LoE-Blackest Night:Fussiness Fixes a friend

The Lanterns of Equestria the Blackest Night- Fussiness Fixes a friend.

“Ah believe that Big Mac is workin’ the south orchards today. Is that where he went Granny?”

“Yep. He went to fix some irrigation pipes an’ do more fence repair.”

Applejack sighed. “Ok. I found out about this from Mac. Let me try.”

Applejack’s ring glowed a little and an image of her older brother formed above the glowing ring. The image moved like a unicorn picture spell. “AJ! Yer talkin’ again!” He sounded surprised. ”You back from town?”

“Nah. Ah never left.” She looked at Raindrops, “Might have been a good thing, too.”

“Sis, where are ya? Granny’s out of the house lookin’ for ya.” Mac’s image inquired. He looked as if he was doing something work related, and using the ring.

“Ah’m in the zap apple grove. Granny found me. Raindrops the pegasus is here too. There was a Timberwolf attack, a big one. Ah handled it with mah ring, and everypony’s ok. I threw the big critter into the forest. We’re alright.” Mac’s face looked worried. ”Big brother,  Ah need you to do somthin’ for me please.”

Mac’s image shifted a moment. ”Anything, sis, …whatcha need me ta do?”

Applejack made a sheepish face for a moment. “Ah need you ta do a show-and-tell with Raindrops on the ring, Mac. Tell her how it works and what you can do with it.”

Mac looked confused. ”Mac, Ah made another ring an Ah gave it ta Raindrops. She’s charged it up an’ everythin’. She’s a Green Lantern now. It ain’t just us anymore, big brother.”

The red stallion made an ugly face. ”You were so set against anypony getting involved an’ hurt. Applejack, you sure about that?”

“No, Mac, Ah ain’t! Ah ain’t sure of anything except that we need the help—the level headed kind, not the ragin’ kind. Speakin’ of which, apparently RD has spit her bit, an Ah’m part of the reason.”

“What! Why?”

“Ah don’t know. But Ah aim ta find out. Anyway, Ah’m headin’ into town. Ah found somthin’ Twilight needs ta see. Raindrops will tell you all about it when she sees ya.”

“You want me to go with?” Mac’s image became a little stern.

“No! Ah need ya to teach Raindrops. She needs help with the ring. Please, big brother, do this for me. Ah can fight mah own battles, and Ah gotta face this mahself because frankly it may be true…at least partly.”

Mac nodded. He looked worried.“Ok sis. Ah’m way ahead on work. Tell Raindrops Ah’m in the west orchard now. Send her ta me there. Oh, an’, AJ?”

“Yep?”

“Tell me everythin’ that is going on in town. Ah heard a little that the Reds were actin’ crazy, but frankly, AJ, Ah been too busy ta find out. Be careful.” The image of Mac disappeared.

Applejack turned to speak to Raindrops, “Ok, yer gonna fly to him, right?”

“Well, yes. Is that a problem for some reason?”

“No. Ah just want to warn ya to be careful, girl. When you will yerself ta fly, ya gotta be careful.

Raindrops was bemused, “Oh?”

“Yeah, ya may want ta think about flyin’ slow! Otherwise ya could go into a mountain so fast it’ll make yer head spin. Ah ain’t kiddin’!”

“Is that what happened to you?” the pegasus asked with a slight smile on her face.

“A heh. Yeah. First time Ah tried ta fly…Ah crashed a few times. When Ah finally got the hang of it Ah got a little too excited an’ wound up in the side of a foot hill!” Applejack rubbed her head with her hoof. “Good thin’ the ring protects ya.”

Raindrops looked at the ring speculatively, “Well it protected you from the crash, right?”

Applejack winced, “Yeah, but that don’t mean it didn’t hurt, girl.”

Raindrops nodded. “ Well, I need to see what it’s like, stretch some. Maybe I should just go up first, above the clouds and into the open air to test things out.”

Applejack nodded.”Sensible. VERY sensible. More than me mah first time. “

Raindrops stretched her wings out and began to flap. She didn’t feel anything different or special.

“Wait!” the farm pony waved at her. “Yer not doin’ it right. Yer thinkin’ about flying with yer wings. The ring won’t fly for you that way!”

Raindrops was puzzled, “So what do I do?”

“Ah know it’ll sound just crazy, but ya just will yerself into the air. Feel that you are goin’ ta fly. Might be easier for you, bein’ a pegasus an all. You might not have the problems Ah had. Fly, not with yer wings, but with yer mind.“

Raindrops relaxed and cleared her mind. She then called the feeling of flying into her mind and thought of how she would like to be over the clouds—and quickly. She had always been regarded as a somewhat slow and clumsy flyer and it normally took a great deal of time to get up to high altitude, so she wondered how long it would take with the ring.

She willed herself off the ground.

She felt the force of the ring surround her like a warm bath. She began to feel buoyant like a balloon. It was different than lifting off with wings! Instead of feeling the lift just coming from only her wings, her whole body seem to be doing her work. For a moment the pull of gravity seem to be gone. She rose into the air slowly. She felt no effort.

‘Up…Fast…’her mind sang to the ring, “Fly!”

The ring harmonized to her mind song. It was so.

There was a burst of acceleration as Raindrops climbed into the air. The force driving her into the air did not decrease as she went higher, it increased! She was accelerating going straight up! It was like being a rocket, passing through the lower clouds in the blink of an eye and continuing straight up.

In a second, Raindrops was out of sight of the ground.

She passed through the high cloud layers going higher still! The blue of the sky began to grow darker. She was climbing way higher than she had ever been before! No pony save the Royal Sisters had been as high as Raindrops was now, she was sure. Raindrops also realized she was not breathing hard, if she was breathing at all! The ring made her able to be in the very thin air and she didn’t feel the cold normal for high altitude flying! She caught herself grinning like Pinkie Pie. The feeling was amazing!

She leveled off and began making smooth loops and curves, making patterns she had never been able to make before, tightening the pattern until she came to a stop at a single point in the air. The pegasus then let herself fall, willing the ring to let gravity grab her and pull her back down to ground. She fell for about a minute and then willed herself to stop. Raindrops’ fall immediately halted and she hung in the air, motionless where she had commanded the ring to stop her. In her mind, she could feel the ring holding gravity away from her inside the aura of green.  It was so different to only ‘feel’ gravity in her mind, and not with her body. She willed herself to fly forward and then to descend in a graceful spiral. Never in her life had the pegasus ever flown so perfectly, with such control! Nothing in the world but another lantern could fly as fast or as high as she could now.  ”Who’s a slow and clumsy flyer now!” she laughed.

Back on the ground, Granny chuckled and shook her head. “Ya were right, granddaughter. Lookit that youngun’ go! Better than yer first time!”
Applejack made a sour face. ”Come on, Granny, let’s get you home. Ah gotta go into town.”
<0>
Applejack took Granny back to the house, picked up her saddlebags, and departed for Ponyville. She decided that she would walk to town today, using the time to think things over and to stretch her legs. She had not really worked her legs hard in a while, and the walk would be good.

The sun was climbing to noon time as she departed the farm. The walk to Ponyville was quiet, uneventful, and calm, which was what Applejack needed.  She passed the damaged school house, her ring admonishing her to recharge it. The front of the school had been patched up and enough repairs had been done to make the school house useable again. The ground by the building was still scorched, but many of the holes had been filled in. Through the school house windows, Applejack could see the colts and fillies inside studying under Ms. Cheerilee. Applejack caught the sight of the Star Sapphire ring on her foreleg as she showed the students something on the black board. It was at that moment that the farm horse felt a slight pang of guilt about being missing…no…absent from things. Absent! Yes. She wondered if her friends had needed her while she wandered about lost in her grief. She knew they would understand, but a small part of her felt she had let them down, badly.

Rainbow Dash apparently had taken it personally.

“Hmmm,” Applejack said to herself, “Ah wonder?” She looked around to see where on the road she had stopped. She was just past the school house by a cluster of trees by the side of the road. The circle of beautiful trees made a kind of canopy that cut down the sunlight a bit. A gentle breeze was blowing as she entered the circle. The trees created a small, quiet place where she would not be disturbed, with nopony around. Here in the cool shade of these trees, after the Timberwolf attack and giving Raindrops a ring that she had filled to full, Applejack decided to try once more to recharge her ring.

“Perfect spot,” the farm mare said to herself.

Since that terrible night, the night she had broken after seeing Zecora turned into a Black Lantern, Applejack had not been able to recharge it. She had attempted to about three times, and each time only a trickle of power had flowed into the green lantern ring. Like the ring itself, the battery also seemed to not be functioning like it had been. Her inability to recharge the ring made her question what the hay she was doing with this green piece of magic jewelry. What was the point of having the thing if she couldn’t reload it up with the green light it ran on. The whole thing had made her question her purpose, and that, in turn, had fed her doubt, which had then fed her guilt.

Applejack sighed as she again summoned the green battery from the space it rested in. She did not want to try doing what she was about to do with with anypony else about. She had failed three times before to get more than a drop out of the battery—would this time be any different?

The lantern appeared in the air and slowly floated to the ground. The soft green glow of the lantern gave the tree circle an almost eerie atmosphere, like the inside of Zecora’s hut when she was doing Zebra magic. The green glow gave Applejack a feeling of foreboding. It made her feel in her bones that more difficulties lay ahead for her and all of her friends,  that this strange light from elsewhere was the only means she would have to do what needed to be done, that Raindrops was right, that a war was upon all of Equestria.

The glow also held something that pulled at her heart in a way she never expected. It had a history! The ring, the battery, the oath, the symbols all had a history! It meant something. It meant she was a part of something greater—a part of those who had come before her, a part of all those strange creatures she had seen when she first charged the ring. And now according to the ring, she was now the carrier of the whole of that history and tradition! Weird jewelry, and strange powers and costumes, she didn’t understand...but tradition, Apples understood that, and what it meant! She had never suspected that the rings had anything like that attached to them, and now that she knew they did, it made her burden heaver and more serious than ever, for in matters of tradition, Applejack was most serious.

She sat on her haunches in front of the lantern and took a deep breath. The ring had worked right twice in a row, would the battery? She brought up the ring on her leg and held still for a moment, calling up in her mind the oath she had spoken that night in Ponyville, the oath that Raindrops had recited so recently. The words were ‘heavier’ now; there was deeper meaning to them.  

Applejack closed her eyes and pushed the ring into the opening of the lantern battery. There was a flash of green light as she felt the fire within the lantern begin to churn like an angry storm cloud.

“In brightest day…in blackest night… “ she began.

She could feel the power within the battery begin to flow into the ring. It was slower than the first time, but it was working better this time.

“No evil shall escape mah sight…”

…but she had— evil had escaped her sight…that evil took Zacora.

There was a backlash at that thought. Like a spring snapping back after it had been let go from one end, the energy snapped back on itself. Applejack felt like lightning was shooting through her body. Her body became rigid, the only movement was the quivering of her muscles locked by the energy of the battery. Her eyes were held open and her lips were drawn back in a rictus. There was no pain, but a very strange sensation.

In a moment, it passed. Applejack caught herself looking at the battery with skewed eyes. She recovered quickly and took stock first of her body, then the battery and ring. She felt fine. There was no pain from the ‘backlash’, and she didn’t have any other sensation except a little tingling here and there. She looked at the battery; it was still sitting on the ground, gently glowing, as it had been before she began. The ring on her leg glowed a little brighter.

“Ring…how much charge do ya have?” she asked tensely.

[=Ring Capacity 24.5%=]

“What the hay happened?”

[=Charge sequence halted by Lantern Prime. Limited recharge capacity loaded=]

Applejack looked at the ring quizzically, “Ah didn’t stop the chargin’!”

[=Charge sequence halted by Prime Lantern. Commitment to oath voluntarily severed connection to recharge sequence=]

She thought a minute, “So because Ah felt ah had not done right by mah word…the oath, it cut the recharge?”

[=Correct=]

Applejack got up off the ground and on to all of her legs. “Any ideas would help ring.”

[=Query not understood. Clarify please=]

“What do Ah have ta do to fix this..to make things work right?”

[=It is lantern’s decision that power battery functions. This decision has been achieved with this ring.=]

“So, it’s still me huh.” She sighed.

[=Correct=]

“Well, it’ll have ta do fer now.”

Applejack returned the lantern to its invisible home and returned to the road to Ponyville. She wondered who she should visit first?

Fluttershy? She was nice, loving, and gentle, but the way Applejack felt was anything but gentle. Besides, overcoming fears and doubts was not really her thing.

Pinkie Pie? Laughter could help—not right now—maybe later. Besides, Applejack was not really in a partying mood at the moment.

Twilight? No! Yes, she had something very important Applejack wanted to show her scholar friend, but Twilight would reduce things to a school lecture, and treat this whole mess as an academic exercise, including her guilt. That approach, in Applejack’s mind and in her heart, did not help.

Then there was Rainbow Dash. Was she really that ticked at her? The way Raindrops talked, she was a few apples short of a bushel! It might be better to wait before talking to Dash, besides, if half of what Applejack had heard was true, she wasn’t exactly happy with the leader of the red lanterns.

Maybe somepony else?  But who? She really did not want to talk to anyone but her friends.

In Ponyville that left one friend she might be able to talk to first: the fastidious fussbudget Rarity! The white unicorn was Applejack’s exact opposite in so many ways. What would Rarity make of all this? What would she say that Twilight and the others would not?

‘Hmm…opposite,’ Applejack thought to herself. ‘Maybe that’s just the kind of view Ah need.’ She chuckled a little to herself, ‘Why not?’ She began walking to town again. ‘Besides, her kind of fussin’ might be easier to take.’

Applejack reached the outskirts of Ponyville. She decided she would avoid crowds and cut around the outside of the town, bypassing Sugar Cube Corner by way of the Windmill and headed to the Carousel Boutique. As she passed some of the small houses and buildings, occasionally a pony would look out and see her and wave at her. She would wave back saying, “Good mornin’,” and keep trotting on to her destination.  When she arrived to the front door of Rarity’s shop she hesitated before walking in, wondering what the fastidious fashionista would make of her appearance. She hadn’t washed in days, she looked completely unkempt (even for her), and a weird kind of fatigue showed in her posture and her face. Even her Stetson was a bit rumpled. How would Rarity react? Normally Applejack would hate the fuss the unicorn would put out, but right now, in a very weird way, it would be kind of comforting. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
                                            <0>
The familiar ring of the entry bell told Rarity she had a customer. She was in the back prepping area getting a dress ready for a client’s birthday. She would take it to them as soon as she was done and get lunch at the café before joining Twilight in a meeting as the head of the Indigo Herd. This was the time of year when fashion was in a slow period and she had plenty of time to be both the premier fashion designer of central Equestria, and leader of a group of lanterns. She was grateful that Sweetie Bell had taken up with Diamond Tiara and was out of her mane, allowing her a freer hoof to take care of things.  

“Coming,” she called with a melodic lilt to her voice. She turned from the prepping area and went to the entry and display area of the shop, using her magic to close and open curtains as she went.

Smiling, she entered the show room, speaking a warm greeting to her new guest. ”Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique! Please tell me how may I may be of service to...” She came to a stop and saw a sight she had been afraid she would see, and hoped not to.

Her eyes beheld a very sad-looking pony. That pony was Applejack, and she looked like she had been trampled by a herd of buffalo. Rarity gasped.

The farm pony was normally a little dirty with work, cleaning up as best she could, but this…filth was not from labor. Rarity could literally feel what it was through the Indigo ring that rode on her leg. Her friend had been punishing herself with…guilt! She had not cared about herself at all and had allowed herself to get this way…on purpose! It was something in Applejack she had seen before, but never in this way, and never this bad.

She ran up to hug the farm pony and got a whiff of her friend’s reek. Rarity ignored the odor and squeezed her even harder, “Oh, Applejack, darling! Thank Celestia you have decided to remove yourself from that dreadful isolation.” The white unicorn released the embrace and stepped back to look at her friend again. “Oh, my word,” she gasped again. Applejack’s guilt was like sweat—it literally rolled off of her.

“Ah know Ah must look a fright” Applejack said, taking off her hat while looking down at the floor. ’Here it comes, the fuss budget rant’ she thought.

“Oh my, Applejack,” Rarity started. “Whatever were you thinking that made you do this,” Rarity gestured with her horn up and down at Applejack, ”to yourself?”

‘Rarity is still Rarity alright’ Applejack said to herself ‘…but she’s different somehow.’ The usually prissy unicorn hadn’t recoiled from her dirty condition, or her smell, usually Rarity would at least pause a moment before touching anything as dirty as Applejack was. But this time, shehadn’t!
The workhorse put her hat back on.”Ah just didn’t clean up is all. Tarnation, Rarity, it ain’t that bad…I missed a few meals and some baths is all. Ah’m alright.”

Rarity’s eyes narrowed a little. “You most assuredly are not, my dear! No, not one bit.” The unicorn’s horn began to glow as Rarity used her magic to move her sign from open to closed, and then locked the door of the shop. ”If life has taught me anything, is that sometimes a pony can punish herself worse with neglect, than another pony could with her hooves.” Rarity used her magic to draw the shades of the shop. “You, dear Applejack, have wracked yourself with guilt.” The Indigo ring wielder turned to regard her friend, “I would really like to know why, darling. Why do you feel so badly about yourself?”

Applejack stood stunned. Rarity knew EXACTLY what she was feeling. Her concern was more in tune with the farm mare’s feelings now than she had ever been before. Rarity even made no fuss about being filthy; she was fussing about WHY Applejack was dirty! That was…different, VERY different. Applejack looked at the floor again, then gazed at the Indigo Power Ring of her friend while Rarity put on a blouse and levitated a hat onto her head.  Compassion, it was the power of the ring; the emotion fueled it like Willpower fueled her own ring. It allowed its wearer to feel what others felt. The ring had made her friend…Twilight would know the word!

Rarity trotted up to her friend. ”Before we depart…” she levitated the Stetson off of Applejack’s head and onto the counter. ”I will clean and re-block your hat when we get back. Come now, let us be off!”

“Rarity, just where are we goin’ ta?” Not having her hat made her feel a little out of sorts, but it did need some care.

“Why to the spa, my dear. We simply must get you cleaned up!”

“Aw no..Ah don’t need a makeover an’ a pritifying, thank you kindly.” She kicked her hoof a little.

Rarity came up to Applejack and nuzzled her gently. “No, I would never do that to you unless you asked me to. Sweetie, you need to bathe and be groomed at least. That is all I am saying to you. You need to clean up, and then we will see about lunch.” The lock of the door glowed as the unicorn unlocked and opened the door.” It will make you feel better.”

Applejack complied, making not a sound. She could use a bath, she knew that. She felt it was a little selfish somehow, but it needed to be done. She waited out in the street for Rarity to lock up her shop.

Rarity finished locking the door and turned to look at her friend; her blue eyes could see more than they had before. Rarity found she could see deeper now, into a pony’s very heart. The guilt Applejack had was palpable to Rarity, and it pierced her friend’s heart. Because of the Indigo ring, she could actually feel that pain when she reached out to comfort the other pony. It made a tear well up in one of her eyes. She also felt Applejack’s willpower; the fortitude it gave her was immense. She had never been able to understand just how much that willpower allowed her to endure so much, until now.  

“So, my dear, who else have you seen in town?” the Indigo ring wielder asked her friend.

“Yer the first, Rarity. I didn’t…feel right to see anypony else.”

Rarity almost gasped. She could feel the rest of it. ‘it didn’t feel right to see anyone else for help, but you.’

“So what sweet smellin’ soap you gonna try and have them use on me this time?” Applejack asked in a half growl.

“Simple basic clean is the order of the day. I believe we shall keep it that way,” Rarity answered with a lilt in her voice.

“Really?” Applejack looked at her friend. “Fer you too?”

Rarity gave a small wry smile and winked at Applejack, “I wouldn’t go that far darling.”

At the spa, Rarity set up everything for Applejack and had the session billed to herself.  She instructed Lotus Blossom and Aloe as to what Applejack needed. The farm pony made a funny face as Rarity stayed in the waiting room. “Don’t worry darling, I will join you in a moment, but there is one tiny thing I need to take care of first.”  To show she was not going to be long, she hung her hat on the hanger. She stepped outside out the front door and brought her ring up in front of her, took a deep breath and cleared her mind.

Rarity had made a discovery very important to all who had a power ring. She had been experimenting with her ring with Twilight watching when she happened on it. Rings of a particular color could only talk to other rings of like color, until the head of the Indigo Herd found that she could contact other colored rings and talk to their users by feeling the emotion of the ring she was trying to contact. That discovery had made Twilight very happy, and though it was difficult, anyone with a power ring could do the same trick, but it came much easier to the Indigo Herd than anypony else.  She relaxed and called up fear from her heart.

[=FEAR=]

The cold bite of the yellow emotion nipped at her mind and heart. “Just enough,” she told herself.  Her Indigo ring glowed a bit, casting out a colored bubble of indigo light that shimmered and changed into a globe of yellow that then collapsed and became the head of Yellow Lantern Twilight Sparkle glowing in her yellow light. Twilight’s face wore a slight frown.

“Rarity!” the yellow visage said in YL Twilight’s voice with a hint of pain in it. “Could you come in pony to the library to talk to me? I’m a little busy right now and….”

“No, Twilight, I cannot.” IH Rarity looked at Twilight’s image somewhat sternly. “Unless it is absolutely necessary, I need you to drop everything right now, please, darling.”

YL Twilight sighed. Princess Celestia was going to want a report from her soon on all of the lantern activity. The unicorn’s ears were laying flat in an expression of frustration. “Rarity, I don’t have a lot of time, and neither do you. Remember what we were talking about with…”

Rarity looked at the image of YL Twilight, her eyes narrowing.” I know about what needs to be done, Twilight. I told you I will accomplish what I discussed with you later! It will have to wait. Something more important has come up!”
Twilight raised one eyebrow and her ears came up a bit, “Oh? What’s happened?”

“Applejack has come out of the farm and she came to town.” Twilight’s eyes opened wide, her ears up at full alert.

“How is she? She refused all visitors, even her family had trouble seeing her!” the yellow lantern asked, concern showing in her eyes.”Where are you Rarity?”

“She’s with me now. We are at the spa.” Rarity looked over her right flank, then back at Twilight’s image. “She was so…sad to look upon, Twilight! She came into my shop dirty, mane and tail uncombed, an odor that should have taken me aback except for the overwhelming guilt she is carrying.” Rarity visibly shuddered. “It was so pitiful seeing her like that! She has been wallowing in guilt over what happened—I am sure of it. I have brought her for a bath and a bit of styling. I am hoping she will open up to me about what happened.”

“I hate to sound ‘on work’ asking this, but how is her willpower? Can you tell what condition it’s in?”

Rarity took a breath and closed her eyes. “I think that is the only reason she is up and about. Somehow it has repaired itself. It feels like she found something to re-weave it back together.”

Twilight had a confused look on her face. “And she sought you out first?”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, very peculiar I agree, especially for Applejack. You know how hard it is for her to ask for help of any kind—but to come to me first! I don’t know whether to be touched, or scared.”

Twilight’s image looked at something down in front of her then back at Rarity. “Maybe both, Rarity.”

“Can you get the girls, Twilight, and come here. She needs us—ALL of us.”

“Absolutely! I’m at a break point in my report.” She looked away for a moment, “Spike, please collate these parchments for my report to the princess. Ok, Rarity, I’ll get Pinkie first and send her there. I’ll then get a hold of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.” YL Twilight started to glow a little brighter in her image.”I’ll have to go to Rainbow Dash’s sky castle to get her. She doesn’t always accept communication by ring with other colors.”

“Thank you, Twilight.” Rarity cocked her head to the side in a quick thought, ”Oh, Twilight? One last thing please, darling?”

“Yes,” her image answered.

IH Rarity’s eyes narrowed. “Applejack needs compassion right now, not castigations and recriminations. Could you PLEASE try and make that clear to our raging pegasus? I have little hope for your success, dear, the way she has been acting as of late, but do please try.”

Twilight’s answer came from above Rarity. Twilight levitated above her white unicorn friend dressed in her Yellow Lantern uniform, “I’ll do my best.”

For an instant Twilight had a face that inspired a bit of terror in Rarity.

[=FEAR=] the indigo ring chirped. Rarity jumped a little in her heart.

“That is the best anypony can ask, Twilight,” said IH Rarity as she turned to go back into the spa. ’I think she wanted to scare me a little there’ Rarity thought to herself.

                                          <0>

The spa sisters had followed Rarity’s instructions to the letter. Lotus had been diligently scrubbing Applejack nose to tail, making sure not to miss any part of the farm pony’s body. Rarity had asked Lotus do the job herself as her no-nonsense attitude would make Applejack feel better. Aloe had been a little disappointed as she loved having fun with Applejack when she came to the spa (which was rare as she generally visited only after a heavy harvest or a hard stint of farm work), but when Miss Rarity had explained everything, Aloe understood. Miss Rarity had said this trip to the spa for Applejack was like a kind of ‘purification,’ so a little rough treatment would actually suit Applejack better than a ‘fun’ outing. Lotus would be trying to wash out more than dirt; she was going to give quiet, and serious, relief to the farm pony’s soul through her body, and it was going to be a little rough this time around. Aloe agreed on that point, her sister’s approach would be more helpful. Rarity for her part had asked for her ‘usual’ and the staff was always eager to work on their number one customer.  

Applejack had been put into the sauna to ‘sweat out’ some when Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy came in. Aloe directed them to the central soak area.

“Please wait for Miss Rarity and Miss Applejack here, “ she said, directing Vera to help Pinkie and Fluttershy into the soak tub. Aloe had a puzzled look on her face. ”Where are Miss Sparkle and Miss Dash?”

“Oh...um Twilight is trying to fetch Rainbow Dash to come here. They should be here very soon,” said Fluttershy. “Please don’t be shocked if Rainbow Dash is a little more um…angry than usual.”

Aloe nodded slowly with a confused look on her face and her ears oddly cocked as she went over to the main couch in the common area to prep it for Rarity. She then left and in a few moments returned with the belle of the spa, Vera, in attendance escorting their favorite customer to the main couch. Rarity lay on the couch and placed her front hooves on the stand in front of the table, getting ready for a hoofacure.

“Rarity,” Pinkie started with just her face protruding out of the water, ”So what’s the story with Applejack? How is she? I knew she’d come back…” Pinkie rose from the water with a typical ‘weird’ Pinkie Pie look on her face, “But what did she come back as? Now THAT’S the Question.” She grinned.

Rarity tossed her hair to one side and looked at her friends in the tub. “That is why I asked for everyone to come here. She has gone through a lot, and in some ways she is better than she was before; her willpower is certainly much stronger. But in other ways she is more lost! She is galloping around in the dark looking for something…something to guide her.”

Fluttershy wiped a sponge across her face with her right hoof, the Violet power ring glimmering with the soft light of love that powered the amazing jewelry. “Well, that’s why we came. We love our friend and want her to know we are here for her.”

“Being here for her is not the issue, Fluttershy. Yes, that will help her, particularly the overwhelming guilt she’s carrying.“ Rarity shuddered at the feeling of Applejack’s guilt. ”It is almost overwhelming! And yet,” she paused and chose her next words carefully, ”it seems to be prodding her along to something, driving her. It is…quite strange.”

Pinkie eyed Rarity with one wide eye. “Are you saying Applejack is feeling guilty over what happened? That’s just silly.” Pinkie shook her head.

“I’m not sure that’s it, Pinkie Pie. Well, at least not all of it. Oh…” Rarity frowned. “Applejack has a tendency to take on for herself more than she should sometimes. I’m afraid that’s what is happening now, though I wish I knew what was at the center of her guilt. It feels like something dreadful.”

“Did Rainbow Dash talk to her before you did?” Fluttershy asked quietly, almost dreading the answer.

“No,” Rarity said. ”I don’t think so.“ The Indigo Herd leader cocked her head to one side and thought for a moment, her ears flat in worry. ”I do wonder though if some of what Rainbow Dash has been saying has gotten to Applejack’s ears. I sincerely hope not.”

Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other with a slightly worried look on their faces, Fluttershy biting her lower lip and Pinkie gritting her teeth. Since that awful night Rainbow Dash had been raging about Applejack, and how she had hid herself away. The ’Head’ Red Lantern seemed to take what had happened as a attack on herself and and acted like she had been betrayed somehow. How what had happened could in anyway be seen as a betrayal was very confusing. How much was Dash, and how much was the red power ring was anypony’s guess, but Rarity had some insight into it and was holding her tongue for this very meeting. She wanted to see her colorful Pegasus friend again, and was going to use her new found power of empathy to see if what she thought was going on inside Rainbow Dash’s heart was indeed the case.  

“Dashie was SOOOOO angry!” Pinkie said out loud. “Why do you suppose she was cranky about Applejack? It’s like Applejack attacked her! Is THAT what AJ’s upset about? Does she think she attacked Dashie? How can you attack somepony by hiding?”

Rarity said nothing. She was lost in thought.

Fluttershy broke in, “Um…I don’t think Rainbow Dash hates Applejack…disappointed maybe, but not hate. I don’t know.  Somehow…it’s like Applejack hurt Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy splashed the tub water a little. ”Oh, I wish she would just calm down and not be hurt. I’ve never seen her like this before, ever! I’m sure it’s that red ring of hers!  It’s affecting her judgment of things…look at what she’s done lately!” The yellow Pegasus shook her head.

“Look at what she almost did to you, Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie shook her head in agreement with her friend. “She was really going to hurt you! The Dashie I know might yell…but that,” the pink pony shivered, “that was scary!”

Fluttershy closed her eyes and put her head on her friend’s neck. “She was just upset about Scootaloo. I did almost do something awful.”

Pinkie turned and hugged the yellow pegasus. “I know, and I still believe in my Dashie. I’m just afraid of her and for her.”

Aloe poked her head in the soak room and made an eye gesture to Rarity. The white unicorn nodded in response. “Quiet girls,  Applejack is coming in now.”

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy sat down in the tub and waited quietly while Rarity went back to her hoofacure. They did not have long to wait.

Applejack stood at the entrance to the common soak area and paused before she entered. She took a deep breath and entered quietly with her eyes closed. When she opened them right after she entered the room she saw Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy in the soaking tub turning to look at her. Rarity was on a couch getting her hooves done. When Applejack’s gaze met her friend’s, she felt strangely vulnerable.

The now clean earth pony stood in the room and spoke to her friends for the first time in a while. ‘Um…howdy y’all.  Y’all doin’ ok?” she said in a soft half laugh.

There was an explosion of water as Pinkie leaped from the tub to in front of Applejack in a single bound. The pink party pony landed on all four hooves and then sprang one bounce into Applejack, almost knocking the farm pony over with the impact of her hug.

“Oh, Applejack,” the party pony bubbled, ”I knew you’d be back!” Her hug began to constrict around Applejack, making it hard for the farm mare to breathe. “Whatever happened to you it will work out..it will be alrightin the end, I’m sure.” Pinkie relaxed her squeeze a little so Applejack could breathe again.

Applejack took a breath and put her hoof on Pinkie’s head but said nothing.

Fluttershy had gotten out of the tub and dried off a bit during the Pinkie hug attack. She had flown down to the ground next to Applejack and nuzzled her gently. “It’s ok,” she said gently. Rarity waved the hoofacurist away and got up from her couch to move closer. Applejack got a look at her eyes for a moment. They were a mix of sadness and pity, with a hint of prying. ‘What’s Rarity up to?’ she wondered.

She felt relief for a moment. Knowing her friends still cared was a great help, especially because in her mind she had messed up so badly. Slowly she broke Pinkie’s hold on her and pulled back. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes as she backed up to look at her friends.

“Applejack, Darling…what’s the matter?” Rarity asked. “Have we done something wrong?” ‘Maybe she will open up now’ Rarity thought to herself ’and expel the poison she’s carrying in her heart.’

The work horse sat on her hindquarters and started to quietly sob for a moment then stopped herself, taking deep sniffs to catch her breath and stop sobbing. She wiped her tears with her bare foreleg and looked at her friends. Tears still came.

“Zecora,” she said, her voice cracking, “Ah…let her…they took her…she’s…” Her words became weak and squeaky for a moment. A hard gulp and a pause and she started again. “They…the Black Lanterns, they…they killed her! An’ after they killed her, they made her inta one of em!” Applejack shuddered visibly.  

Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all fell in on their friend in a group embrace. Applejack cried a little.

“Ah should have stopped em’. Ah shoulda’ known that she’d be in trouble,“ she whispered. But her friends heard her. “Ah’ shoulda’ cared enough to come to check on her instead of playing around like a school filly with a new toy.”

Her friends let go and backed up a bit, then sat down on the floor next to Applejack. Fluttershy ‘s face was a mask of worry, Pinkie’s face wore an expression of puzzlement, and Rarity simply closed her eyes and sighed.

“Zecora…Ah’m so sorry…” Applejack sobbed as she bent her head down. “Ah shoulda’ at least…”

“Applejack,” Rarity said quietly, rubbing her cheek against Applejack’s, “You…you couldn’t know what would happen. None of us could know what was going to happen.”

“Couldn’t we?” Applejack’s voice snapped, she brought her head up and looked first at Rarity, then Pinkie and Fluttershy. “Strange Rings doin’ strange things fallin’ from the sky? That wasn’t a warnin’? The first of them undead things showing up, that wasn’t a warnin’?” Applejack’s tears didn’t stop, but her voice was hard now, “We left our friend hangin’, period! We didn’t think about her at all—at all!” She choked a bit. “ Ah’m the one who’s supposed to think of stuff like that, be practical and reliable, protect ponies…an Ah did NOTHING!“ She looked at her friends with a hint of anger. “WE DID NOTHING!” Applejack choked at the end, then sniffed and wiped her tears away with her bare foreleg. “Nothing,” she said quietly, looking off into space.

Seeing Applejack cry was unnerving to say the least. She rarely cried and never bawled…ever! Pinkie started to tear up, which triggered Fluttershy’s urge to cry. The two of them hugged their friend. Applejack sat still as a stone, her breathing was slightly labored.  Rarity levitated a small wash cloth and wiped the tears that had started to fall from her eyes.  

“I thought she was safe,” Pinkie sniffed. “Zecora was always so safe in her hut in the forest. Her magic always kept her safe before.” Pinkie sobbed a little.

“I thought she was the safest of us,” Fluttershy’s voice cracked. “The creatures in the Everfree forest n-never attacked her, ever.” The pegasus wiped her own tears with a cloth. “We all thought she would be ok.”

“Applejack,” Rarity began, fighting back the urge to bawl her eyes out, ”you…didn’t kill Zecora. You...”

“Didn’t Ah?” the farmer snapped. “Ah let her get killed! Ah failed her, Ah failed all y’all!”

Rarity got up on all of her hooves, wiping away more ears from her eyes. ”No,Applejack. NO! You did not! By Celestia if you have never heard me before please listen to me now!”  The unicorn locked her blue-eyed gaze with the earth pony’s green-one. Her tone was kind, but firm, her ears back. “We were all trying to figure these rings out.” Rarity raised the leg on which rode the indigo power ring ”We did not know anything, remember? Twilight even said we needed to know more. Remember, dear?”

Applejack slowly nodded.

“We were trying..no, YOU were trying to discover what the ring could and could not do, if only…in your own words dear: ‘figure out if they were dangerous to even be around…let alone be’. You were doing what Twilight was doing, figuring things out to give us information. Applejack, you were busy splitting your time between your work, your family, these rings and your duty to the town. Honey, you cannot do all of it alone! Nopony can!“

“Ah didn’t think to about Zecora! Ah…”

Rarity continued. She was not going to let her friend’s guilt and doubt punish her for a crime she did not commit. “You didn’t think you had to, Applejack! You thought like the rest of us, including Twilight, that she would be alright. We did not understand what the Black Lanterns could or would do; we barely knew they existed!” Rarity sighed. “If the Black Lanterns had not come after her, she would still be safe in her hut or here talking with us about these rings. Make no mistake my dear, THEY killed Zecora, not you!”

Rarity took Applejack’s head into her hooves and looked deep into her eyes. The unicorn’s eyes seemed to have an indigo sparkle to them. “You might have been able to save her, or not—we shall never know. We know now to our sorrow what they can and will do, and we will not forget. But now it is time to decide what we can and will do, and that brings us to you, sweetie! Something happened to you when you faced her?” Rarity probed lightly with her ring, empathy searching for the pain. “What happened when they attacked? What did they do to you?”

Applejack thought for a moment as she recalled the memories of that night. Her face changed expression from sadness to horror, then regret very quickly. She looked around and sat up a little straighter, “Ah felt like Ah had let her down…Zecora, Ah mean.  Ah felt anger, an’ fear, an’ a whole lotta things! Ah froze. “ She searched her memory again for more details. ”Come ta think of it, there was something else.  It felt like…she drove a barb inta me and was yankin’ at mah heart somehow.” She looked at her friends one by one. ”Ah felt like Ah had failed mah friend, like ah had failed y’all.”

“OOO…sounds awful,” Fluttershy gasped.

“Nasty zombie tricks,” Pinkie Pie chimed in. “Those things are mean…it’s like they were trying to kill you with feelings, Applejack!”

Rarity thought for a moment and made a mental note. ‘Maybe they were,’ she thought to herself.

“Until Mac got us all away, it felt like Ah was comin’ apart from the inside out.” Applejack rubbed her chin with her hoof. “After that, it was like Ah was bleedin’ outta my heart.”

“In a way, sweetie, I believe you were. I wonder if they were trying to get your feelings…your emotions.”

Pinkie and Fluttershy looked at each other in shock. Pinkie’s mouth fell open while Fluttershy’s eyes were a big as the full moon. Applejack ‘s face bore her trademark ‘What the hay’ expression. ‘This was certainly something Twilight needed to know,’ Rarity thought to herself, ‘but first things first—healing our friend’  

“Alright Applejack, What are we going to do about it?” Rarity bluntly asked her friend.

“Beg pardon?”

“What do you think should we do about all of this? What do you think we should do for you?”

[=RAGE=] the Indigo ring said in Rarity’s mind.

“The first thing she can tell us is why she hid away when her friends need her!”

“Ah yes, the ever tactful and diplomatic Rainbow Dash has arrived,” Rarity said under her breath.