herself another few inches, grinding her teeth and blinking the freezing tears out of her eyes. The cold mud gets caked on her prison garb and exposed coat, and her insides feel worse than before as the zeppelin above blows its war horn.

Just as Applejack finds a spot she can prop herself up against, Mosley digs his head underneath her waist and rolls her on his back. He buckles at first and she feels like she is going to vomit, but the older stallion uses his adrenaline as fuel to gallop towards the medical facility where Applejack is tested.

She looks up through droopy eyes and barely makes out the pegasi flying down from the zeppelin. She wants to warn Mosley of the threat, but all she can do is cough and moan. That somehow translates to a warning, though, since Mosley glances over his shoulder and sees the approaching guards.

Mosley's speed picks up, and Applejack tenses and tries to lock her body on his back when the ground behind them explodes around them from gunfire. A pegasus zooms over head and swerves to meet them. Mosley skids to a halt and the half second after he stomps he bangs his hoof against the ground, shrouding him and Applejack in a cloud of kicked up snow that shields them from the guards.

Applejack bites down on her hoof to keep herself quiet as Mosley resumes his running, and when they exit the cloud, she can see the glass doors of the medical facility. Mosley nearly jumps through the glass when h pushes the door open, and nurses yell and reel back as he runs down the hall, hooves screeching against the tile and him almost slipping on himself.

A pair of guards round the corner, but an exploding pipe courtesy of Mosley bringing his glowing hoof against the wall quickly gets them acquainted with the other wall before they can raise their weapons.

Mosley stops at a crossroad and looks down each direction, breathing heavy, body trembling and sweat coating his neck and dripping off his muzzle.

“Medicine is on the left,” says Applejack weakly.

Mosley bolts left, and Applejack's eyes drift shut and her body falls limp on his back.

Billy gallops down the hall of the sector armory, using his magic to slip on his vest, battle saddle and the pistol and holster. It is somewhat difficult, but he has no time to stand around to put on his gear like the other guards are. He is a little understanding of the earth pony and pegasus guards being stationary in their arming, but the unicorns? They have magic. They need to use it to get to the site quicker. And since today is not going as he had planned, it only makes his mood all the more touchy in regards to blatant stupidity.

As he slips on his radio earpiece, a voice on the other end crackles loud enough to get his teeth grinding from the pain.

“Code Four Emergency at the Tiszakécske Mine! We got a Code Four at the Tiszakécske Mine! All available units report immediately!” says the stallion over the radio urgently.

Billy slides to a stop outside just in time to hear a distant thud, and he turns to the source to see black and red smoke trail into the sky. He growls and looks to the other side where Applejack and Mosley are, and while he does not see any signs of fires, he knows there is a lot of damage done already. There is no telling how the rest of the day is going to go because of this unexpected turn of events, but he knows his objective, and he must complete it no matter the cost.

“Code Fives have moved to the Snowflake Medical Facility. Lieutenant Zip Wing and his team are in pursuit,” says another stallion over the radio.

“Divert units!” orders Frost. “Send all bordering units of the Tiszakécske Mine to contain the riot with two zeppelins for air support! And I want thirty units to the Snowflake Medical Facility immediately and remaining available units to surround the area!”

As soon as Frost's message ends, the guards Billy left behind run out and an armored mini-train with its back exposed slides around the corner, splashing Billy with cold mud. Seconds later, the passenger door opens and Limestone urgently waves him in.

“Come on!” she yells.

Billy whistles at the group of guards he was with earlier and motions them towards him when they look in his direction. “All of you, get in the back! Hurry!”

Without hesitation, the guards hop on the back, with the only earth pony chewing on a toothpick and manually loading the last of his shells in his shotgun.

“Fire 'er up!” says the earth pony when he cocks his weapon.

Billy jumps inside and orders Limestone to drive to the hospital, and as they zoom down the street, he activates his radio. “This is Lieutenant Billy Club. I am on my way to the medical facility with Officer Limestone Pie and six other guards!”

There is another explosion and gunshots crack in the distance, but he keeps his eyes focused on the mountain that had held Applejack and Mosley, readying himself for a long day.

Applejack gasps and her eyes snap open as a surge of energy goes through her veins like a raging river. All of her pain is gone and so much adrenaline is going through her that she hops to her hooves without a second thought and looks left and right, then left and right again, and then up and down and behind her tail and straight into Mosley's eyes.

Her heart is racing and her mind spewing a million thoughts a second, and Mosley has to place his hoof on her shoulder to calm her down. The hoof stops her from moving, but it does not settle her down all the way.

“What happened? I feel weird. Why do I feel weird?” says Applejack quickly.

Mosley points at a knocked out unicorn doctor, then at an empty syringe near her hoof. Applejack looks at the doctor and syringe, and then she looks at her uncle, trying to look stern, but with the energy overloading her muscles and brain, her lips and eye twitch and her legs buckle for a jump. A jump that she does not want to do, even though her body says otherwise.

“That was a bit rude, don'tcha think?” asks Applejack.

Mosley shakes his head briskly, and Applejack snorts and grabs the syringe, using her teeth to remove the needle, and once that is done she puts the container in her pocket.

“I'm likin' this stuff! I gotta see if I can get more of it,” says Applejack, quickly adding when she sees the stern look her uncle is giving her: “Just until I can make more of my potions.”

Mosley rolls his eyes skeptically and runs down the hall. Applejack shakes her muscles and runs next to him, feeling more alive than she has now than in the past few weeks. Heck, she feels like a filly again! She feels free!

“We're getting' outta here, I can feel it and taste it like a triple apple pie fresh from the oven!” says Applejack, whooping right after and galloping past Mosley and his baffled look with enough speed to barely get her hoof touching the floor. “We're almost free, but we gotta get Derpy first!”

Applejack comes to an abrupt stop with that, since Mosley bites down on her tail and pulls her to the ground. The impact is hard enough to knock her vision astray, sending the walls and floors spinning into a lend of gray and white and nasty pain in her jaw and stomach.

She stands up, groaning and rolling her jaw, then shoots a nasty glare at Mosley. “What was that for!?”

Mosley points to a glowing exit sign above his head, then to add insult to the obvious, he points in the direction where the little green arrow underneath the glowing letters are directing. Which just happens to be to the right of where they are.

Applejack points down the hall. “Derpy is down there!”

Mosley jabs at the exit sign again.

Applejack mimics Mosley, though in the direction she wants. “But Derpy is down there!”

Mosley cranes his head back, stomping his hoof and growling, then he marches towards Applejack, snorting hot air and making sure every step is loud and heavy, like a falling boulder. She backs up, but eventually her legs lock in place and all she can do is stare, then yell in pain when Mosley bites down on her ear and starts dragging her.

Applejack swears as the teeth grind into her ear, and every wiggle only makes it worse and every step becomes an awkward, fumbling mess. In a nut shell, she is back to being a five year old.

“You have t' be kidding me! I'm too old for this!” shouts Applejack. She grunts and tries to pull away, but a sharp tug from her uncle and the splitting pain in her ear after brings her to some obedience with a shining layer of tears in her eyes. “Let me go! I gotta get Derpy outta here!”

Mosley keeps going, not making a sound, and when they round the corner, Applejack suddenly picks up her speed and rams herself into her uncle. Mosley releases her and crashes into the wall, and Applejack runs back from where they came from, shouting a quick apology along the way.

She does not have to look back to hear her uncle giving chase. Her hooves screech on the floor as she slides around a corner, stopping when she slams into the wall near the room where Nebulous did his tests, and her hooves slip and slide on the tile for a few seconds before she can start running again. It is at that time that a group of four guards round the corner, and Applejack runs straight into them.

They barely have a chance to react when she rams the first guard in the chest, knocking him off of his hooves and right on his back, leading to her landing on top of him. She pushes herself up, but gets a chain clamped to the collar around her neck and she is tugged off, yanking out all of her air.

Her vision is knocked out of focus from her head hitting the tile, but it does not stop her hind hoof from kicking the guard she tackled in the groin. The guard yelps and the one holding Applejack gives her another tug, pulling her farther from the group. A sharp crack and a splitting pain across her face jerks Applejack's head to the side, giving her a taste of the tile, and the club that hit her levitates for another strike, only for it to suddenly disappear, along with the grip on her chain. Next thing that happens, the guard falls next to Applejack, eyes closed, tongue out and a fresh shiner covering a generous portion of his face.

Mosley leaps over Applejack, stepping on the guard she kicked seconds before, getting another yelp and agonizing swear, and slugs another guard. The remaining guards try to make room to shoot, but Mosley stays too close for them to use their battle saddles. Save for one who is backing up and aiming his shotgun model.

Applejack calls for Mosley, rolls on her hooves, runs over the stepped on guard as he tries to stand on shaky hooves while using her decades of lasso use to grip and swing the chain on her collar. When she reaches the guard with the shotgun, Mosley has tackled a guard into the wall, leaving him wide open for having his torso blown open.

Applejack swings the chain at the weapon and jerks it right as it fires, shooting the designated punching bag in the hoof and snapping some mechanics, as indicated by a show of sparks horrible grinding noises. The shot guard howls an flops to the ground, clutching his shredded front hoof with his other one, and Applejack tugs on the shotgun guard. He digs his hooves in the tile, but more parts on his saddle snap and jerk the shotgun up.

Applejack tugs again, this time gaining the upper hoof and forcing him forward while breaking the weapon clean off his saddle. She catches it in her hoof, then uses it as a club against its former owner's face. The guard spins to the ground, his scream muffled as he clutches his jaw with blood pouring out of his mouth. Applejack turns and shoots the last standing guard on his flank right as Mosley finishes beating down the guard he pushed in the wall. The blast hurts her ears, and the cry of pain from the other guard is almost as painful.

Almost.

Applejack, knowing she can't carry the weapon due to a lack of horn and scabbard, pops it open, ejects all of its shells, then bashes the guard that almost shot Mosley in the head, silencing him. After that, she tosses the weapon through the window of Nebulous' testing room and resumes running.

Thankfully, the very first room she sees has a long window with a perfect view of the group of doctors and one injured prisoner inside. The one prisoner being none other than Derpy.

As soon as Derpy and Applejack lock eyes, the pegasus beams and waves as if all is right in the world, even though there is a bunch of bloody guards everywhere and Derpy herself has seen better days. Applejack can't help but smile at this. Derpy seems to always have a smile, even when everything is all wrong.

Applejack tries to run inside, but the door is locked and the doctors inside are pale with fright. Her banging on the door and screaming at them to open up does not make them any less afraid, either.

Mosley runs next to Applejack just in time to see her start bucking on the door. Her hooves hurt and her eyes and teeth hurt from her tears and her grinding. She needs to get in to get Derpy out, but she is so close to succeeding and failing that it is pouring panic in her veins like boiling oil.

“Open the door!” screams Applejack, her eyes bloodshot and freckled cheeks soaked in tears as she reverts to using her front hooves to bang on the dented door. “OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!”

The doctors shake their heads and Applejack slams her hooves on the door again, teeth grinding harder and eyes burning more than ever. She really wishes she can rip the door to shreds and hop inside, and with that thought, a sharp tingle runs through her hooves and heart. It is strange to her, for it reminds her of when her hooves would fall asleep, but before she can think about it, there is a loud groan, followed by rattling, then an explosion with a rush of water.

Applejack yelps and backpedals from a surge of water that rushes past her, turns into a series of solid balls and hits the window with enough power to shatter it. Mosley then gallops past Applejack, splashing water all around, and leaps through the hole in the window. The doctors scream, and when Mosley slugs the first doctor in the jaw, Applejack swears and goes in after him.

Applejack awkwardly climbs through the hole in the window, getting small cuts from the remnants of jagged glass, and she falls on her back when she brings the rest of herself in. With her vision upside down, she watches another doctor sail overhead and bounce off of a cot. She then rolls on her hooves and calls Mosley, running as fast as she can over the ice covering the floor, watching horrified as her uncle slams another doctor's face into the brick wall. The doctor's smashed face leaves a red spot on the cracked brick, and the last doctor, a mare, backpedals, sobbing and begging Mosley not to hurt her as he storms towards her.

“Uncle, wait!” shouts Applejack.

Too late.

Mosley slugs the doctor right on the temple, knocking her out cold.

Applejack slides to a stop and looks at Mosley, jaw to the floor, ears drooped, eyes wide and brain completely fried at what she just saw. She tries to say something to him, but nothing comes out. Her words are piling on top of each other, unable to leave her lips and only serving to choke her.

Mosley stomps past Applejack, approaches Derpy and unceremoniously throws her off the cot and drags her by the tail to Applejack, ignoring the injured pony's shocked yelps and attempts to grab a hold of something. He spits the pegasus out, looks at Applejack and points at Derpy, scowling deeply with a throbbing vein and a red face, then he points at the direction where the exit sign is and stomps out. After getting the door open, first.

“What's his problem?” asks Derpy, now being helped up by Applejack.

“He just wants to get outta here,” says Applejack. “Can you walk?”

Derpy grins and nods her head quick enough to bob her mane. “Yeah.” Then she frowns and looks at her bandaged flank. “That part hurts, though.”

“Do ya need me to carry you?”

“Nah, I've been through worse. Like this one time-”

Mosley steps back in and stomps his hoof on the ground, creating a ice sculpture of a big arrow pointing towards the exit using the water from the burst pipe. He snorts, points in the direction of the arrow and narrows his eyes on Applejack.

Applejack cringes. “Ya can tell me later.”

Derpy nods, swallowing nervously and her lips thin like a line. “Good idea.”

The two mares follow Mosley out, now having trouble keeping up with him as he runs down the hall. Derpy makes a comment about the beat up guards, but Applejack does not pay any attention. When she and Derpy round the corner with the exit sign and end up bumping into Mosley, she is about to ask him why they stopped, but the answer is right in front of them in the form of Warden Frost standing at the other end of the hallway, being flanked by a group of pegasi guards, glaring daggers at all of them. Her hateful gaze zeroes in on Applejack when she sees her, though.

“Is this how an Element conducts herself?” says Warden Frost, her voice oozing with venom as she walks down the hall, her words bouncing along walls with the clip-clops of her steps as she approaches with her guards, who are taking the more cautious approach. “I was expecting more decency, especially from an Apple.”

Applejack takes a step back, unintentionally bumping into Derpy along the way, and when she hears more hooves, she looks over her shoulder, she sees Billy and Limestone approaching with their group of guards and aim their weapons at them. Now they are trapped, and Applejack gulps and her ears droop while Mosley growls and coils himself for an attack.

“And Mosley, out of all the prisoners I have, I am the most surprised by you,” continues the Warden. “You were so well behaved and now you do this? What changed?”

Mosley is silent, and another explosion in the distance lightly shakes the walls. Frost stops halfway to the escapees and expands her wings, her glare becoming more intense and hate filled, and by that point Applejack has a sick feeling in her stomach that is telling her they are about to get gunned down.

“I have tried to be good to you and every prisoner here, for it is the command of Celestia to treat your prisoners well and this is how I am repaid? With defiance?” says Frost.

“Hey, now, don't go pullin' our tails. Ya've been usin' them folks out there like slaves and treatin' me like a lab rat!” counters Applejack.

“You have no right to condemn me when I am rehabilitating lowlifes to be hard workers and productive members of society!”

Mosley's hoof snaps up, glowing blue, but before he can bring it back down a gunshot rings out and he flies off of his hooves and lands on his back, gasping for air with smoke rising from his chest. Derpy screams and backs up into the wall and Applejack stares at Mosley, eyes wide and watering and jaw to floor as he snaps his maw open and shut for air. Everything seems to have been sucked away with that single shot. Her energy, her strength to stand, her ability to breath or scream. It is all gone.

“I've had enough of this,” says Warden Frost, her voice distorted by the gun in her mouth.

Applejack whimpers and drops next to her uncle to scoop his head on to her lap. Her lips are trembling and her tears fall on his face as blood trickles past his lips as she shakes her head in disbelief. She swallows for air and runs her shaking hoof through Mosley's mane, staring into his eyes. At first his eyes are looking at the light in the hallway, but seconds later they drift to meet hers, and she sees his fear. She can see hers in his reflection, as well, and she has to swallow her tears and gasp for air when the sorrow threatens to drown her.

Mosley's eyes flutter and Applejack shakes him, making them open wide again and look at her with glazed eyes.

“Keep your eyes open. I got ya,” says Applejack softly.

Mosley smiles weakly and lifts his hoof to cup her cheek, and Applejack tilts her head down, sniffling. The tingling feeling she felt earlier is returning, though, now they are growing from small, sharp pinpricks, to many electric pulses.

“If they resist any further, kill them,” orders Frost after she holsters her revolver.

“But, ma'am, one of them is an Element,” says Limestone uneasily.

Warden Frost glares at Limestone, then turns her gaze on Applejack. Sensing the eyes on her, Applejack breaks her eyes from Mosley and stares at the Warden, cheeks soaked in tears and her bloodshot eyes narrowed. The electric pulses get stronger and Applejack feels her whole body starting to shake and her vision becomes red with the ripping pain in her gut returning.

“She lost the right to the title the moment she turned against the state. Orders remain the same,” says the Warden, now leaving in the direction she came.

Applejack's jaw tightens and Derpy meekly calls out to Applejack when her muscles tense in a way that is shows in the exposed parts of her body. The pulses now evolve to feel like electric eels slithering through her veins and collecting at the bottom of her hooves and the chambers of her heart. It is painful, it is burning her and tugging at her muscles, demanding to be let out. She can also feel a faint pulse beating through the floor, like a weak heartbeat.

“I lost the right to be an Element?” says Applejack, her voice quivering and radiating rage.

The Warden stops and turns to face Applejack as she gently lowers Mosley to the ground so she can stand up on shaking legs. Applejack takes a few steps forward, feeling the pulses of the floor become stronger and her red vision changes to reveal thin traces of orange slithering all over the structure. Applejack nostrils flare and keeps walking, ignoring the weapons being aimed at her, and Derpy rushes to put pressure on Mosley's wound while calling for her.

“Yeah, you're right,” seethes Applejack, ignoring Derpy's call. “I ain't got no ground t' call myself an Element, but it ain't because I went against Equestria. I ain't an Element because I turned my back on a friend who was like a sister to me! I refused to listen to the truth 'bout what happened to my brother and I pushed her to her death, and I have been livin' with a piece of my soul ripped out ever since!”

“That's a poetic way to tell me I was right,” says Warden Frost.

“No, ya ain't right! I lost my Element when I turned my back on a friend, not the state! I'm here because I spoke the truth 'bout how control freaks like you are ruining everything!” Applejack points at Derpy, feeling sick from her heart racing and pain from the power surge slithering inside her hooves. “And she's here because she knows it and wants it out as much as I do!”

Warden Frost marches forward. “You are free to think what you want about your failures, but regardless of the paths taken the outcome is the same. Now, if you say one more word I will send you straight to Hell for what you and Mosley did to my guards and prison!”

Applejack screams and her eyes flash orange and the bottom of her hooves explode in a blinding light. “Then I'll take you with me!”