Chapter 6 - Breaking Character

Edited by Clavier

The pair looked into each other’s eyes in complete silence.  Rainbow Dash hardly had the energy to keep her eyes open.  Applejack was absolutely frozen, the weight of her choice made abundantly clear by the weak state of her friend.

Each second that passed felt like an eternity.

Finally, Rainbow Dash spoke, her voice barely audible.

"Leave me behind."

The tears that Applejack had been holding back were suddenly flowing.  "Don't ask me to do that, Rainbow Dash," she begged, blubbering.  She pressed her head against Rainbow Dash again.  "Just... just don't."

Rainbow Dash quietly nuzzled the tears from her friend's cheeks before continuing, her voice steady but weak.  "If you saved me, and we came back to a torn apart Ponyville, we could never live with ourselves.  Every day until we died, we'd think about the cost of saving my life."

Applejack didn't say anything, just gently sobbed against her.

They both knew there was only one answer, they both knew what would have to be done.  Rainbow Dash had resolved herself to this.  But she was angry.  Not at Applejack; she could never be angry at Applejack.  At the dragon, for forcing her end to cause pain to a pony she loved.

There was so little time.  Applejack had to make her decision quickly.  She lifted her head off Rainbow Dash, forced her tears to stop, and with a sad but resolute nod, Rainbow Dash’s fate was sealed.

“You’re right.  I know you’re right, but...”  Rainbow Dash cut her off with a gentle shake of the head.  Applejack did not need to explain herself.  They both knew it was the only way.

She studied Rainbow Dash’s expression carefully.  Applejack's demeanor broke again, tears streaming down her face, but she said nothing more.  Then, she did something that surprised them both. She pulled herself closer, and gave Rainbow Dash a parting kiss.

Her lips were salty from tears, dry and cracked, quivering with pain and anger, and hot from adrenalin.  For Rainbow Dash, it was bliss.  The shock of it was easily cast aside for the joy.  In that moment, it dawned on her that when she lost the strength to hold open her eyes any longer, the last thing she saw would be the image she brought with her into death.  She wanted that image to be Applejack.  She could not imagine a more beautiful sight to take to the grave.  She concentrated on etching it into her mind, taking in every hair, every freckle, every tear... and then she closed her eyes, and focused on the kiss.

But it had to end.  Applejack gently drew away, dropped something at Rainbow Dash's side, and slipped into the silent, dark abyss.

This was it.  Rainbow Dash tried to remember the last thing she had said to Applejack.  Something about the dragon’s choice.  No, that would not do.  Rainbow Dash wanted her last words to mean something.  She wanted her last words to matter.  She didn’t want her life to end with a desperate plea, no matter the good intentions.  With every ounce of strength she had left, she managed to murmur an appropriate farewell.

“I love you, Applejack.”

She could not hear herself.  She could no longer hear anything.  She could not have heard that Applejack had gotten up and galloped away, now well out of earshot.

She refused to open her eyes, holding onto that image of Applejack, so she had to grope for the item that Applejack had dropped.  She weakly dragged it close to her with a hoof and curled up around it.  She knew what it was immediately.  It smelled just like Applejack did.  There could be no item more precious in the world.

Applejack's hat.

With that last thought, she slipped into unconsciousness.

***

A gift from Critzie

Applejack's run back to Ponyville was completely different from the run there.  She was running faster, but was barely aware of the strain.  She was barely aware of anything but the fire burning in her chest.

The sadness was gone.  Replacing it was a rage so intense that she felt like it would consume her.  She gritted her teeth, tears of heartbreak replaced with tears of anger.

It seemed to fuel her.  She felt like she wasn't moving so much as she was kicking the whole world away from her, pushing her whole being into each stride.  Her eyes were watery, she could hardly see, but somehow she found the way.

How could any creature be so cruel as to make her choose between her family and Rainbow Dash?  How could he be so bitter, so evil?

She knew she would never forgive herself for her choice.  Ever.  But she would never forgive the dragon, either.

She had jumped down the cliff in no time at all.  Not only was it much easier going down than it had been coming up, but she no longer felt fear from its great height.  She had no time to feel fear, no room in her for any emotion but anger.

Everything blurred by as she ran down the mountain range.  The colors of the mountains, trees, and rivers all blended together.  She needed to warn the town.  She needed to tell her friends.  She needed to save her family.  

She crested another hill, and saw Ponyville.  With all of the emotions boiling inside her, she was having trouble figuring out how much time had passed on her journey.  She only hoped that there would still be enough time until sunrise to get everypony out of Ponyville.

She pressed on, making her way to the library.  She almost flew through the quiet town, kicking up dust as she went.  She only had a little further, and time was so precious.  Finally she saw it: the giant tree where Twilight lived.

She kicked down the door to see Twilight and Spike, both still awake, fiddling with magic devices.  Spitfire had been asleep on the couch, but awoke when Applejack burst in.

"Applejack...?" muttered Twilight, completely confused by the sudden entrance of her friend.  “Applejack, what are you doing?  Where’s your hat?”

Applejack looked at her with pleading eyes.  "The black dragon is going to attack Ponyville!"

There was silence in the room as Twilight took this in.  "How do you know—"

"Because he told me!"

Another silence.  Twilight looked at her in disbelief.  "You... went to him?  I told you to—"

"Twilight, this is not the time to lecture me!" she screamed, tears forming in her eyes.  Twilight did not try it again.  Applejack lowered her voice.  "Listen to me.  He said he would attack Ponyville at dawn."

Twilight blinked.  "Are you sure?"

"Yes ah'm sure!  He made me choose between coming back to warn you and saving Rainbow Dash."  She started crying again.  “He made me leave her behind to warn you.”

“The dragon has Rainbow Dash?!”

Applejack was furious that they didn’t comprehend.  There was no time to explain.  “Yes!  What don’t you understand?!  We need to evacuate Ponyville right now!”

Twilight took another second to digest this information before she returned to her businesslike demeanor.  “Spike, how much time until sunrise?”

Spike was still in shock over the implication that his home may be under attack.  “About... about an hour?”

“How much time exactly, Spike?”

“Fifty-six minutes!” He shrunk back, not used to being the object of Twilight’s scorn.

She looked out the window at the town.  She was doing rough calculations in her head, figuring out how many families there were, how many lives had to be saved.  After a few moments of thought, she nodded.  “We can do it.  That’s enough time.  Spike, write a note to Princess Celestia.  Simply say, ‘Ponyville black dragon attack imminent.’”  By the time she had finished speaking, he had already finished writing the note, and was sending it off.  “Next, I need you to wake everypony in the town up.  Use this.”  Off a shelf, she pulled a small sphere with a switch on it.  She flipped the switch, causing the device to emit an ear piercing screech.  “Run around town, wake up everypony you can.  Start with the Mayor.”  She handed him the sphere.  “Tell them that that they need to remain calm, but they need to collect their family and a few essentials, and meet in the field to the west of town.  Tell them that they don’t have much time, and must be out of town by sunrise.  Recruit anypony you can to help wake up everypony.  Go.”

Spike blinked at her.

“Now, Spike!”

He took off in a blur, but Applejack stopped him at the door.  “Spike, my family... make sure they...”

Spike nodded knowingly and urgently, and took off out the door, activating the device as he went.

“Alright,” continued Twilight, “I need to start laying down magical barriers and protection for the town.  If—”

“No!” barked Applejack.  “You said yourself, magical protection won’t work against him!”

Twilight huffed, offended that Applejack was implying she was useless.   “So what do you want me to do?  Wait around while he kills everyone?”

Applejack’s voice dropped.  “We go back, the three of us,” she said, gesturing at Spitfire.  “We go back to his cave.  When ah left, Rainbow was barely holding on.  While he’s here, in the town, we know Rainbow will be in his cave alone.  We have to try to make it to her.”

Spitfire regarded her for a second.  “Are you sure she’s... she’s still...”

“No,” said Applejack honestly.  “Ah’m not.  But we’ve got to try.  Ah’m not going to leave her out there.”

The weight of this hit Twilight and Spitfire.  Now they understood why Applejack had come back with tears and fire in her eyes.  

“And Twilight, with you teleporting, we’ll get there in no time!”  

Twilight shook her head.  “I can’t teleport that far to a place I’ve never been.  I have to visualize it, or else we could end up in a wall.”  She looked thoughtful.  “Still, if I teleported us a few hundred feet at a time...”

Applejack’s heart jumped for joy at Twilight’s positive response.

“Count me in,” said Spitfire.  “I’m not leaving her out there to die.  Spike and the Mayor can evacuate the town by themselves.”

“Alright,” said Applejack, “but we’ve got to go now.  She was so close to... to death... when I left her.”

Twilight nodded, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to prepare herself.  “Alright, you two.  Get close.”  Her horn was glowing.

Standing at either side of her, Applejack and Spitfire prepared for the jumps through space.

“Ready?” asked Twilight, her eyes still closed.

“Ready,” said Spitfire.

“Ready.”  Applejack had never been so ready in her life.

One last deep breath from Twilight.  “Here... we...”  Her eyes opened, her pupils lost in a purple glow.  “...go!”

Suddenly they were on the hill between the town and the mountains.  Another spell sounded, and they were another few hundred feet up the path to the mountain range.  Another blink and they were going through the pass.  

It kept going like this.  The scenery would form for a few seconds, and then suddenly, they moved as far up the path as Twilight could see.  As soon as she spotted a safe landing zone, they blinked there.

The process was significantly faster than running, and may have even been faster than Rainbow Dash’s flying.

As the scenery flew by, Applejack could not help but wonder if they would get there in time.  Rainbow Dash had seemed so close to death when Applejack left her.  

Applejack could feel her heart pounding every minute they spent blinking through space.  It seemed like an eternity.

They eventually got to a pass that Applejack recognized immediately.

“There!” she shouted, pointing up to the tree on the cliff.  “That’s where his cave is!”

Twilight concentrated once more, and suddenly they were next to the dying tree, close to the mouth of the cave.

“Come on!” ordered Applejack, and started running towards the cave, Twilight and Spitfire following close behind.

Applejack’s heart leapt when she saw the bright colors that she knew must be Rainbow Dash.

And it dropped again when she realized Rainbow Dash was being held up gingerly by her tail.

***

Applejack’s mouth was agape.  “You... you’re still here...!”  The dragon nodded, a smirk on his face.  “You... you said that—”

“...I was going to attack Ponyville?” he asked in mock surprise.  “Why would I do that?”

Applejack found the fire in her heart again.  She was furious with this creature who toyed with their lives so carelessly.

“No, no, that sounds dangerous,” said the Black Dragon, approaching them slowly at the mouth of the cave.  Rainbow Dash was limp as she dangled from his claw.  “Why would I go to town when you can just bring back more ponies to my domain?”

Applejack froze.  It had all been a ruse.  

“Put her down,” she said, furiously.

He shrugged.  “Okay.”  He swung Rainbow Dash around his body and flung her towards the cliff, her body careening for the sheer drop.

“Rainbow Dash!” screamed Applejack.

Twilight acted quickly.  Her horn lit up with magic, and suddenly Rainbow Dash was suspended in the air.  Twilight brought her back to the cliff’s edge and put her down.

“Aaaah,” said the dragon, his eyes locking on Twilight, “and you must be Twi.”  He slithered closer to her, bending his enormous head close to the ground.  His eyes stared at her hungrily.  “I can taste all the magic stored in you.  You’re a very powerful magician, indeed.”

Twilight, frightened by how close he was getting, flared a spell out of her horn.  The spell hit him clean in the face, and lit up for a second before the magic seemed to seep under his scales and into him.

He laughed at the look on Twilight’s face.  “Yes, that’s right.  All that studying you did, all the magic you know, all of it useless... against me.”  His massive jaws opened to attack her, but she covered herself with a magic shield.  He laughed again.  “Protect yourself all you like... while I help myself to your friends.”

Twilight gasped as his eyes turned towards Spitfire and Applejack.  “No!” she yelled, pulling herself out the bubble.

“You ponies really are too easy to control,” he said, the dark humor always in his voice.  

Applejack had been waiting for him to be distracted.   When his eyes turned back towards Twilight, Applejack shot like a bullet towards Rainbow Dash.  Applejack was only halfway to her when he landed over Rainbow Dash’s body.

‘He’s fast,’ thought Applejack.  ‘Really, really fast.’

“I’d like to thank you, brave adventurer,” said the dragon, slowly walking towards her, “for dragging a powerful magician away from her home, and into my domain.  Truly a charming gift!”

Applejack’s fury grew even more as she backed away from him.

A blur shot towards the dragon’s face as Spitfire began an attack.  She made a few passes around his head, readying to swoop in, when suddenly his claw nonchalantly plucked her out of the air by the wings.  He laughed, and slammed her to the ground.

“This is it, Applejack!” he boomed.  “The stage is set!  Your magician is worthless, she would only make me stronger with every move she made against me.  The pegasus under my claw?  A mere nuisance.  Your damsel, behind me, could be alive... or dead!  And I, the brilliant and terrifying dragon the only thing in your way from saving all three.”  He spread his huge wings and looked twice as massive as before.  “Everything is on the line.”

The sun, rising behind him, peeked over the horizon.  

“What do you think?  Will this epic end in triumph? Or tragedy?”

A gift from Jackie

***

One last chapter to write.  Please comment if you have any thoughts!

-Gold