Always connected- Chapter 7

Rainbow Dash woke up on the wispy cloud she had come to rest on, with Celestia’s dawn sun warming her back. She dropped down from her high perch and flew back to her cloud home, and to her wife, Applejack.  On the way there, her mind went back to the day before, and the imposter that had tried impersonating Applejack. The news that the imposter had brought her was troubling, distracting and hard to swallow. The imposter had told Rainbow that her whole world was a lie and Rainbow was beginning to doubt herself. The imposter had seemed so sincere, so genuinely concerned about Rainbow that she couldn’t get her out of her mind. She arrived at her home to find Applejack making a batch of Apple pancakes, Rainbow’s favourite.

‘Yuck, I wanted blueberry,’ thought Rainbow for a fleeting moment. She sat down and ate without talking to Applejack.  Applejack however, talked the whole time; about the girls, the farm, how much she loved Rainbow. Rainbow was only half listening, her mind was still thinking about the imposter.

‘Not imposter, the real Applejack,’ Rainbow’s thoughts jumped again. But it sounded different, the voice was hers, but deeper, and talked faster.
‘Is Applejack lying to me, and if she is why?’ she thought to herself.
‘Because she’s not Applejack Rainbow,’ this new voice said. Rainbow tried to force these thoughts out, but they forced themselves back.

‘Don’t fight me Rainbow, you won’t win,’ said the new voice. Rainbow excused herself and went to her bathroom. There she stared at the mirror, suddenly wondering who she was.
‘I’m you Rainbow,’ said the voice; this time however, it came from Rainbow’s reflection.
“What are you?” Rainbow asked her reflection, scared that she was going crazy.
“I’m you Rainbow. Well, a part of you anyway,” said her reflection.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked, breathing heavily with fear.
“I’m your doubt, the part of you that knows that this is all fake, that your beloved Pegasus Applejack is nothing more than a fantasy,” it said, smiling.
“No…No, you’re lying, I’m just going crazy, that’s all,” Rainbow told herself, laughing meekly.

“RAINBOW DASH, listen to me, you have to trust Applejack, the REAL Applejack. And you know which one that is.” Suddenly, the bathroom Door burst open and Applejack walked in. She looked at Rainbow, then at the mirror, scowling before she broke it with her hoof. She looked down at Rainbow and with anger in her eyes said;
“Are you okay sugarcube, you look like you need to get some sleep.” She then touched Rainbow’s forehead, and Rainbow slumped forward, asleep.

***

Applejack woke up early along with Derpy and began to train in empowering herself in Rainbow’s mind.

“So, as we’ve seen, when you get angry, you get a voice power. Now that is the physical output for you expressing that emotion, so what we need to do is find out how other emotions are expressed in this reality,” Derpy explained, Applejack was still upset about Rainbow’s rejection, but knew that Derpy’s plan was solid, providing that Applejack could handle herself.

“So we are going to start off with sadness, since your pretty much in that state now,” she smiled, insensitively. “So think of something that makes you completely depressed and then try and express than emotion physically.”

Applejack nodded and closed her eyes, thinking back to the Canterlot rodeo, it didn’t help; Rainbow had helped her through that. Then she thought of the time Sweet Apple Acres was almost taken by the Flim-Flam brothers, but even that had turned out well. She decided that the only way to go was to think right back, to what she considered her first memory; the death of her parents.

It had been a difficult time; Applejack’s father had died protecting Applejack’s heavily pregnant mother from a trio of vicious griffins while in Manehatten. They had gone there to see a specialist, Applejack’s mother was having a very difficult pregnancy and they were checking to see if the foal was safe, as she had begun to vomit blood a few days earlier. At the funeral for her father, Applejack’s mother started to go into labour, and after a twenty hour birth, Applebloom had been born, with her mother just getting time to name her before her body gave out from the strain.

Applejack was crying as she remembered to pain of the moment, and then she reared up, bringing her hooves down onto the ground hard and it cracked at the impact zone. Applejack then kicked out at the side of the barn, the wood splintering with the force.

“Righto, so sadness equals super-strength,” said Derpy. “Okay, let’s move on.” Applejack took a deep breath and pushed the sadness back, focusing on one thing; Rainbow.
They spent the rest of the morning going through the various emotions and Applejack only had a physical reaction to five of them; Anger gave her a mighty voice, sadness gave her super-strength, happiness allowed her to run at super speed, fear gave her ability to teleport and hate charged her body with electricity. Emotionally exhausted, she laid down on some hay, tired and out of breath.
“Take a quick rest AJ, Don’t forget, we only have until midnight to get you and Rainbow back out,” Derpy reminded her. Applejack barely managed to nod before passing out from exhaustion.

***

Rainbow woke up in her bed, lying on her back, tied to the bed with Pegasus rope; she struggled against it but knew that it was no good. Pegasus rope was the strongest in Equestria, made from hundreds of cloud strands all coiled together and compacted until it became hard as diamond, but as light as a strand of hair.

“Applejack, Applejack,” she called out, scared and confused. Applejack walked in, sat down on the bed next to Rainbow and stroked her mane with her hoof.
“What’s wrong sugarcube? Ah thought you liked it when ah played rough,” smiled Applejack.
“What is this Applejack? What are you doing?” demanded Rainbow; her voice was cold and full of anger.

“Well… you found out the truth, didn’t you?” said Applejack, disappointed.
“Yeah! I know this is all in my head, so just let me go back to the real world.”
“No! The real world is a dangerous and chaotic place, full of danger that ah have to protect you from,” Applejack yelled, her coat turned another shade of red and her mane and tail glowed with heat.

“But this is my head and I demand you let me go!” yelled Rainbow, Applejack just laughed.
“Don’t you understand, you have no power here. When you’re in the real world, well, then you’re the head honcho, as it were. But here? This is my domain, so my rules.”
“So what are you going to do with me?” Rainbow asked, absolutely terrified. Applejack turned to her and smiled malevolently.
“Rainbow, what do you remember of your parents?” she asked.
“My parents, I…I don’t know, I don’t remember them at all,” Rainbow said, tearing up, “What did you do with my parents?”

“Would you like to know how they died? Your father… was a drunk and one day, he got particularly intoxicated and decided to go for a fly. Unfortunately, he was too out of it to know how to even use his wings and fell out of Cloudsdale to the ground below. Your Mother on the other hoof was a lot nobler. She was a royal guard, protecting Princess Celestia from any threat that stood in her way. Until one day, when a group of Minotaur trying to undermine Celestia’s rule attacked the castle. Your mother was the last one of her platoon left standing after killing six of the Minotaur. She stood still prepared to fight the horrid beasts, but she was stabbed in the back by young private who the Minotaurs had paid off to let them into the castle. Princess Celestia showed up and vaporised the whole party of Minotaur, as well as the young private. Which is why your father started drinking and you ended up all alone.” Rainbow was crying now, and continued to struggle against the ropes.

“So, since you barely had a memory of them to recreate, ah just made you forget them, problem solved. And it looks like I’m going to have to do that again, but maybe this time, you become a bit… more… dark,” she once again touched Rainbow’s forehead, and Rainbow’s memories faded away. She forgot her reflection, the imposter, the wonderbolts, everything except how much she loved Applejack and wanted to do anything for her. On the outside her coat became a dark blue, the colours of her mane darkened as well and her eyes went from beautiful magenta to a blood-red.