With a final heave, Auralia pushed the old barrel onto the cart. "That was the last one, Uncle Big Mac," she told the stallion. He was currently strapped in front of the cart, waiting for her sign. He nodded to his niece and started off in the direction of Ponyville. It had taken a while, but now all the old barrels had been loaded. These were not just your typical run-of-the-mill barrel, but the ones the family used to store zap apples. Berry Punch had bought them to store a new wine she had concocted. Since Apple Bloom had made a new set of barrels, they could stand to part with a few older ones. It was money they needed.

"Now that we’re done here, I'm gonna prepare us some supper. What do you both think of a few fresh baked apple pies?” Applejack asked Auralia and Apple Bloom. The glow in the eyes of the two younger ponies was all the answer she needed. "Still, it’ll take some time. How ‘bout y’all go down to the lake? Ya both look as if you could use some cooling down."

With spring firmly reigning over Equestria and the resulting increase in temperatures, all three mares had developed a slick sheen of sweat covering their bodies. "That sounds good, but I have to clean up my workshop." Apple Bloom looked over to the converted shed next to the barn. "Besides, Granny asked me to take a look at her rocking chair."

"Then I'll go alone." Hardly had Auralia finished speaking did she realize from the look on Applejack’s face that she did not agree. The smile on her lips died abruptly and her gaze hardened.

"I know you're not a little foal anymore, but... what if something happens? If you get a cramp? No one would be with you."

"I'm not going too far, I promise." Auralia could see Applejack wrestle with herself. "I'll stay on the edge, so my hooves always touch the ground. Please, please, please."

Applejack looked over to her sister. "Now doesn’t that remind you of somepony?" Apple Bloom grinned sheepishly and scratched her right front hoof against the ground. Sighing, her mother's gaze wandered back to Aura. "You stay at the edge and be back home in an hour."

The filly was ecstatic. "Promise!" All exhaustion seemed to have dissipated from her body as she began to gallop away from the barn. Applejack just shook her head and continued her way back home.

The wind whistled in the leaves, bees buzzed, and birds sang their songs. Her father had once said that birds did not sing for fun, but to find another to cuddle with. Auralia had absolutely no idea what one had to do with the other, because no one had ever asked her how well she could sing before they cuddled. All that didn’t matter, because before her lay the small lake that was hidden on Sweet Apple Acres.

Granny Smith had once told her one evening by the fireplace that an apple tree had drowned in this lake and that anyone who took a bath in it would turn into an apple. The last time that happened was with Applejack's mother. Her father had brought her to the farm, and after a bath in this very lake, she became an apple a short time later.

Of course, she had had many questions, but the old green mare had just laughed and did not answer any. It was frustrating, Auralia had thought. And of course she did not believe the story. That had nothing at all to do with why she carefully dipped a hoof into the water. She just wanted to check the temperature.

No sooner had her hoof dipped into the water, she pulled it back. Relieved that she had not turned into tree bark or even an apple, she jumped into the shallow water. "Hah, I knew it was just a story!" Ponies did not just turn into apples; that was just silly. With her head raised, she paddled deeper into the lake, but only so far that she could still feel the ground under her hooves. After all, she had promised her mother. The water itself was clear and pleasant, but she didn’t intend to stay long. The sun had warmed the water, but it was still spring.

The foal finally tightened her legs so that only parts of her back and her head remained visible, allowing herself to drift lazily. As she stared at one of the apple trees on the edge of the bank, her mind turned to her father. Was he doing well in the Empire? What was he doing right now? Aura took a great breath and dived. She saw some fish that lived in the lake. Strange grass grew on the lake’s floor, and there was an old tin can that somebody had probably carelessly thrown in there. For shame.

Small bubbles escaped her lips as she sank a deeper so that her hooves touched the ground. Slowly she moved towards the shore. The only thing now visible was her forehead, and Aura imagined that she was a shark, with pointed sharp teeth and a huge fin. The boulder on the shore was her next helpless victim, a careless pony that did not count on such a dangerous creature that could live in these waters. But that was the trick. No one could stand against a shark, the great orange shark! Hundreds had already fallen victim to her, and there would always be more since none lived to warn others. She ate them all. With a loud roar, for sharks roared, yes, she jumped out of the water and landed with the front hooves onto her victim. "Again a successful hunt for the great orange shark!" She pushed against the boulder and it crumbled dutifully against her strength.

Satisfied that her victim had been duly killed and devoured, she turned back to the water. She certainly had time for a few more laps before needing to head home. Auralia was about to jump in once more when she discovered she was not alone. For a moment she thought it was Pokey Pierce from the local watch unit, but Pokey didn’t have wings at his side. In addition, his coat was a brighter blue and his mane darker, not completely white. And was that a horn that poked out of his unkempt mane? "Hello, Auralia. At last I’ve found you," the stallion calmly said.

A shiver ran down her spine. That was the voice of her father, no doubt about it! If there was a voice that she could recognize everywhere, then it was Thiemo’s. Now, as she looked at him more closely, she thought she had seen him before. Her father had resembled him a pony, and then there was that record they had seen in the mountain. However, that pony in it had spoken in another voice. "Who are you?" she asked cautiously and took another step back. Something was wrong with this alicorn in front of her. Her body was trembling despite herself, and every instinct told her to run.

"You’ve forgotten me?" the stallion asked, tilting his head slightly. "Apparently you have a limit. But that doesn’t matter now. Come." The cobalt stallion turned to leave, but Aura backpedalled rapidly before she was jerked to a halt. "I told you to come with me."

Auralia looked down at her hooves, realizing that the earth had wrapped around them. She tightened her muscles and freed her hooves, scattering rubble in all directions. "Why should I? I don’t even know who you are." She turned and galloped away. It did not matter where as long as it was away from this creepy alicorn. She zigzagged between a few trees, jumped over a short bush, and made a sharp curve of the right. However, there was a sharp snapping sound, and the next moment, the stallion was standing before her again. He did not look pleased at all.

If he was too fast to run away from, she only had one choice. She held onto him, jumped at the last moment, and with her right front hoof, struck him directly in the face with all the strength that she could muster. The stallion flew against one of the nearby trees and broke through its trunk, then another, and finally grated to a halt on the ground. The foal breathed heavily as the two trees collapsed.

Had she done it? No, she couldn’t wait to make sure. She galloped away again, or at least she would be if she wasn’t held in place again. "You've grown stronger over the years," the stallion commented as he slowly approached her. He flexed his jaw. "I even felt that."

She tore herself from her shackles, but unlike before, the ground immediately broke out again to reach for her. She jumped to the side, then another time when a hand made of clay came out for her. Her forelegs grabbed the structure and tore it out of the ground, then threw it at the unknown stallion. With a brief flash of his horn, however, the hand crumbled to dust before it reached him. "Who are you?" she asked, this time much louder. "What do you want from me?"

The stallion flapped his wings, accelerated sharply, and pressed Auralia with one leg against a tree. "I am your father."

Auralia's eyes widened inevitably. This stallion thought that he was her father? "Thiemo is my father," she replied, swinging her hind legs that hung in the air into the breast of the stallion. He released her as he stumbled back, and hardly had her hooves touched the ground, she went into the next blow. Something in her begged her to run, but that option seemed to be futile.

The stallion leapt aside as she aimed her next blow at his body. Earth flew in all directions and cracks formed as she missed. Using the momentum, she whirled around and struck out with her hind legs just as she had learned from Applejack. However, the alicorn blinked in and out of existence with merely a shake of his head. His horn glowed, and with a hoof he drew a staff from the ground. Even before Auralia had recovered from her own attack, the staff whirled flatly over the ground and pulled her hind legs from under her. She struck the ground chin first.

A moan escaped her lips, but quickly she caught herself as she looked at her opponent and saw a staff threatening to strike her from above. Aura rolled to the side at the last moment just as the metal rod slammed into the ground where she had just been lying. He was actually trying to injure her, she realized quickly, and rolled again, this time onto her hooves. She lifted a hoof and blocked the next blow, metal striking metal. "Teleport!" she cried aloud, and the stallion disappeared. Protes dimmed while around her right hoof.

She had no idea where the stallion had been transported. Her father had never told her exactly how the staff worked, but she had seen him use it enough times to replicate the results. "Star trail!" cried a familiar voice, and Auralia looked up. There, above the trees, he floated in the air, a burning white star erupting from the heavens. Her fur smouldered, hooves felt as though they were melting, and Auralia was dimly aware that she had been thrown through the air. She also felt the impact, but so numb was her body that she barely reacted.

Still, she had to get up again. He couldn’t take her—everything would be lost if he did. The foal had no idea how she knew that, only that that was the only certainty she had. Her legs trembled as she struggled to her hooves, the smell of burnt hair reaching her nostrils. Hardly had she opened her eyes when the staff came down and struck her on her left side, driving the air out of her body as she fell to the ground again. "You should have just come along. I did not want to hurt you," she heard the alicorn say.

Tears swelled in her eyes. He could not get her. He just could not. She had to do something. She was Auralia, daughter of Thiemo and Applejack. She was an earth pony and strong. She sensed how a third time her hooves were surrounded by earth. It should be the other way round. She was an earth pony; the earth was hers to shape. "No," she whispered to the earth, and the earth paused. "Help me," she implored, and the earth responded. She straightened up and the dust in her coat melted away. "Be my weapon," she commanded, and the earth became putty under her hooves. She slammed her hooves on the dirt floor, and a shard of rock shot from the ground and struck the alicorn. Bones cracked as the hard stone slammed against ribs and hurled him several meters through the air. Like skipping a stone on the water’s surface, the blue stallion bounced several times before another pillar bounced out of the ground and shot him in the opposite direction.

Then the alicorn caught himself, his wings flapping madly to carry him into the air. Auralia directed the earth with her hooves to reach for him, and the element complied. Gigantic hooves of clay and stone formed within seconds and struck the alicorn. However, he soon retreated high enough out of her reach. The earth could not follow him to the heavens. His horn blazed, and the sun seemed to increase its luminosity in response. Aura brought her hooves over her eyes instinctively. However, the expected blow never came. Instead, mounds of dirt began to crumble down upon her. The stallion snorted so loudly that she even heard it on the ground. The glow of his magic, which had just encircled his horn, gathered around his hooves. At first she thought he would make a new staff, but instead, a scythe had formed.

"Annoying little brat," she heard a voice, deep, scary, and cool as ice. Aura needed a while to realize that the same stallion had spoken. The only other pony she'd ever heard speak so loudly was Princess Cadance.

Then he swooped down, straight toward her. Stiff with terror, she protected her head again with her hooves and saw this time what happened. A dome formed over her head and enveloped her completely. It grew dark and quiet for a moment. Her heart thudded violently in her chest as a bright blue glowing blade suddenly pierced through her protection, the tip just before her muzzle. Then it carved slowly over her head, cutting her dome from earth into two as though it were made of butter. Magic seized the two sides of the newly formed crack and tore it apart, allowing the alicorn to fire another attack at her point blank.

Auralia screamed as she slid across the ground, but a hoof managed to stop her. "Go take cover, Sugarcube, I'll take care of this," she heard her mother's voice say. She wanted to look at the mare, but Applejack pushed her hat onto her head. "Who do you think you are that you could come to my home and attack my daughter?" the mare roared the alicorn. "You best clear out of hear before I show you what pain really is." The foal managed to shift the hat to the side and saw the stallion land, his scythe at his side.

"Hello, Applejack, it's nice to see you again," he said with Thiemo’s voice.

That also seemed to surprise her mother. "A changeling?" Applejack murmured, more to herself than anyone in particular. "And for a moment I thought this might be trouble."

"As self-assured as ever, as I see. How are Big Mac and Apple Bloom? Is Granny still alive?" he asked as though he was conversing with an old friend. But how did he know her family? Had the stallion been stalking her?

"Oh, they’re alright. Can’t say you’ll be as well." Applejack dashed forward, kicking up dust as she went. The stallion did not move, only raising his weapon at the last moment before her mother's hoof met his face. A dull clink sounded as Applejack’s horseshoes met the scythe.

Her mother was no one trick pony as she whirled around and fired a well-timed buck at him. Again he raised the scythe to block the blow. "I don’t enjoy doing this, Applejack, but Auralia has to come with me. I need our daughter to make everything right again." Applejack, unlike Auralia before, landed on all fours, firing a foreleg at the alicorn, only to be blocked once again. Shaking his head, his horn lit up and Applejack was wrapped in a blue aura of magic. All she could do was struggle as she fought against the magical grasp. He lowered her leg for her and finally floated her a few inches across the ground in front of him. "I really don’t like it, Applejack. Please understand that," he said, kissing her mother on her lips. The mare's eyes widened and she tried to free herself again to no avail. Auralia struggled to stand, but her legs would not obey. She had several scorch marks on her body where her fur was completely burnt out, blue spots that seemed to have pierced the skin. Her head swam and she fought the desire to retch. The movement, however, caused the stallion to leave Applejack and look to her. "Auralia, please take off the bangle, or I will have to hurt your mother… a lot."

She did not react, staring blankly at the alicorn and her mother, who was struggling wildly. Then, without warning, Applejack's left foreleg bent unnaturally at an angle. The mare whimpered, although she could not open her mouth. "I'm waiting," the stallion said impatiently. The foal nodded and hurried to get Protes off her leg. The metal fell into the fresh spring grass.

The blue aura around Applejack disappeared and she fell to the ground. "I'll... I'll make you…" she whimpered, but the stallion ignored her and just passed her. He stood before Auralia and looked down at her. "Come," he said again.

It was like a switch in her had flipped, as though someone had had placed cotton in her head. Her thoughts ebbed and she simply stood up, her legs steady and her breathing flat. Then he wrapped her in his aura and lifted her on his back. The last things she saw before her eyes closed were the ever-fading apple trees in the distance.

Author's Notes:

"I'm your father!" - I always wanted to write that.
~ truekry

Today, I want to introduce you to a new project that caught my interest. 'Starved for Light' is a Fan-Game that is inspired by the show, Ori and the Blind Forest and Limbo. Or simply said: "Three of my favorite things of all time."
Ori and the Blind Forest is one of my favorite game of all times and I loved Limbo very much. I'm not ashamed to say
that I cried a little when they announced a sequel at E3 this year. But I want to ask you, to take a look yourself and maybe support the project. I looks very promising:
YouTube Announcement
Homepage
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Special thanks to JBL for translating & editing.