Bruised Apples, Lightning Storms

Defense of the Admired

Rainbow's Pov:

Twilight stared at our newly-exposed irises for ten solid seconds, hardly breathing.

"Servo animam de victima." She spoke, her powerful eyes inches away from mine, examining.

"Bless you." AJ snickered, nudging me in the ribs. I smiled, but the princess just kept looking down at us with fascination.

"There are legends." The royal continued, transfixed. "Legends of reincarnation from thousands of moons ago. Ponies whose destinies were grim to none, who couldn't have saved themselves if they tried, suddenly better off than they ever were before; like they were completely different ponies. With the peaceful reign of Celestia and Luna, cases began fading away, cropping up only as folklore and rumors, meant to scare and nothing more." She trailed off, breaking eye contact to gaze around the room, in her own world of historical recollection.

AJ frowned, eyelids lowering. "Are you tellin' us we have managed to get ourselves wrapped up in a curse that hasn't been diagnosed since the Disharmony Ages."

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." Twilight chided, some of the delight draining from her face. In fact, the longer her gaze wavered on AJ, the colder she appeared. What was her problem?

The orange mare's expression grew ever darker. "Now now Twinkleshine, wouldn't want to look too happy about it."

"I'd have thought I made myself perfectly clear in my intentions, Applejack."

AJ seemed to take that as an open invitation. "Well Princess, I think I can make myself perfectly clear in saying what a royal pain in the-"

"Hey Twilight," I interjected, since AJ had started to get a bit too hostile towards the fourth-highest position of power in the country, ", is there not any information in this huge library? We came here because we figured it was a long shot finding a good source anywhere else."

"I doubt it. Old records of hundreds of different diseases and ailments, as well as most literature from that time were ruined by the Windigos' storms." The princess retorted somewhat in my direction, her hard expression weakening at the sight of me rather than AJ. Apparently I didn't invoke the preconditioned spite. "I'm sorry to say there isn't much I can do. "

She sighed, and I truly believed she took pity on us, or at least me. Not that I blamed her for it, but I wished things had been different: That the old records hadn't been destroyed, that it had only been me who got Borderline, or neither of us. Did we somehow deserve it? I don't even know the repercussions, but by the desperation of the tanned mare beside me...

"And you're sure you don't know anything? We're in dire need of assistance." AJ smiled in vain, slight panic in her eyes on her otherwise grinning face. Twilight didn't speak, only observing the Earth pony's sad attempt at a plea. A plea for her very life. A plea the princess was unable to accommodate.

Motioning for us to stand, the princess began a somber trot to the library door, and I followed suit. My spirits fell; this was our best chance to figure out how to cure, or, at least manage the disorder. I suppose we'd need to find another way, but according to the owner of practically every book in Equestria, our objective was hopeless.

Maybe we were hopeless too, and in the next couple weeks I'd be found bleeding out in the bath, or jumping off Town Hall. Isn't that how those mental projection things worked? Making you think up horrible things and...I don't know. But the thought of spending my last moments on the ground with the mare that introduced me to it was soothing. Dare I say more soothing than any point of my life in the sky.

"Your Royal Highness."

Both Twilight's and my head whipped around, ogling at AJ. She had stepped solidly off the cushion, her posture could be misplaced for one of the Guard. In those eyes, passion burned stronger than the flames of Hell, and she strode toward the princess, not looking at her directly. Settling at a respectful distance, she doffed her raggedy old hat and held it by the brim in her right hoof.