The knife dug deeper into Twilight’s neck, creating a small scar in the process. She whimpered as she was immobilized by the zebra foe, who was chuckling sinisterly. Applejack aimed her rifle at Zecora and gritted her teeth to the point where her veins in her gums writhed with pain.
Applejack always knew this zebra was trouble.
“Let her go, Zecora, or I’ll have to pull the trigger,” she said, her voice booming to fill the entire small house. Zecora only chuckled louder, annoying Applejack’s ears.
“I’m sorry, my little pony, but it looks like this is the end of your friend’s story,” Zecora replied, staring down at Twilight.
“Stick a sock in your riddles, Dr. Zeuss,” Applejack said, stepping closer to the pair. “Give me back my friend! I’m not afraid to use this!”
“The scent of this mare is very lovely, but I wonder what it will smell like when I dispose of the body!”
“You sick varmint! Don’t you talk to her that way!”
Applejack took a step forward with determination. The zebra dug the knife a tad deeper into Twilight’s purple neck, threatening to end her life if the knife dug any deeper. Applejack winced and growled silently as there were limited options for her.
She could not shoot her gun; it was a scatter shot that could fatally harm Twilight, which is not something she planned to do. If she got any closer, the crazed zebra would probably choose to slice her neck open, leaving her dead.
Damn, she thought to herself. There has to be something that I can do…
“I can do this one thing just for you, but you would have to dispose of your tool,” Zecora spoke with a hoarse voice.
“You’re gonna give Twilight back?” Applejack asked, lowering her gun and raising one of her eyebrows with curiosity.
Could this zebra actually be doing what she wanted her to do?
“I will give your dear Twilight back, only if you put your weapon into a brown sack,” Zecora said, staring deep into the cowpony’s eyes.
Applejack took a quick glance at a frightened Twilight. Her eyes were deep with fear and her breath was quick and frequent. She was scared witless, and it did not take too much to know that this was the case.
Applejack looked back at Zecora and sighed. She slowly dropped the gun to the floor and looked up in defeat. Zecora smiled wickedly and unseized Twilight. She trotted silently to Applejack, around the gun, and arrived at the golden pony’s side.
Zecora walked up to the gun and picked it up, raising it to her eye level. She studied it quickly, seemingly admiring the different features of the gun. She quickly retrieved a brown bag and placed the weapon inside. Applejack screamed inside.
That was my only gun.
Twilight looked down at the ground and coughed quickly. Applejack looked at her and rubbed her calmly. Twilight looked up, a glare forming in her eyes.
“How could you, Zecora?” she said, her voice trembling with every word she spoke. “Why would you betray us when we were your friends?”
Zecora turned away and walked up to one of the masks that took the space of the walls.
“When the undead started to rise, ponies started to blame me when I knew it was all but lies,” she said with a solemn voice. “I was beaten and hurt, as everyone pointed their hooves and treated me like dirt.”
“Zecora, we didn’t know about this,” Applejack spoke up. “You know we are your friends! All we needed are a few supplies, or maybe even residence here!”
The zebra looked away from the mask and glared at Applejack.
“Those ponies are the worst thing to happen, and you try to defend them?”
“If somepony tries to stick a knife to my friend, Ah think they’re the worst.”
Zecora leaped towards Applejack and stuck her knife at her neck. Applejack immediately started to feel hot as tension started to fill and sweat trickled down her forehead.
“If you want to survive, I suggest you do not insult me so you can stay alive,” she said coldly.
“Ah think you’re forgetting one thing to the whole puzzle, Zecora,” Applejack said, darting her eyes to the brown bag.
Zecora chuckled. “And what could that be, you monstrous chimpanzee?”
“You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.”
“Here!” Twilight yelled as she slipped away.
Zecora gasped as the unicorn raced to the brown satchel. She screamed and chased after Twilight. Twilight hastily pulled out the gun and turned around, only to meet the vicious enemy in her face. She quickly threw the gun to Applejack’s general area before being brought down to the ground.
Twilight quickly recovered from the fall, but now faced an even bigger danger; a zebra with a knife. Zecora took vicious swings, Twilight barely dodging them. She groaned as she tried to shake the crazed zebra off, but Zecora held on and continued to take swings.
Twilight dodged near misses of the glistening knife, some landing in the mists of her hair and letting them rest on to the dusty ground. Twilight moved her bound body around, sweat dripping down her forehead in the frantic battle.
Zecora just will not let go!
Suddenly, almost as loud as a thunder crack, something behind Zecora’s head bashed against the back of her skull. She let out a small gasp, her eyes wide and mouth open in surprise, and she collapsed to the floor beside Twilight. She took in a small breath and got up to her feet.
She glanced at Applejack, her shotgun raised and pointed down at Zecora. The zebra groaned as she laid on the ground with her body sprawled. Applejack sighed and cocked back her gun. Zecora, even in her stupefied state, managed to make a raspy and quiet plea.
“Please, I beg of you not to shoot. I will shower your heads with riches and loot.”
“Now, Zecora,” Applejack said, keeping her aim on Zecora. “I want you to know that you do not hurt one of my friends, ever.”
Zecora shook her head quickly. “Yes, I will do anything you say. I do not want to make a mistake and pay.”
Applejack laid down her gun. “Good.”
She looked back at Twilight, whose eyes were mesmerized at Zecora. “Twilight, are you okay?”
Twilight bounced back to reality and quickly nodded to Applejack.
“Good. Hand me the rope in the bag, will ya?”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “You’re going to tie her up?!”
“Well, so far, she proved she hasn’t been trustworthy,” Applejack said, glaring down at Zecora. “Unless we can trust her again, she ain’t going nowhere.”
Zecora groaned in defeat. Applejack glanced back at Twilight and motioned for the rope. Twilight took a misstep before heading to the knapsack. She pulled out the rope, guilt coursing through her.
Was this really happening? Do we have to tie her up?
In the other room, similarly decorated with artifacts from long ago, the two ponies sat down at each other with materials from their knapsack scattered across the floor and they studied what they had left. They had enough from the rabbit hunt that they could survive for a few weeks if they rationed enough, and there was plenty of water from before.
Twilight was thankful that she found some plant food for her to consume; she wasn’t hot on the idea of eating dead rabbit meat. On the opposite end, Applejack didn’t seem to mind as she took the meat and rotated it above a boiling pot with spices they found scattered around the place. In the other room, Zecora was gagged and tied with no weapons present in the room, so there would not be any more trouble with her.
As she ate her daisies, Twilight pondered in her head what was going on. For her, everything was going wrong. One of her friends, or at least what used to be her friend, tried to kill the two with no remorse like a wild beast. It was as if she has gone mentally insane, a topic that Twilight herself skimmed over in her studies.
A thought found its way into her mind, and she found herself with a realization that she couldn’t shake off.
What if the others are like this?
“Are you okay there, Twi?”
Twilight snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her. She then stared down at the floor with a sense of gray colour in her mood. Applejack took off her hat and placed it beside one of the apples and crawled a little closer.
“Twilight, I know there is something wrong. And as a friend, you gotta tell me so we can get through this.” Twilight looked up to Applejack. “Now what’s wrong?”
Twilight sighed. “Well, I just had this thought, and honestly, it sounds really stupid.”
Twilight stopped in the middle and stared off into space, as if she was collecting her thoughts for the millionth time that day. She did not know what to say, but she had to tell her what was wrong.
“But, I was thinking that, Zecora was one of our friends.”
“One of our ex-friends,” Applejack sourly added.
“And she attacked us viciously. She laid on top of me and tried to stab me, Applejack!”
Her voice was growing, and she was starting to tremble. Applejack looked at her with great concern. Twilight tried her best to hold back tears, but suddenly her eyes were dripping down with small salty tears.
“What if, the others do the same thing as Zecora?”
Applejack winced, and stared down at the floor. Twilight choked out a small whimper, as more tears started to pour down.
“Why, Zecora…”
Applejack glanced back to Twilight. She put her hoof over Twilight’s hoof, wet with the water from her eyes.
“Now you listen to me, Twilight, and you listen closely,” Applejack said solemnly. “Our friends are not like that all. Besides, we are the Elements of Harmony, and we would never disband from each other.
“I know it seems hard to think about, but I know if we stick together, we will find each other. We’ll find a way to fix this mess, and this nightmare will finally be over. We won’t ever have to think about the lives that we lost, but we’ll try to save everypony else, just like we always do.”
Twilight looked up at Applejack, and immediately grasped her and buried her face into her shoulder. Applejack was caught by surprise, but took the hug and squeezed in a small embrace as Twilight quietly whimpered in the small cottage in the middle of the Everfree Forest.
“Promise me you won’t ever leave me, Applejack,” Twilight quietly said.
“I will never leave you, Twilight. Not in a million years,” Applejack replied.
Not in a million years.